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Transhumanist art is an art movement which focuses on the concept of transhumanity, a transitional stage in a perceived progression from human to transhuman to posthuman. First named in 1983 by Natasha Vita-More, transhumanist art claimed a role for artists as purveyors of futuristic aspiration and visionary thinking in an era of scientific and technological challenge, questioning traditional roles of the artist, the era of modern art and conventional aesthetics. Instead its proponents advocate a future-oriented aesthetics, often reflecting transdisciplinary works in art, science and technology.
Transhumanist Arts is an art period reflecting creative works of transhumanity. Just as Modern Art represents much of the arts of the 20th Century, Transhumanist Arts covers the late 20th Century into the 21st Century. The Transhumanist Arts period coalesces arts, sciences and technologies in reflecting the efforts of transhumans in enhancing and augmenting our minds and bodies as we strive for superlongevity and ultimately indefinite lifespans. The ideas generated by those whose work is transhumanist in scope, exemplifies the content of the transhumanist culture and is generated through many modes, from painting to New Media, and modes yet to be discovered.[1]
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As a consequence of its philosophical foundations, transhumanist art emphasizes the message of the art works over the mediums used by artists in producing their works. In this regard, transhumanist art reflects the ideas of Marshall McLuhan that humans are extending themselves and their bodies through technology.
Artists and the arts, throughout history, have been a voice and a vision of civilization. Artists, as communicators, reach out to others and introduce insight and vision about society and culture. Artists and the arts bring together the passions, the dreams and the hopes of humanity and transhumanity and express these emotions in ways that touch us deeply.
The art works of transhumanist art reflect a proactive vision of the future, stemming from both science fiction and traditional fiction.
[Transhumanist Arts] is in general optimistic, creative, combining intelligence and emotion in unexpected ways and is future-directed instead of backward-looking. Especially important is the automorphism sub-movement, which seeks to make self-transformation and living itself into art. On the other hand it should not be confused with techno and futurist art, which it overlaps with.
Transhumanist artworks include traditional art practices such as painting, printmaking, and sculpture; in multi-media, digital, virtual reality simulations, Internet art, electronic art and robotics; in moving images of videography and filmmaking; in literature through poetry[2] and fiction; in music through real-time compositions and digitized electronic or synthesized compositions[3]; and in conceptual art and exploratory practices coalescing artificial intelligence (AI), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and nanotechnology. Other elements found in Transhumanist Art are tongue-in-cheek humor often found in science fiction, animation and cartoons (for example, Dresden Codak).
Transhumanist art can include product design, industrial design and architecture[4] as well as the works of scientists[5], engineers and innovators whose goals are transhumanist in scope.
Transhumanist art was first recognized in 1979 when the 8 mm short independent film Breaking Away was exhibited at the University of Colorado's Film Studies Program. Stan Brackage, noted independent filmmaker of the 1970-1980s, was an influence on the cinematographic style of Breaking Away. The storyline of Breaking Away themes human evolution as breaking away from biological restraints and the Earth's gravity as humanity moves into space. The performance art piece was written and performed by Natasha Vita-More at Red Rocks Amphitheater.[6] Don Yannacito, Director of Film Studies Program for independent filmmakers, filmed the performance.[7]
In 1983 the Transhuman Manifesto, a manifesto of arts for the future by Vita-More and FM-2030, established a poetic doctrine of transhumanist expression.[8]
In 1985 EZTV, Los Angeles, featured the video 2 Women in B&W at Women In Video.[9] In 1992, the video T - and Counting was produced featuring worlds of FM-2030, Marvin Minsky, Carl Sagan, Harold Cohen, Anaïs Nin, Susan Sontag and other transhumanists, futurists and exemplary thinkers, was exhibited at the United States Film Festival in 1992.[10]
By the late 1990s, transhumanist arts was seen as a new era in which the innovative, futurist ideas expressed by transhumanists and other forward-thinkers were brought together. In 1995, 301 artists and scientists signed the manifesto and Transhumanist Arts & Culture became a nexus for artistic and innovative thinkers.
Transhumanist art has been covered by numerous periodicals such as Wired, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Village Voice, LA Weekly, the Swedish Zon Magazine, Teleopolis, [11] and on the net at R. U. Sirius at MondoGlobo.
Transhumanist Arts of the 21st Century did not appear out of the blue. Much of its content has evolved from art movements and art forms of artists who preceded it. The historical continuity of this art can be illustrated through the early 20th century and even farther back in time though ancient myths and perceptive visionaries. Today, the Transhumanist Arts culture is still forming.—Natasha Vita-More
The beginnings of artists engaging in either science or technology and individualism was evidenced in Futurism (Italy 1908) and Dadaism (France 1915). Futurism rejected traditions while glorifying contemporary life by emphasizing two dominant themes, the machine and motion and advocated the fusion of art and science. Dadaism was more a world-view rather than a style. The Dadaist manifestos were often aimed at startling the public into reconsidering accepted aesthetic values. This type of rethinking—employment of technology, science, individualism and the revoking of traditional standards—is transhumanist in scope. Although Dadaists tended to be irrational and negative and Futurism was short-lived, Transhumanist artists are rational and dynamic optimists and intend to live indefinitely.
Abstract expressionism (1940-1950s) initiated the era of contemporary art with a prevalent theme of self-expression. Technological works were inspired by cybernetic concepts and applied them in art with lasers, holography, and neon art; conceptual art (1960s-1970s) became notable for emphasizing the mind over the object. The act of thinking became the artwork. With the idea of the social sculpture, art became a model for problem solving and engagement in non-art systems. As well, performance art (1970s to present) presented an open-ended art form in which artists communicate directly with viewers, rather than through an "object".
Simultaneously, high-tech art (1970s) utilized diverse technologies with the sentiment that the more effective the high-tech art, the more it transcends its hardware. However, most tech art remains an exploration in technological art rather than a world-view. It is a part of the art and technology movement, but its more recent art expresses ambivalence of postmodernism towards technology.
Contemporary surrealism, when approached as a style and not a means and method of thought dictated by rationality and morality, seems to integrate with Transhumanism through anti-binary loopholes in the visual arts. Biomechanics (H.R. Giger, Demetrios Vakras), Mutation or 'the mutable' (Matthew Barney,J. & D. Chapman etc.), and issues relating to the loss of identity through physical or psychological transformation (Ras Steyn, Minnette Vári, COOPER (artist)) make it possible for the 'surreal' to merge with the transhumanist subject. When one realizes that the post-industrial subject is as steeped in the organic as it is in the mechanical or technological, it becomes lucid that Surrealism prevails as a style (or method of thinking) that functions as an incessant amorphous generator of the irrational, improbable and contradictory. It ignores all parameters dictated by reason and attaches itself to anything that also ignores and unsettles logic.—Ras Steyn