Geoff Cox

Individual and/versus social creativity (panel session)

INTRODUCTION The creative act is often thought of as an individual, even lonely, one: the inspiration in the bath, the artist isolated in the garret. The research student has to demonstrate that they found new knowledge and that it was “all their own work”. But how often are these individual acts a realistic model of the creative process? Even if inspiration does come in the bath, how many conversations had taken place before that moment? How much time has the “lonely” artist spent in cafes arguing with other artists about their work? If individual research is so important why do we advise a good student to join a successful research department?

Postscript on the post-digital and the problem of temporality

According to Florian Cramer, the ‘post-digital’ describes an approach to digital media that no longer seeks technical innovation or improvement, but considers digitization as something that has already happened and thus might be further reconfigured (2013; Cramer 2015, this volume). He explains how the term is characteristic of our time, in that shifts of information technology can no longer be understood to occur synchronously — and gives examples across electronic music, book and newspaper publishing, electronic poetry, contemporary visual arts and so on. These examples demonstrate that the ruptures produced are neither absolute nor synchronous, but instead operate as asynchronous processes, occurring at different speeds and over different time periods, and are culturally diverse in each affected context. As such, the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media is no longer useful.

Internet governance: towards a non-representational democracy

Internet governance is a contentious topic referring to the global control and management of key internet resources such as IP addresses. Research suggests that the existence of an open market, transparency and competition are having a major impact on internet governance. Key players such as the ICANN are currently in the process of formulating the scope and agenda of future internet governance. Research suggests that institutional as well as market driven governance will remain present for network access and content. Additionally, network governance is increasingly configured in new ways that relate to the topography of distributed systems. The suggestion is that alternative forms are emerging from within a network culture that challenges established forms of governance and allow for the possibility of non-representational democracy.

Generator: the dialectics of orderly disorder

As complexity theory has demonstrated in correlation with dialectical thinking, the relationship between order and disorder does not lie simply in their opposition. This paper proposes that generative artworks have a useful analogical relation to the way computer systems (and systems in general) operate and the ways in which artist-programmers might interfere with these operations. This principle of the correlation of dialectical and generative processes will be demonstrated by referring to the exhibition Generator (Spacex Gallery, May-June 2002, and touring in the UK) and in particular by referring to two works: ordure::real-time by Stuart Brisley & Adrian Ward; and forkbomb.pl by Alex McLean. Despite the appearance of order, Generator suggests that disorder is just below the surface and this is where change can be found and prompted.