Transhumanist art

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.[1][2] Transhumanist was used by artists to question the traditional roles of the artist, the era of modern art and conventional aesthetics. Its proponents advocate future-oriented aesthetics, often reflecting transdisciplinary works in art, science and technology. It has been stated that:

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.[3]

Overview

According to Zoltan Istvan, transhumanist art is a vehicle for pushing for a science-minded society.[4]

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.

— Natasha Vita-More

[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.

— Anders Sandberg

Characteristics and styles

The movie Transcendence is part of the genre of transhumanist art.[2]

Transhumanist artworks include traditional art practices such as painting,[5] printmaking, and sculpture; in multi-media, digital, virtual reality simulations, Internet art, electronic art and robotics; in moving images of videography and filmmaking; in music through real-time compositions and digitized electronic or synthesized compositions;[6] and in conceptual art and exploratory practices. According to Aaron Saenz, transhumanist art covers artificial intelligence (AI), genetics, cybernetics, and other disruptive technology.[7] Zoltan Istvan wrote that when most people think of transhumanist art they think of movies like Transcendence and Avatar, novels like The Transhumanist Wager, and videos games such as Halo and Bioshock.[2]

Transhumanist art can include product design, industrial design and architecture[8] and the works of scientists,[9] engineers and innovators whose goals are transhumanist in scope.

Arakawa and Madeline Gins are transhumanist artist and architects who have had their work featured in the Guggenheim Museum SoHo.[10]

History

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. Don Yannacito, Director of Film Studies Program for independent filmmakers, filmed the performance.[11]

In 1983, a Transhuman Statement, a statement of arts for the future by Vita-More and FM-2030, established a poetic doctrine of transhumanist expression.[12]

In 1985, EZTV, Los Angeles, featured the video 2 Women in B&W at Women In Video.[13] 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.[14]

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 periodicals such as Wired, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and LA Weekly.[15]

20th - 21st century trends

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.

Abstract expressionism (1940-1950s) initiated the era of contemporary art with a prevalent theme of self-expression.


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

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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