1. Technology and Art: Hubris, Habitus and the Hybrid Imagination Andrew Jamison 1. The View from History

2. Reading matter: Today: Introduction and chapters 1-3 Tomorrow: Chapters 4-6

3. The problem: ”When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, but we haven’t learned to walk the earth like brothers and sisters.” Martin Luther King, Jr

4. An Underlying Tension: Hubris... Hubris (overmod): ”impious disregard of the limits governing human action in an orderly universe. It is the sin to which the great and gifted are most susceptible, and in Greek tragedy it is usually the hero's tragic flaw.” Encyclopedia Britannica

5. ...and Habitus Habitus: ”...a set of dispositions which generates practices and perceptions. The habitus is the result of a long process of inculcation, beginning in early childhood, which becomes a ’second sense’ or a second nature.” Randal Johnson on Pierre Bourdieu, introduction in The Field of Cultural Production

6. ...versus Hybrids Hybrids: ”...offspring of parents that differ in genetically determined traits” Encyclopedia Britannica or, more colorfully: ”By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism...” Donna Haraway, ”A manifesto for cyborgs”

7. The Hybrid Imagination At the macro, or discursive level – making connections, integrating concepts At the meso, or institutional level – creating contexts of mediation, hybrid forums At the micro, or practical/personal level – forging hybrid competencies and identities

8. Hubris in History The myths of Icarus and Prometheus The scientific revolution: ”New Atlantis” Industrialization: ”Prometheus Unbound” Atomic energy: ”Science - The Endless Frontier” The arms race and the Apollo Mission

9. Hybrids in History Medieval monks: artificial people The ”renaissance men”: artists-engineers Experimental philosophers: scholar-craftsmen Professional engineers: theoretical technicians Environmentalists: scientist-activists

10. Artistic Appropriations of Technology Market-oriented, commercial, ”machine-made”: art for the masses, low-brow, vulgar (hubris) Artisan, exclusive, traditional, ”man-made”: art for art’s sake, high-brow, luxurious (habitus) Hybrid, synthetic, intermediate, ”co-constructed”: popular art, making the mundane meaningful

11. Different Ideas of Beauty The beauty of commerce: attractive, appealing, desirable. exciting, ”cool” The beauty of the artist: elegant, sublime, authentic, classical, ”fine” The beauty of the hybrid imagination: functional, useful, tasteful, appropriate, ”neat”

12. A Brief History of Science Ancient, or Traditional science, up to about 1600 – philosophical, spritual knowledge, distinctive regional modes – gap between theory (episteme) and practice (techne) Modern, or Western science, from about 1600 to 1970 – instrumental, rational, universal knowledge – functional differentiation of theory and practice Global, or Technoscience, from about 1970 – situated, pluralist notion of knowledge: sciences – combinations of theory and practice

13. The Making of Modern Science From the Reformation… to the “scientific revolution” reform of society reform of philosophy visionary, utopianrealistic, pragmatic decentralized organization(central) academy technical improvementsscientific development informal communicationformal publication

14. The Scientific Reformation as Cultural Appropriation At the discursive level a discourse of ”useful knowledge” a language of mathematics and mechanics At the institutional level academies of science professional norms and quality standards At the level of practice hybrid identities routines for technical applications procedures for experimentation

15. Francis Bacon, statesman-philosopher: ”Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed...” At the discursive level...

16. At the institutional level... Gresham College in London, where the Royal Society first met in 1660 – and where the first scientific ”journal” was published in 1666

17. At the practical level: an experimental way of life From Robert Boyle´s air pump......to Benjamin Franklin flying kites and looking for electricity in the age of Enlightenment

18. Some cultural factors… A supernatural God, religion of the book Monasticism and labor discipline Regulation of time and space Urbanization, cathedrals, and universities The ”Protestant Ethic” (Weber)

19. Some economic factors Agricultural improvements, food surplus Interurban trade and competition Mercantile expansion and exploration The Asian connection (compass, windmills) Invention of printing

20. Modern Science as Hubris positivism, or scientific rationalism: – science as a new (secular) religion scientism, or (logical) empiricism : – science as superior to all other ways of knowing universalism, or cultural imperialism : – Western science as valid everywhere

21. Hybrid Identities 1 The Renaissance Men: Leonardo and co. Artists and engineers in combination Inspired by magic and humanism Emphasis on describing and imagining

22. Leonardo da Vinci: The artist-engineer

23. Hybrid Identities 2 The scholar-craftsmen Paracelsus, Agricola,Tycho Brahe Inspired by ”Protestant Ethic” Emphasis on observation and work-practice

24. Tycho Brahe: The scholar- craftsman

25. Hybrid Identities 3 The natural philosophers Galileo, Huygens, Newton Inspired by mathematics and machines Emphasis on instruments and experiments

26. Galileo and his telescope

27. Artistic Appropriations of Modern Science The market-oriented – turning the vision into a new technical reality The artisan – reaffirming traditional ideals The hybrid – developing new kinds of art

28. Agostino Ramelli (1588)Agostino Ramelli (1588) Agostino Ramelli, 1588 The market-oriented approach

29. Robert Hooke, 1665

30. The artisan: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) The Fall of Icarus, 1636 Prometheus Bound, 1610-11

31. Las Meninas, 1656 Diego Valázquez

32. ...and onto a new kind of art Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-69

34. Johannes Vermeer 1632-1675

36. Jacob von Rusdael, 1660

37. ...and then came Industrialization A political and economic revolution – from agriculture to industry: mechanization A process of social change – from the country to the cities: urbanization Cultural, or human transformations – from community to society: modernization

38. Joseph Wright, 1760 A new kind of technological development...

39. ...and a new kind of society from a painting by William Wyld(e), ca 1840

40. George Inness, 1851...and a new kind of hybrid art: the machine in the garden George Inness, 1851