Cybernetic-existentialism : freedom, systems, and being-for-others in contemporary art and performance / Steve Dixon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dixon, Steve, 1956- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and philosophy.

Existentialism in art.

Cybernetics in art.

Arts, Modern--Themes, motives.

Arts, Modern.

Physical Description:

x, 324 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

Summary:

"Cybernetic-Existentialism: Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others in Contemporary Art and Performance offers a unique discourse and an original aesthetic theory. It argues that fusing perspectives from the philosophy of Existentialism with insights from the 'universal science' of cybernetics provides a new analytical lens and deconstructive methodology to critique art. In this study, Steve Dixon examines how a range of artists' works reveal the ideas of Existentialist philosophers including Kierkegaard, Camus, de Beauvoir and Sartre on freedom, being and nothingness, eternal recurrence, the absurd, and being-for-others. Simultaneously, these artworks are shown to engage in complex explorations of concepts proposed by cyberneticians including Wiener, Shannon, and Bateson on information theory and 'noise', feedback loops, circularity, adaptive ecosystems, autopoiesis, and emergence. Dixon's ground-breaking book demonstrates how fusing insights and knowledge from these two fields can throw new light on pressing issues within contemporary arts and culture, including authenticity, angst and alienation, homeostasis, radical politics, and the human as system"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780367142490

036714249X

OCLC:

1108791093