New technology is constantly changing the way we understand the world, our notion of the body, identity, space and time in which we live. Technology could be called the tool of man – machines, attachments to transcend, deny or change the possibilities of the body (and mind) – we mean, for example, nutrition, drugs, music, cinema, architecture, and the media: all the ways in which the body communicates, informs and moves itself.
The body itself is a kind of machine and “everyone has a home mechanic” – where does the body stop and technology begin? New technological developments make the body ‘malleable’, maybe to the point where both coincide. And what about the spirit, can it escape from that?
In art the theme of the relationship between the body and the machine is not new – an artist like Duchamp had his bachelor machine. In the meantime, the cultural expressions about the changing world are no longer restricted to the (visual) arts. Currently there is talk of ‘autonomous’ expressions in the field of technology, of which music and the Internet are the main examples. Conversely, these new expressions have influenced visual arts – which are no longer strictly visual, but appeal to all senses.
With contributions by Yasu Ichige, Yvonne Legrand, Armelle Leturcq, Atelier van Lieshout, Hilary Lloyd, Armelle Leturcq, William Speakman
Edited by Mariette Dölle, Lisette Smits and Domeniek Ruyters
Design by Femke Snelting
PRD