The Dutch EKT Foundation: Experiments in Art and Technology
Cor Blok · Leonardo · 1975
to mimetic. Art, science and technology are related to the cultural systems in which they function but styles, paradigms and conventions also constitute particular systems for the making of art works and for scientific activitypartly determined by media, notations and codes. They can be compared with regard to the characteristics of a system, as mentioned above, to which may be added considerations about the role of time, the nature of the permanent substructure presupposed by any system and the isolation of data from the continuum of the world of experience. The systematic aspects of art and science must be elucidated further by comparisons with play and game, cosmological systems, social structures and other instances of systematic acvitiy. 3. Science as a formative process In science, as much as in art, form is given to certain conceptions; this form determines the effect of the conceptions on those who work with them and the possible uses that they may put them to and it is in turn determined by scientific 'styles' and by media, notations and models. 4. Algorithms in art The term algorithm is used to designate a set of operations that a system requires its users to carry out in order to transform a given situation into a situation acceptable 'from the system's viewpoint'. In its broadest sense, an algorithm allows for a certain freedom in the number and sequence of steps to be taken, provided that some basic conditions are complied with-in its strictest sense, an algorithm becomes a fixed rule. The procedure for using algorithms does not necessarily presuppose that the user understands the procedure; he may even be unaware of using an algorithm at all. The latter is the case in much 'spontaneously created' art, which on close scrutiny turns out to make use of pre-set patterns. Both the production and reception of art are largely conditioned by automatically adopted attitudes. Conversely, the automation of creative procedures in some recent art forms is not foreign to art; systematic art differs from more 'spontaneous' schools mainly in using algorithms consciously and selecting those that can be formalized. 5. Art and technical possibilities The adoption of new techniques in art, the 'improvement' of musical instruments, etc., seems always to have been preceded by a desire for innovation within the art itself. Once adopted, however, the new medium may turn out to possess unsuspected qualities that make it the starting-point for still other developments. It may also influence the creative process itself and, finally, the distribution and reception of works. In this short survey, I have concentrated on subjects 1 and 2 because they most clearly reveal the motives behind the EKT project and the way in which the problem is being approached. When, where and how the project is to be realized is at present uncertain and depends to a large extent upon the reactions to the EKT report. Further information on EKT may be obtained from Dr. H. J. M. Bos, Secretary of EKT, Mathematical Institute, Budapestlaan 6, Utrecht, Holland. 318 Cor Blok This content downloaded from 207.46.13.189 on Thu, 04 Aug 2016 04:31:36 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms