2020
Towards an artistic methodology of the accident
Final Master Thesis at ESDi/Universidad Ramon Lull, Barcelona
MA Digital Art Direction
Towards an artistic methodology of the accident
Final Master Thesis at ESDi/Universidad Ramon Lull, Barcelona
MA Digital Art Direction
Towards an artistic methodology of the accidentThe failure in technological processes of reproduction as an opening to the improbable
The purpose of this study is to analyze and provide a reflection on various artistic practices that are articulated from what in this research is called ‘accidental’. Taken as a theoretical framework the thinking of the Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser, but more widely other philosophers who have focused their research on questioning the role that media, devices, and appliances play in the configuration of our experience of the material and perceptible world, it is proposed to explore the methodology of the accident in artistic practices.
Attracted by this kind of methodology, artists manage to highlight anomalies in the playback processes of the media and capture, or rather provoke, improbable and unexpected results, exploring how to expand the field of the possible in contrast to that of the probable, putting in value the remains and the margin of error of the devices, as opposed to the regular and anticipated operation of those.
New media play a very important role in relation to the fragmentation of information so that they provide us with only some versions or representations of the world, so the objective of this study is to value how some artists manage to illustrate through their practices other possible cuts that could be given to the world that we perceive, moving us away from what we have taken for granted and that conditions us to be part of the spirit of our time.
For which, a curatorial selection is made with the work of some artists presented as paradigmatic cases, having as a criterion of differentiation whether the artist inter- venes in the failure of the process carried out by the medium or not. The research proposes three categories, considering what some artist practices share; their ways of doing and operating. After carrying out this analysis, the study delves into the problematic horizon that an accident methodology supposes if precisely what is accidental happens and cannot be predetermined, so it pauses to reflect on some contradictions and paradoxes. Finally, an attempt is made to challenge the queries that arise through the proposal of a curatorial project that creates the need to open a dialogue with those artists about their work methodology, the project consists of a festival of activities that include workshops and conferences where it will be possible to open strains of thoughts as triggered by those practices.
Main sources of reference
Agamben, Giorgio. 2015. “¿Qué es un dispositivo?”
Baudrillard, Jean. 1978. “Simulación y Simulacro”.
Benjamin, Walter 2004. “Sobre la fotografí”a.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1989. “Michel Foucault, filósofo”.
Derrida, Jaques. 1993. Espectros de Marx.
Fisher, Mark. 2014. “Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures”.
Flusser, Vilém. 1990. “Hacia una filosofía de la fotografía”.
Flusser, V. 2015. “El universo de las imágenes técnicas”.
Fontcuberta, Joan. 1997. “El beso de judas”.
Latour, Bruno. 2019. “Nunca fuimos modernos”.
Malabou, Catherine. 2014. “Ontología del accidente”.
Parikka, J. y Huhtamo, E. 2011. “Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications”.
Simondon, G. 1969. “Du mode d’existence des objets téchniques”.
Fisher, M. 2012. “What Is Hauntology?”
Guldin, R. y Soto Calderon, A. 2012. “To document something which does not exist.
Machado, Arlindo. 2000. “Repensando a Flusser y las imágenes técnicas”.
The purpose of this study is to analyze and provide a reflection on various artistic practices that are articulated from what in this research is called ‘accidental’. Taken as a theoretical framework the thinking of the Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser, but more widely other philosophers who have focused their research on questioning the role that media, devices, and appliances play in the configuration of our experience of the material and perceptible world, it is proposed to explore the methodology of the accident in artistic practices.
Attracted by this kind of methodology, artists manage to highlight anomalies in the playback processes of the media and capture, or rather provoke, improbable and unexpected results, exploring how to expand the field of the possible in contrast to that of the probable, putting in value the remains and the margin of error of the devices, as opposed to the regular and anticipated operation of those.
New media play a very important role in relation to the fragmentation of information so that they provide us with only some versions or representations of the world, so the objective of this study is to value how some artists manage to illustrate through their practices other possible cuts that could be given to the world that we perceive, moving us away from what we have taken for granted and that conditions us to be part of the spirit of our time.
For which, a curatorial selection is made with the work of some artists presented as paradigmatic cases, having as a criterion of differentiation whether the artist inter- venes in the failure of the process carried out by the medium or not. The research proposes three categories, considering what some artist practices share; their ways of doing and operating. After carrying out this analysis, the study delves into the problematic horizon that an accident methodology supposes if precisely what is accidental happens and cannot be predetermined, so it pauses to reflect on some contradictions and paradoxes. Finally, an attempt is made to challenge the queries that arise through the proposal of a curatorial project that creates the need to open a dialogue with those artists about their work methodology, the project consists of a festival of activities that include workshops and conferences where it will be possible to open strains of thoughts as triggered by those practices.
Main sources of reference
Agamben, Giorgio. 2015. “¿Qué es un dispositivo?”
Baudrillard, Jean. 1978. “Simulación y Simulacro”.
Benjamin, Walter 2004. “Sobre la fotografí”a.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1989. “Michel Foucault, filósofo”.
Derrida, Jaques. 1993. Espectros de Marx.
Fisher, Mark. 2014. “Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures”.
Flusser, Vilém. 1990. “Hacia una filosofía de la fotografía”.
Flusser, V. 2015. “El universo de las imágenes técnicas”.
Fontcuberta, Joan. 1997. “El beso de judas”.
Latour, Bruno. 2019. “Nunca fuimos modernos”.
Malabou, Catherine. 2014. “Ontología del accidente”.
Parikka, J. y Huhtamo, E. 2011. “Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications”.
Simondon, G. 1969. “Du mode d’existence des objets téchniques”.
Fisher, M. 2012. “What Is Hauntology?”
Guldin, R. y Soto Calderon, A. 2012. “To document something which does not exist.
Machado, Arlindo. 2000. “Repensando a Flusser y las imágenes técnicas”.
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