The Return of the Art and Technology Lab

Beck, J. and Bishop, R. 2018. The Return of the Art and Technology Lab. Cultural Politics. 14 (2), pp. 225-243. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-6609102

TitleThe Return of the Art and Technology Lab
TypeJournal article
AuthorsBeck, J. and Bishop, R.
Abstract

In North America, there are currently over 100 programs and labs committed to collaborative experimentation in art and technology. This article examines the current prominence of art and technology labs in the context of the resurgence of collaborative practice in the arts, not only between artists, but also among a wide range of cross-disciplinary groupings of designers, scientists, engineers, scholars and others. The push for collaboration in the arts is part of a recalibration of the meaning of 'research' as it is understood by arts practitioners, and among the legacies of institutional critique has been the expanded engagement of artists in a range of contexts that moves beyond galleries and museums and into, among other places, universities, businesses, science and tech labs and facilities. At the same time, the massive growth of the tech sector has given rise to a new generation of speculative research enterprise, from Google to SpaceX, which shares, to some degree, the expansive research and development (R&D) horizons of advanced art. Some of the most prominent current art and tech projects explicitly draw on the legacy of precursor programs from the 1960s to establish a lineage and to confer art historical legitimacy upon the new versions This article examines two current art and tech projects, at MIT and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and their strategic deployment of their 1960s antecedents: respectively, Gyorgy Kepes’ Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at MIT, and Maurice Tuchman's Art & Technology program (A&T) at LACMA. This examination argues the loss of a radical vision that preceded the 1960s labs that rendered them untenable while exploring how the art and technology labs furthered a larger shift from progressive liberalism to neoliberalism. While these earlier projects were short-lived and the targets of considerable criticism, not least due to their connections with military and corporate clients, in the twenty-first century the legacies of CAVS and A&T have been unproblematically reclaimed. Contemporary art and tech projects, we argue, are in danger of succumbing to the same techno-utopianism as their 1960s iterations, as the same military-industrial allegiances that tainted the earlier projects continue to underpin twenty-first century collaborations.

KeywordsArt and Technology Labs
US Avant-Garde
Cold War
MIT
LACMA
Experiments in Art and Technology
JournalCultural Politics
Journal citation14 (2), pp. 225-243
ISSN1743-2197
Year2018
PublisherDuke University Press
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-6609102
Publication dates
Published01 Jul 2018

Related outputs

The Art School and the Everyday: No Life Without Art
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2024. The Art School and the Everyday: No Life Without Art. in: Co-operative Education, Politics, and Art: Creative, Critical, and Community Resistance to Corporate Higher Education London Routledge.

The Art Schools of the Midlands
Beck, J. 2024. The Art Schools of the Midlands. Martin Hall Gallery, University of Loughborough 16 May - 28 Jun 2024

The Art Schools of the West Midlands
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2023. The Art Schools of the West Midlands. The New Art Gallery Walsall 17 Feb - 02 Jul 2023

The Art Schools of the East Midlands
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2023. The Art Schools of the East Midlands. Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University 22 Sep - 02 Dec 2023

Harmony, Contrast & Discord: Rochdale and the Art Schools of the North West
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2021. Harmony, Contrast & Discord: Rochdale and the Art Schools of the North West. Touchstones Rochdale 18 May - 03 Jul 2021

Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s, Natasha Zaretsky (2018)
Beck, J. 2021. Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s, Natasha Zaretsky (2018). European Journal of American Culture. 40 (1), pp. 85-87. https://doi.org/10.1386/ejac_00039_5

On the Beach
Beck, J. 2021. On the Beach. Cultural Politics. 17 (1), pp. 135-144. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-8797627

Landscape as Weapon: Cultures of Exhaustion and Refusal
Beck, J. 2021. Landscape as Weapon: Cultures of Exhaustion and Refusal. London Reaktion Press.

Technocrats of the Imagination: Art, Technology, and the Military-Industrial Avant-Garde
Beck, J. and Bishop, R. 2020. Technocrats of the Imagination: Art, Technology, and the Military-Industrial Avant-Garde. Durham, North Carolina Duke University Press.

