Re: [-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology

[margaretha haughwout]

 human systems of care (age of Aquarius as an exemplar) fit within this meal
> you while the existing superstructure seems to be making less and less and
> less of a space for it. With AI, increased mechanization, there seems to be
> a coming future where there is an excess of labor that is somehow
> “obviously” set to function in the terms of the human imaginary and realms
> of fantasy, but this seems to be mainly a first world reality or
> possibility while in the rest of the world this xx labor will basically be
> seen as a human burden.
>
>
>
> In the exponentialist era of technology in the 21st-century that is
> running straight for the situation of environmental struggle I wonder how
> we can put these systems in place while bringing humanity into a landing
> for the long term.
>
>
>
> Hello, and all my best from our new situation in Minnesota.
>
>
>
> *From: * on behalf of Timothy
> Conway Murray 
> *Date: *Monday, March 8, 2021 at 11:44 AM
> *To: *"empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" <
> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au>
> *Subject: *[-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius:
> Art, Intuition and Technology
>
>
>
> --empyre- soft-skinned space--
>
> Thanks, Renate, for asking me to elaborate on Jean-François Lyotard’s
> concerns about the technological “pull of the future.”  Before we
> transition into the second week of our discussion, I might just clarify
> that Lyotard was concerned about how the weight of the emergent digital age
> (he was writing about this in the late 1980s and early 1990s) might impinge
> upon the plenitude of thinking and experiencing life in any aquarian “now.”
>
>
>
> Sounding the alarm over the degree of risk inherent in new digital
> technologies, Lyotard notes that the transformation of the perceptual event
> by the technical-industrial complex guarantees that the future won’t be
> what it used to be. “As is clearly shown by the development of the
> techno-scientific system, technology and the culture associated with it are
> under a necessity to pursue their rise . . . The human race is, so to
> speak, “pulled forward” by this process without possessing the slightest
> capacity for mastering it . . . In as much as a monad in thus saturating
> its memory is stocking the future, the present loses its privilege of being
> an ungraspable point from which, however, time should always distribute
> itself between the “not yet” of the future and the “no longer” of the past”
> (Lyotard, The Inhuman, 64-65). The pulling forward of futurity, as
> evidenced by the economy of planned technological obsolescence, thus
> depletes the magnetism of the present as the energetic and ungraspable
> hinge between past and future. It is in the drive of this informatic pull
> of the future that Bernard Stiegler, similarly, locates the highest degree
> of risk in the rise of global media. At stake for him is the dissolution of
> the plenitude of fiction and fantasy that might rewire the ontologies of
> military-industrial-digital capitalism. Stiegler ushers the dire warning
> that “the technical network of the production and diffusion of symbols
> produced for a planetary industry [the system of *téléaction*] can
> overwhelm the universal desire of fiction and at the same time condition
> the entire evolution of humanity at the risk of exhausting its desire for
> fables” (Stiegler, Technics and Time II, 30). In my forthcoming book, 
> *Technics
> Improvised*, I wonder about the impact of such a deadening profusion of
> planetary symbols and power relations, contrary to the imaginary of any age
> of aquarius. When technology so morphs into its own teleology, as the
> advance of a thoroughly predetermined futurity of technology for
> technology’s sake, little space is left for fiction, little possibility for
> speculative imagination, little space for the joys of thinking the future
> otherwise.
>
> Thanks for introducing what looks like a creative month on -empyre-.
>
> Best to all as we welcome the arrival of warmer temperatures in Ithaca
> this week.
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
> Timothy Murray
>
> Director, Cornell Council for the Arts and Curator, Cornell Biennial
>
> http://cca.cornell.edu
>
> Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
>
> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
>
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
>
>
>
> B-1 West Sibley Hall
>
> Cornell University
>
> Ithaca, New York 14853
>
>
>
>
>
> ___ empyre forum
> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
> ___
> empyre forum
> empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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Re: [-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology

[Lichty, Patrick M]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--Prescient words, tim.
I also agree with the connotation of the profusions of signs in that it creates 
its teleology,  especially in the case of futurism. I have actually been around 
a discipline called Foresight Studies a great deal in the last couple years, 
threw a good friend named Derek Woodgate. And in this vein I also remember 
through another associate, Bruce Sterling, who once wrote about the death of 
science fiction, or it might have been a personal conversation. But I do 
remember is that he noted that in some cases he felt that science-fiction bends 
to the notion of near future speculation. So, in your commentary this idea that 
somehow late stage capitalism and the techno industrial complex wants to make 
for itself an airtight narrative so that it cannot feel any question about its 
future or speculate on its material gain.  The one thing that is interesting to 
me is that people in Foresight Studies are fully aware of the challenges that 
humanity faces in the next hundred years, while the techno-industrial complex 
is seeing itself on a linear trajectory or even what I call a “exponentialist“” 
trajectory without any material limitations, which we know can’t happen.

