Historical Perspective of the Collaboration Between Artists and Engineers - Literature review Example

Historical perspective of the collaboration between artists and engineers Introduction Collaborations between artists and engineersor scientists enhance them to work together in order to break new grounds in scientific and artistic practices. This collaboration helps in bridging the gap between the two fields, introduction of new perspectives and provides opportunities for experimentation through the introduction of various programs. It provides new forms of art and science and extends in providing new and more advanced technologies. Scientist and artists have different perspectives on how they observe, interpret and describe the world. The different perspectives are what lead them to the different views of the world’s challenges. An illustration for this may be drawn from the work of an engineer who intends to construct a bridge. The engineer in this case needs the creativity of an artist in order to come up with the appropriate design for the bridge. Artists as well require the works of the engineers as they undertake their artistic duties. Their working together therefore helps them to bridge the diverse perspectives and to form a collaborative approach. This collaborative approach is important in solving complex problems that facing the present world. It is as well important to both parties since it enhances efficiency of their work. This collaboration may be traced back in history as it will be discussed (Salter 2010). Artificial environment in arts The historical perspective of the collaboration between art and science may be seen from the artificial environment in arts. Engineers or other scientists, as well as artists have a contribution in the making of the artificial environment. Their collaboration in building the artificial environments have an historical background whereby different scientists and engineers worked in collaboration with artists. This can be observed from participation of Nakaya in a number of performances that were created by the collaboration between ten artists of the New York and over thirty engineers and scientists of the Bell Telephone Laboratories. This collaboration was entitled 9 evenings, and it featured on theatre and engineering. This was in 1966 and in the same year, Nakaya joined Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), a program that was founded in the year for the purpose of bringing engineers and artist in collaborative projects. Many artists as well joined EAT and in 1969 Nakaya became the EAT representative of Tokyo. Together with other EAT members, they participated in designing of Pepsi Pavilion in Osaka for Expo 70. She worked with an artificial fog for the first time and in creating a fog sculpture, which was a big atmospheric sculpture that blanketed the entire building’s exterior. Since that time, she has worked severally in collaboration with scientist and artists to create fog structures that have been place d in buildings and public places. There is also a historical perspective of the collaboration that is reflected from Olafur Eliason’s weather project. The project was the fourth in the Unilever series, and it made a representation of the sky and the sun, dominating the expanse of a Turbine Hall, clear mist permeating the space as if it is from the outside environment. This project was effected by the collaborative efforts of Olafur who was an artist and other persons including engineer Switbert. Other pieces of technical developments found in “9 evenings” The 9 evenings also referred to Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) was founded with the aim of enhancing collaborations between artists and engineers. The main development that took place in the 9 evening was the development in technology. The need for a digital archive to display the process of collaboration rose to improve the production of EAT that was catalogue. There was also the need for development of an online archive to be used as a research tool by art and social history art scholars. There was development of a technical service that was intended to provide access to new technology to the artists alongside matching them with engineers as a way of enhancing more collaboration in their projects. Interdisciplinary projects and events were then initiated concerning the artists and the new technology. One of the initiated projects was 9 evenings: theatre and engineering which took place at Armory in New York. This took place in 1966, it was faced with many organizational and technical difficulties, and it led to the need for providing artists with better technology (In Sherman 2013). In 1970s, there were developments in communication whereby communication, data control, processing and command technology hardware emerged. New software systems were as well generated and this benefited the artists more in their work. The artists’ role in the development of the software was realized and thus more projects were formed to enhance the development. Artists were then were encouraged to take part in these projects. The artists’ activities were then extended to other areas of the society using projects. The various activities that were being undertaken in EAT necessitated these developments. These activities involved art, animation and even music. The artists were aided by the engineers in carrying out projects involving computer arts and the software engineers in particular had a role in this. Complex interactions inherent in corporate-sponsored art projects A number of complex interactions are likely to arise in corporate sponsored art projects. One of the interactions is between artists and the museums. An example of this is the Museum of the Contemporary Art (MCA) of Australia. Their main aim is to provide a link to cultural and arts industries. They usually offer corporate support to individuals and organizations by providing them with innovative, desirable and dynamic brands associations. Organizations on the other hand can give back to the MCA through offering sponsorships and acquiring corporate membership. Sponsorship may be through events such as sponsoring of artists’ educational programs or exhibitions where different artists can meet and display their artistic abilities. The programs are important as they give artists an opportunity to diversify their skill by interacting with other artists. There are also complex interactions that arise between commercial galleries and artists in cases where the artists need their works to de exhibited in those galleries. The interactions may as well be as a result of corporate partnerships with artistic and cultural organizations. This enables the promotion of the works of art. Other interactions result from contracts between corporations and artists where corporations might require the services of artist thus hiring them to perform the require duties (In Sherman 2013). Notions of national identity and art through expo exhibitions In creating a national identity, art was considered as an important aspect. The purpose of art was in the creation of the appropriate shared identity, national narrative and a civil religion that would that would enable the United States to keep its republic (In Sherman 2013). From the study of sculptures and portraits and paintings of that time, a conclusion was arrived that the symbolic meaning of the early republic’s art were sufficient to provide a visual image to help turn political concepts into something meaningful. Art as well could be used to promote ideas and values of the early republic. Art therefore was highly associated with the creation of national identity. Through the expo exhibition therefore, the notions of national identity can be investigated and this is more reliable since the views of many people may be obtained concerning the national identity. The investigation of the national identity can only be done by the exhibition to the level of revealing the specific collectivities involved. However, the role of interpreting of the possibilities of the identity can only be left to the audiences’ imagination. Relationship between the works found in pavilion and 9 evenings and ideas, theories, and critiques of McLuhan McLuhan’s theories are seen as being controversial to the works found in pavilion and 9 evenings. From EAT, is recognized as a natural environment for artists. This is in opposition to McLuhan’s “method of our time” which relates the effects of technology to the perception of people. He criticized the importance of technology, stating it as being an active process that is invisible (McLuhan 1964).This therefore is in contract from what is revealed by EAT. The works also differ from McLuhan’s view of environment. McLuhan views environment as a pervasive process while Kluver in the establishment of EAT viewed it in relation to interaction between human and technology. Opposition is also observed on the view of feedback whereby from the view of McLuhan, art is perceived to be an anti-environment and being a reactive form of art whereas from pavilion work it was viewed as an open-ended process or experience in the environment. McLuhan expresses a deterministic understanding of an invisible environment is different from what was expressed from the pavilion work, art to have the ability of enabling people to feel the environment that is invisible. From the works therefore, controversy is arrived with the theories and ideas of McLuhan. The need for technology is recognized to be basic in carrying out the work of art as opposed to the negative effects implied by McLuhan. It is evidenced to be basic requirement in the environment of an artist. The works are therefore consistent with John Cage’s variation, which featured the filtering of simultaneous audio feeds from distant location (Salter 2010). References McLuhan, M. (1964). The medium is the message. Retrieved from: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf In Sherman, D. J. (2013). The long 1968: Revisions and new perspectives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Salter, C. (2010). Entangled: Technology and the transformation of performance. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Read More