The Time Capsule and the Cut Up: Negotiating Temporality, Anticipating Catastrophe
Beck, J. and Dorrian, M. 2020. The Time Capsule and the Cut Up: Negotiating Temporality, Anticipating Catastrophe. Theory, Culture & Society. 37 (7-8), pp. 95-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276420958049

The North West Art School Record Machine
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2019. The North West Art School Record Machine. Bury Art Museum 12 Oct 2019 - 25 Jan 2020

The Art Schools of North West England
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2018. The Art Schools of North West England. Bluecoat, Liverpool 17 Nov 2018 - 31 Mar 2019

Utah and the Times: Governing Temporality in Deseret
Beck, J. 2017. Utah and the Times: Governing Temporality in Deseret. in: Lübecker, N. and Rugo, D. (ed.) James Benning's Environments: Politics, Ecology, Duration Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 39-54

Photography and Abstraction [Special Issue of Photographies journal]
Cunningham, D.I. and Beck, J. 2016. Photography and Abstraction [Special Issue of Photographies journal]. Photographies. 9 (2), pp. 129-228.

Overt Research
White, N. and Beck, J. 2016. Overt Research. in: Beck, J. and Bishop, R. (ed.) Cold War Legacies: Systems, Theory, Aesthetics Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 252-272

The Future: RAND, Brand and Dangerous to Know
Beck, J. 2016. The Future: RAND, Brand and Dangerous to Know. in: Beck, J. and Bishop, R. (ed.) Cold War Legacies: Systems, Theory, Aesthetics Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 35-49

Introduction: The Long Cold War
Beck, J. and Bishop, R. 2016. Introduction: The Long Cold War. in: Beck, J. and Bishop, R. (ed.) Cold War Legacies: Systems, Theory, Aesthetics Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1-32

Introduction: Photography and Abstraction
Beck, J. and Cunningham, D.I. 2016. Introduction: Photography and Abstraction. Photographies. 9 (2), pp. 129-133. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2016.1181971

High Formalism: The aerial view and the colour field
Beck, J. 2016. High Formalism: The aerial view and the colour field. Photographies. 9 (2), pp. 187-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/17540763.2016.1181969

A Military Definition of Reality: Researching Literature and Militarization
Beck, J. 2016. A Military Definition of Reality: Researching Literature and Militarization. in: Williams, A.J., Jenkings, A., Woodward, R. and Rech, M.F. (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Military Research Methods Abingdon Routledge. pp. 84-94

The Call of the Anthropocene
Beck, J. 2014. The Call of the Anthropocene. Cultural Politics. 10 (3), pp. 404-414. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-2795765

Postcatastrophic utopias
Beck, J. and Dorrian, M. 2014. Postcatastrophic utopias. Cultural Politics. 10 (2), pp. 132-150. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-2651729

The Art School and the Culture Shed
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2014. The Art School and the Culture Shed. Kingston upon Thames Centre for Useless Splendour.

The purloined landscape: photography and power in the American West
Beck, J. 2014. The purloined landscape: photography and power in the American West. Tate Papers. 21.

Strangers to the stars: abstraction, aereality, aspect perception
Beck, J. 2013. Strangers to the stars: abstraction, aereality, aspect perception. in: Armitage, J. and Bishop, R. (ed.) Virilio and visual culture Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 46-68

Beyond the darkness of the just lived moment
Beck, J. 2013. Beyond the darkness of the just lived moment. in: Makhoul, B. (ed.) Palestinian video art: constellation of the moving image Jerusalem Al Hoash. pp. 156-169

Between the castle and the village
Beck, J. 2013. Between the castle and the village. in: Bishop, R. and Hon, G. (ed.) Bashir Makhoul, Aissa Deebi: otherwise occupied Jerusalem Al Hoash. pp. 150-165

In and out of the box: Bashir Makhoul’s Forbidden City
Beck, J. 2012. In and out of the box: Bashir Makhoul’s Forbidden City. Theory, Culture and Society. 29 (7-8), pp. 341-357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276412459088