 

What has gotten my interest about this conversation is the notion of where 
human systems of care (age of Aquarius as an exemplar) fit within this meal you 
while the existing superstructure seems to be making less and less and less of 
a space for it. With AI, increased mechanization, there seems to be a coming 
future where there is an excess of labor that is somehow “obviously” set to 
function in the terms of the human imaginary and realms of fantasy, but this 
seems to be mainly a first world reality or possibility while in the rest of 
the world this xx labor will basically be seen as a human burden.

 

In the exponentialist era of technology in the 21st-century that is running 
straight for the situation of environmental struggle I wonder how we can put 
these systems in place while bringing humanity into a landing for the long 
term. 

 

Hello, and all my best from our new situation in Minnesota.

 

From:  on behalf of Timothy Conway 
Murray 
Date: Monday, March 8, 2021 at 11:44 AM
To: "empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" 
Subject: [-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, 
Intuition and Technology

 

--empyre- soft-skinned space-- 

Thanks, Renate, for asking me to elaborate on Jean-François Lyotard’s concerns 
about the technological “pull of the future.”  Before we transition into the 
second week of our discussion, I might just clarify that Lyotard was concerned 
about how the weight of the emergent digital age (he was writing about this in 
the late 1980s and early 1990s) might impinge upon the plenitude of thinking 
and experiencing life in any aquarian “now.”

 

Sounding the alarm over the degree of risk inherent in new digital 
technologies, Lyotard notes that the transformation of the perceptual event by 
the technical-industrial complex guarantees that the future won’t be what it 
used to be. “As is clearly shown by the development of the techno-scientific 
system, technology and the culture associated with it are under a necessity to 
pursue their rise . . . The human race is, so to speak, “pulled forward” by 
this process without possessing the slightest capacity for mastering it . . . 
In as much as a monad in thus saturating its memory is stocking the future, the 
present loses its privilege of being an ungraspable point from which, however, 
time should always distribute itself between the “not yet” of the future and 
the “no longer” of the past” (Lyotard, The Inhuman, 64-65). The pulling forward 
of futurity, as evidenced by the economy of planned technological obsolescence, 
thus depletes the magnetism of the present as the energetic and ungraspable 
hinge between past and future. It is in the drive of this informatic pull of 
the future that Bernard Stiegler, similarly, locates the highest degree of risk 
in the rise of global media. At stake for him is the dissolution of the 
plenitude of fiction and fantasy that might rewire the ontologies of 
military-industrial-digital capitalism. Stiegler ushers the dire warning that 
“the technical network of the production and diffusion of symbols produced for 
a planetary industry [the system of téléaction] can overwhelm the universal 
desire of fiction and at the same time condition the entire evolution of 
humanity at the risk of exhausting its desire for fables” (Stiegler, Technics 
and Time II, 30). In my forthcoming book, Technics Improvised, I wonder about 
the impact of such a deadening profusion of planetary symbols and power 
relations, contrary to the imaginary of any age of aquarius. When technology so 
morphs into its own teleology, as the advance of a thoroughly predetermined 
futurity of technology for technology’s sa

[-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology

[Timothy Conway Murray]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--Thanks, Renate, for asking me to elaborate on Jean-François Lyotard’s concerns 
about the technological “pull of the future.”  Before we transition into the 
second week of our discussion, I might just clarify that Lyotard was concerned 
about how the weight of the emergent digital age (he was writing about this in 
the late 1980s and early 1990s) might impinge upon the plenitude of thinking 
and experiencing life in any aquarian “now.”

Sounding the alarm over the degree of risk inherent in new digital 
technologies, Lyotard notes that the transformation of the perceptual event by 
the technical-industrial complex guarantees that the future won’t be what it 
used to be. “As is clearly shown by the development of the techno-scientific 
system, technology and the culture associated with it are under a necessity to 
pursue their rise . . . The human race is, so to speak, “pulled forward” by 
this process without possessing the slightest capacity for mastering it . . . 
In as much as a monad in thus saturating its memory is stocking the future, the 
present loses its privilege of being an ungraspable point from which, however, 
time should always distribute itself between the “not yet” of the future and 
the “no longer” of the past” (Lyotard, The Inhuman, 64-65). The pulling forward 
of futurity, as evidenced by the economy of planned technological obsolescence, 
thus depletes the magnetism of the present as the energetic and ungraspable 
hinge between past and future. It is in the drive of this informatic pull of 
the future that Bernard Stiegler, similarly, locates the highest degree of risk 
in the rise of global media. At stake for him is the dissolution of the 
plenitude of fiction and fantasy that might rewire the ontologies of 
military-industrial-digital capitalism. Stiegler ushers the dire warning that 
“the technical network of the production and diffusion of symbols produced for 
a planetary industry [the system of téléaction] can overwhelm the universal 
desire of fiction and at the same time condition the entire evolution of 
humanity at the risk of exhausting its desire for fables” (Stiegler, Technics 
and Time II, 30). In my forthcoming book, Technics Improvised, I wonder about 
the impact of such a deadening profusion of planetary symbols and power 
relations, contrary to the imaginary of any age of aquarius. When technology so 
morphs into its own teleology, as the advance of a thoroughly predetermined 
futurity of technology for technology’s sake, little space is left for fiction, 
little possibility for speculative imagination, little space for the joys of 
thinking the future otherwise.
Thanks for introducing what looks like a creative month on -empyre-.
Best to all as we welcome the arrival of warmer temperatures in Ithaca this 
week.
Tim


