From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 12:20:22 MST
At 04:02 PM 3/2/02 -0900, John Grigg wrote:
> >I'd rather see discussion and debate over the *contents* of the artwork
> and the art theory which both have been getting great reviews. You have
> a wonderful opportunity now to discuss and critique the current medium of
> "net.art" just as you might discuss and debate the singularity or AI.<
>(end)
>
>To be able to fit into the category you are addressing above would be
>quite an honor. I really love your Primo 3M+ work both as a transhumanist
>concept and an artistic endeavor. And I hope your upcoming gallery
>promoting it is a huge success.
The net gallery is Ray Kurzweil's AI net site, not my own gallery.
>I admit to still having much to learn about art as it relates to the human
>body. I suppose I don't know where the lines are that separate regular
>glamour photography from the actual art that you do. Perhaps the whole
>list needs to be educated on this. Or at least just some of us!
Art and the human body have been intertwined since the Paleolithic times,
some 750,000 years ago. While in the early stages of commercially
petitioned paintings, sculpture and music, the human body was most exposed
in painting in commissions for religious buildings. However much earlier,
Greeks and Egyptians expressly enamored their arts with the human body, as
recognized in the edification of the human body in sculpture and varied decor.
In Modern Art, there have been hundreds of genres which theme has been the
coalescing of art and the human body. In fact, it is the human body that
has been the pivotal symbolic gesture for the arts. Even in music, the
body has been used as the link for bringing sound to movement. What is
dance without the human body?
Explicitly, in Modern Art, the genres of "Body Art", "Performance Art",
etc., the artwork is specifically and directly related to the human body.
My suggestion is to read the Transhumanist Arts Website if you would like
to know more about art history and its relationship to Primo. Or, pick up
some books on Performance Art and read about the artwork of Stelarc, Laurie
Anderson, Vito Acconci and myself. If you pick up any art history book,
just flip through the pages and you will see where the human body is the
most used structure or element in all of civilization to be depicted or
referenced.
Now, if you would like to know how "Primo" fits into the scheme of things
in the art world, multi-track the relationship between arts and society.
The purpose of the arts has been to communicate. Artists are
communicators. We communicate ideas developed and arranged from individual
insight about world around us. The way we communicate ideas is expressed
in which ever art form or style (context) we choose and which we think best
reflects or expresses the content.
Today, in the early 21st century, the most immediate, the most noteworthy,
the most fascinating issues and circumstances are the evolution of the
human in its merging with machines and the implications of AI and SI,
biotechnology, superlongevity, etc. These issues become the core values,
the themes, of Art. "Primo" as Michael Rose says, is the at the center of
the next massive ideological shift in society.
Art isn't just about depicting beauty in life, it is about expressing
ideas. Art is a barometer of society and culture.
Natasha Vita-More
Founder, Transhumanist Arts
Art Director, Digital Design
http://www.natasha.cc http://www.extropic-art.com http://www.transhuman.org
"I'd rather be inebriated on a classic life than a 1996 classic Merlot."
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