NEW ART/SCIENCE AFFINITIES
Authors: Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans, Pablo Garcia, Thumb (Luke Bulman and Jessica Young)
Publishers: Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University + CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Publication Date: October 2011
The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University and the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry have co-published New Art/Science Affinities, a 190-page book on contemporary artists that was written and designed in one week by four authors (Andrea Grover, Régine Debatty, Claire Evans and Pablo Garcia) and two designers (Luke Bulman and Jessica Young of Thumb).
New Art/Science Affinities, which focuses on artists working at the intersection of art, science and technology, was produced by a collaborative authoring process known as a “book sprint.” Derived from “code sprinting,” a method in which software developers gather in a single room to work intensely on an open source project for a certain period of time, the term book sprint describes the quick, collective writing of a topical book.
The book includes meditations, interviews, diagrams, letters and manifestos on maker culture, hacking, artist research, distributed creativity, and technological and speculative design. Chapters include Program Art or Be Programmed, Subvert!, Citizen Science, Artists in White Coats and Latex Gloves, The Maker Moment and The Overview Effect.
Sixty international artists and art collaboratives are featured, including Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Atelier Van Lieshout, Brandon Ballengée, Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, The Institute for Figuring, Aaron Koblin, Machine Project, Openframeworks, C.E.B. Reas, Philip Ross, Tomás Saraceno, SymbioticA, Jer Thorp, and Marius Watz.
The authors collectively wrote and designed the book during seven, 10-14 hour-days in February 2011 at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. During their sessions they held conversations with CMU faculty, staff and students from the STUDIO, Miller Gallery, College of Fine Arts, Robotics Institute, Machine Learning Department and BXA Intercollege Degree Program.
“The book sprint method was adopted in order to understand this very moment in art, science and technology hybrid practices, and to mirror the ways Internet culture and networked communication have accelerated creative collaborations, expanded methodologies, and given artists greater agency to work fluidly across disciplines,” says lead author Andrea Grover.
The publication is part of Grover’s Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Research Fellowship at CMU’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and Miller Gallery. “Intimate Science,” an exhibition that will be the product of Grover’s research, will take place in early 2012 at the Miller Gallery.
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DISTRIBUTION
Publishers: Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University + CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 9780977205349
Trim size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Extent: 190 pages, 232 full-color illustrations
Binding: Perfect-bound paperback
Available for purchase:
- Print-on-demand service Lulu
- Free download from the Miller Gallery website (bit.ly/NASAbook)
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EXCERPT FROM FOREWORD
We launched our book sprint in order to produce a snapshot of this particular moment—and because we wanted to do it with immediacy, without distraction. The topic of this publication is the most recent manifestation of artists working in art, science, and technology, which we broadly define as work that adopts processes of the natural or physical sciences, “does strange things with electricity” (to borrow a phrase from Dorkbot), breaks from traditional models of art/science pairings, and was created within the last five years. We realize that art, science, and technology intersections have a tradition with much deeper roots than we have space to detail here (and that such histories have been given attention elsewhere), so we’ve provided in a timeline a brief subjective history of innovations, movements, and cultural events that have contributed to this tradition and led us to this moment. To be clear: this book is an effort to understand this very moment in art, science, and technology affinities, and the ways Internet culture and networked communication have shaped the practice.
—Andrea Grover
Project Lead, Warhol Curatorial Fellow at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
08 INTRODUCTION
11 PROGRAM ART OR BE PROGRAMMED
C.E.B. Reas / Rafael Lozano-Hemmer / Jer Thorp / Marius Watz / Aaron Koblin
With comments from: Golan Levin
29 SUBVERT!
Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley / Sebastian Brajkovic / Julius von Bismarck / Paul Vanouse / Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev / Marco Donnarumma / Willy Sengewald (TheGreenEyl) / Boredomresearch
With comments from: Julian Oliver & Danja Vasiliev, Johannes Grenzfurthner
57 CITIZEN SCIENCE
Cesar Harada / HeHe / Critter / Machine Project / Center for PostNatural History / Institute for Figuring
With comments from: Cesar Harada, Fred Adams
73 ARTISTS IN WHITE COATS AND LATEX GLOVES
Brandon Ballengée / Gilberto Esparza / Philip Ross / BCL / Kathy High /
Fernando Orellana / SWAMP / Agnes Meyer-Brandis /
SymbioticA and Tissue Culture & Art Project
With comments from: Phil Ross, Adam Zaretsky
107 THE MAKER MOMENT
Machine Project / Thomas Thwaites / Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki /
John Cohr / Free Art Technology (F.A.T.), Openframeworks,
The Graffiti Research Lab, and the Ebeling Group
With comments from: Geraldine Juarez, Mark Allen, Jonah Brucker-Cohen
131 THE OVERVIEW EFFECT
Tomàs Saraceno / Dunne & Raby / Sascha Pohflepp / Bruce Sterling /
Atelier van Lieshout / etoy
With comments from: Jeff Lieberman, Sascha Pohflepp, Wendy Fok
157 Intermediary: The Scientific Evangelist
168 CHRONOLOGY
A subjective chronology of art, science, and technology
180 Bibliography
184 Contributors/Acknowledgments
185 Image Credits
188 The 200 most used words in this book
190 Colophon
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SELECTED PRESS
HYPERALLERGIC:
Excerpt:
Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery has made a significant contribution to the relationship between art, science and technology with the exhibition Intimate Science and the related book New Art/Science Affinities.
– Leila Nadir, “Art and Science Get Intimate,” April 16, 2012
POST-LUDDITE INSTITUTE:
Excerpt:
I applaud the creators for this, NA/SA treats itself as an editorial primer, a barometer of a movement in art that has a multitude of sub-groups and communities but is largely disinterested in constructing a larger mythology… NA/SA could and should be a model for how art writing can be thorough, engaging and relevant, while still contemporary to the subjects it discusses.
– “Review | New Art/Science Affinities,” Oct. 2011
WILLAMETTE WEEK:
Excerpt:
The whole idea of this book and the research that came out of it is opening up the conversation that were previously limited to different academic subcultures, making those conversations happen across disciplines so interesting work can come out of it.
– Robert Ham, “YACHT’s Claire Evans Helps Write Book on Current Connections Between Art and Science,” Nov. 2011
WIRED: Bruce Sterling, “Grover Debatty Evans Garcia and their strange accelerated booklike entity,” Beyond the Beyond blog, Oct. 2011
BUST MAGAZINE Candice Coote, “Check it! New Art/Science Affinities book,” Oct. 2011
RHIZOME: “New Art/Science Affinities,” Oct. 2011
BAD AT SPORTS: “Interview with Claire L. Evans,” Dec. 2011
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS blog: “New Art/Science Affinities,” May 2012
GLASSTIRE:
Bill Davenport, “Hive Mind Writes Tech-Art Book in Seven Days; Andrea Grover Queen Bee,” Oct. 2011
Andrea Grover, “Book Sprints, Hive Mind, & Slowing Down Time,” Dec. 2011
EXCLAIM! MAGAZINE: Alex Hudson, “YACHT’s Claire L. Evans Co-Creates Book About Science and Art,” Nov. 2011
WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART: Regine Debatty, “New Art/Science Affinities’ is out,” Oct. 2011
Astria Suparak 