Timothy Murray
Director, Cornell Council for the Arts and Curator, Cornell Biennial
http://cca.cornell.edu
Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
Professor of Comparative Literature and English

B-1 West Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853


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Re: [-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology

[arshiya lokhandwala]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--If there has been any take away from 2020 it is that things can't continue
in the way they had been, and we as humans need to wage wars on race,
global warming, women’s issues amongst the plethora of other things that need
to change. Much has been spoken about living the new normal, but what
exactly is that ? As suggested by you Tim, the Age of Aquarius aspires to
serve as a beacon of hope, amongst the artist’s particularly the older ones
who have experienced the flower/ power period, but it bought its share of
unresolved dilemmas for them as well.


In the exhibition, several artists such as Alke Reeh’s carefully
embroider delicate
motifs on a plastic bag, demanding the obsolesce of materials such as
plastic amongst others that are ecologically devastating for the
environment, on a similar vein as architect Asim Waqif work measures the
urban footprint of the city of Delhi. Several of the works including Shelly
Bahl, Palden Weinreb, Darshana Vora, Jaret Vadra seek spiritual solace or
new definitions to create a meaningful world.  Paraphrasing Tim’s
suggestion and tweaking it a bit the eternal optimist in me suggests: how
might we consider imagining the certainty of the future we would want to
live in? And what might that look like ...
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[-empyre-] Laying the foundation for The Dawn of Aquarius: Art, Intuition and Technology

[Timothy Conway Murray]

--empyre- soft-skinned space--Age of Aquarius!  Writing on this topic brings me back to the days of my life 
as a young hippie anti-war activist in the San Francisco Bay Area when I 
attended the uplifting and utopian San Francisco run of the new musical, 
“Hair,” whose medley “Aquarius: Let the Sunshine In” encouraged everyone on 
stage and most audience members to joyfully strip down in communal nude 
dancing.  Even in the midst of that age’s extensive social turmoil, with street 
movements for anti-war, black power, women’s rights, and the emergent rights of 
the earth, we were empowered by the promise of Aquarius and the hopeful belief 
that social struggle would deliver an almost immediate future of justice, 
social equality, and peace.

Decades down the line, I’ve had occasion more recently to cite in my academic 
writings on art and new media the legendary American baseball player of the 
1950s and early 1960s, Yogi Berra.  Yogi was infamous for his amusing 
aphorisms.  At the conclusion of my book, Digital Baroque: New Media Art and 
Cinematic Folds, and again in the book I’m just now sending into my publisher, 
Technics Improvised: Activating Touch in Global Media Art, I pun on one of my 
favorite Yogi quotes: “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be.”

My point in remobilizing this aphorism is to reflect on how utopianism might 
have shifted in the digital age and in the age of the Anthropocene where 
technology often leads us into a future we might not otherwise have imagined 
(think of planned obsolescence, AI tracking of social and shopping behavior, 
genetic modification, and global warming). Aquarius certainly stands now for 
something much more nuanced, if not troubling, than it did during those 
celebratory days of San Francisco Flower Power.

Put otherwise how might we consider imagining the certainty of the future we 
would rather not want to live in?  If we have any certainty about this new Age 
of Aquarius, it would be about the world of, say, the inevitability of rising 
global waters due to the ecological warming of fossil fuels. Just as certain, 
it seems, is the masochistic refusal of global capital to acknowledge its risk 
to natural ecosystems, if not the neoliberal disinterest in precarity itself, 
whether the corporate enhancement of global food insecurity, the constant 
dumping of obsolescent technologies on the shores of Asia, the continual 
trafficking of human beings for the gain and profit of capitalist buccaneers, 
the continual oppression and murder of citizens of color by hegemonic networks 
of surveillance and policing, or even the capitalist disavowal of the viral 
extremity of our current global pandemic. And does not the doubled 
borderlessness of new patterns of immigration and old methods of slavery (still 
via child sex, domestic labor, and genomic doubling) mark the neoliberal 
precarity of our new digital world order?

It is in this context of Aquarius that I’ve shifted my thinking from the 
sunshine of the future to the imperatives of thinking futurity itself, whether 
that of the complexities of Afro-Futurism, the life reconfigurations of the 
futurity of the Anthropocene, or our continual work via -empyre- to continue 
raising the questioning of technology as it drives us forward, in the words of 
both Stiegler and Lyotard, as willing captives of future obsolescence and 
digital sovereignty.

So, ths is how I’m now thinking the Dawn of Aquarius.  Happy March everyone.

Tim




Timothy Murray
Director, Cornell Council for the Arts and Curator, Cornell Biennial
http://cca.cornell.edu
Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
Professor of Comparative Literature and English

B-1 West Sibley Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853


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