The art school in ruins
Beck, J. and Cornford, M. 2012. The art school in ruins. Journal of Visual Culture. 11 (1), pp. 58-83. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470412911430467

The place of catastrophe: Clarence King, Mike Davis and the politics of contingency
Beck, J. 2011. The place of catastrophe: Clarence King, Mike Davis and the politics of contingency. in: Wragg, D.A. and Heffernan, N. (ed.) Culture, environment and eco-politics Newcastle Upon Tyne Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 84-110

Signs of the sky, signs of the times: photography as double agent
Beck, J. 2011. Signs of the sky, signs of the times: photography as double agent. Theory, Culture and Society. 28 (7-8), pp. 123-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276411423773

Concrete ambivalence: inside the bunker complex
Beck, J. 2011. Concrete ambivalence: inside the bunker complex. Cultural Politics. 7 (1), pp. 79-102. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174311X12861940861789

Et in Arizona ego: Baudrillard on the Planet of the Apes
Beck, J. 2009. Et in Arizona ego: Baudrillard on the Planet of the Apes. in: Bishop, R. (ed.) Baudrillard now: current perspectives in Baudrillard studies Cambridge Polity. pp. 100-115

Dirty wars: landscape, power, and waste in Western American literature
Beck, J. 2009. Dirty wars: landscape, power, and waste in Western American literature. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press.

Velocities of power
Beck, J. and Crosthwaite, P. 2007. Velocities of power. Cultural Politics. 3 (1), pp. 23-34. https://doi.org/10.2752/174321907780031034

Resistance becomes ballistic: Vanishing Point and the end of the road
Beck, J. 2007. Resistance becomes ballistic: Vanishing Point and the end of the road. Cultural Politics. 3 (1), pp. 35-50. https://doi.org/10.2752/174321907780031070

Zapruder, Warhol, and the accident of images
Beck, J. 2005. Zapruder, Warhol, and the accident of images. in: Holloway, D. and Beck, J. (ed.) American visual cultures London Continuum. pp. 183-189

Reading room: erosion and sedimentation in Sebald's Suffolk
Beck, J. 2004. Reading room: erosion and sedimentation in Sebald's Suffolk. in: Long, J.J. and Whitehead, A. (ed.) W.G. Sebald: a critical companion Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 75-88

Writing the radical center: William Carlos Williams, John Dewey, and American cultural politics
Beck, J. 2001. Writing the radical center: William Carlos Williams, John Dewey, and American cultural politics. Albany State University of New York Press.

Without form and void: the American desert as trope and terrain
Beck, J. 2001. Without form and void: the American desert as trope and terrain. Nepantla: views from South. 2 (1), pp. 63-83.

An over-illuminated world: Reyner Banham and art history in the wilderness
Beck, J. 2000. An over-illuminated world: Reyner Banham and art history in the wilderness. Everything. 3, pp. 26-33.

‘A certain but fugitive testimony': witnessing the light of time in Cormac McCarthy's Southwestern fiction
Beck, J. 2000. ‘A certain but fugitive testimony': witnessing the light of time in Cormac McCarthy's Southwestern fiction. in: Wallach, R. (ed.) Myth, legend, dust: critical responses to Cormac McCarthy Manchester Manchester University Press. pp. 209-216

Blown away: wars visible and invisible in Richard Misrach’s Desert Cantos
Beck, J. 2000. Blown away: wars visible and invisible in Richard Misrach’s Desert Cantos. European Journal of American Culture. 19 (3), pp. 156-166. https://doi.org/10.1386/ejac.19.3.156

Buckminster Fuller and the politics of shelter
Beck, J. 1999. Buckminster Fuller and the politics of shelter. in: Hughes, J. and Sadler, S. (ed.) Non-plan: essays on freedom, participation and change in modern architecture and urbanism Oxford Architectural Press. pp. 116-125

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/q3y44/the-return-of-the-art-and-technology-lab


Share this

Usage statistics

251 total views
477 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.