Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
was a great success, attracting nearly
visitors during the six
weeks it was open, was called 'Information'. At one level this would
seem to be consonant with show titles such as 'Software' and
'Cybernetic Serendipity' in alluding to technology and its possibili-
ties. But the absence of cybernetic or systems work suggested that,
for the mainstream art world at least, the cybernetic era was over.
Through the
300,000
s, out of those practices that combined art
and technology, only video art continued to sustain interest from the
art world. Kinetic, robotic, cybernetic and computer art practices
were largely marginalized and ignored. With the odd exception, such
as Harold Cohen's show of paintings made by 'Aaron', an artificial
intelligence program, at the Tate in
1970
s and '
80
, no major art gallery in
Britain or the United States held a show of such art for the last
1984
30
years of the twentieth century.
the return of computer and digital art
The marginalization of work of this sort can be seen as a response to
some of the problematic issues discussed above. But it can also be
seen as a reaction to the success of the thinking behind such work.
As the
s progressed extraordinary advances were made
in extending the capabilities of digital technology. The technical
developments necessitated by the Cold War were harnessed for
the reconstruction of capitalism into a more flexible and responsive
mode. In that period networking, interactivity, multimedia and
miniaturization were all developed to a high degree. Much of this
work was directly influenced by artistic practice. By these means the
cybernetic thinking and practice described in this chapter entered
the mainstream, and became part of everyday life, through video
games, computer multimedia, the Internet, and, eventually the
World Wide Web. As such it offered little for those who required that
art remain in its own autonomous sphere, and not be subsumed
by the mass media. Video art managed to remain autonomous by
1970
s and '
80
