Matthew Ritchie: Systemic Thinking and Making

Hey I just found this! Mathew Ritchie gives his perspective on systems thinking and art.

MIT Video - Matthew Ritchie: Systemic Thinking and Making

This was pretty interesting talking about Subversion. It is long but Good

Hans Haacke

Kody made mention of reading an article on Hans Haacke, and I came across him as an important systems artists in the Francis Halsall article as well.

Haacke is a German-American artist known for his critique of social and political systems. In the 1960s he began critiquing the institutions of the art world and tried to expose the exchange between the museums/galleries, corporations, and artists more clearly. 

Moma Poll, 1970

Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971

Later, Haacke became critical of political leaders and histories, especially in regards to censoring the arts.

Part of On Social Grease installation, 1975

Germania, 1993

Sanitation, 2000

This blogger writes a post on Haacke as well.

Our Current Education System and Creativity

I just love the thoughts of Sir Ken Robinson regarding education and creativity. He is a great advocate for developing creativity within children as much as we emphasize "core subjects" like math, science, english, and social studies. As a an educator, I try to be conscious of the system I willingly perpetuate.

Ted Talk: How Schools Kill Creativity

I also like this visualization of the current education system:

1960s Systems Art Development

I attempted to wade through a dense  article explaining the development of "system aesthetics" and "system as medium" from the 1960s to present day. You may find it here. However, this article was found as part of a systems art website check it out.

The author, Francis Halsall, cites artist and art critic Jack Burnham as predicting that "a Systems Esthetic" would eventually lead to a shift away from art objects to a celebration of systems as a medium in and of itself. As I look at contemporary art today, the acceptance and proliferation of digital/new media is quite obvious. Thankfully, object art is still important to the art word, but it is clear that system as a medium has indeed become quite a trend.

Here are a few artists and exhibits that were quoted as being historically significant to cybernetics and systems art:

Primary Structures, 1966 at The Jewish Museum, NYC  

This exhibit included key artists such as Carl Andre, Walter de Maria, Dan Flavin, Robert Smithson and Sol Lewitt. It documented "the crystallisation of minimalism in the investigation of simplified sculptural form [...and] the systematic structures that underlay such minimal forms" (Halsall, 2008).

When Attitudes Become Form: Concepts, Processes, Situations, Information, Kunsthalle Bern/ Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1969 "explored sculptural possibilities of post-minimalism, while its subtitle invoked systems-thinking" (Halsall, 2008).

Systems, at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1972. 

"The exhibition focused upon how both system and structure (mostly mathematically understood) could be used as a foundation for abstract art" (Halsall, 2008).

Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts, I.C.A., London, 1968

The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968

Information at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 1970

Software, The Jewish Museum, 1970

The Human Body

I need a break from scholarly articles and art, so I decided to research every system of the body. Here are some things I didn't know about the body:

1. Teeth are considered organs not bones.
2. All bones are considered organs as well.
3. Together, the small and large intestines are about 15' long.
4. The appendix is shaped like a worm.
5. The pituitary gland is about the size of a pea and resides in the brain. It is in charge of creating and regulating hormones. I'm just amazed that an organ so small can have such an important task and wreak such havoc.
6. We have an organ in our fetal and childhood development called the thymus that eventually becomes inactive in puberty and is replaced by fatty tissues in adulthood.
7. Fevers and inflammation are not necessarily products of infection, they are the immune system's response to fight and slow down harmful pathogens. 
8. The average person’s skin weighs 10 pounds and has a surface area of almost 20 square feet.
9. Less than 1% of our skin cells help us to sense touch.
10. Our muscle movements are the primary source of body heat.
11. The skull is comprised of 22 bones (21 of them are fused together).
12. I thought bones simply provided a support structure for our bodies, but actually they perform important storage and regulatory functions like releasing calcium into our bloodstream, storing energy, and monitoring sugar levels.

Source: http://www.innerbody.com/

Kriistina Lahde

Kriistina Lahde is an artist who reexamines objects and terms of measurement in new ways. For example she may take standard sized envelopes and meticulously cut them into lace-like patterns, or she may alter objects of measurement like rulers and yardsticks into sculptures. By deconstructing and destroying utilitarian objects, she effectually sees new potential and value in these works.

Conceptually, Lahde's work may reflect a "dialogue with those norms of social expectation, of the standards by which we are measured to be functioning (or non-functionin members of society)" ().

Kristin Campbell, an art history teacher at the University of Guelph, further explains, "Lahde denies the conventional use value of measuring tools, and the systems and practices with which we might associate with, and also introduces an element of chance to something controlled. Another careful system is imposed on the initial object: Lahde refuses to leave scraps or slivers out and instead new curvilinear forms are created using every fragment of the original" ().  

The Envelopes series (2004-2007) and this latter system of keeping and reusing every scrap of material relates to my BFA final show quite nicely. I wish I would have known about Lahde in my undergrad.

Campbell, Kristin. (2013). Beyond Measure: Systems of Chance in the Art of Kriistina Lahde. International Contemporary Art. 22-27.