Prof. Dr. Benjamin Jörissen
http://joerissen.name
benjamin@joerissen.name
Digitality and Aesthetics:
Challenges for Next Arts Educations
Plattform Kulturelle Bildung: „Perspektiven
Kultureller Bildung in Europa“
Schloss Genshagen, 18. November 2015

Next Art Education
„The Next Art is the art
of the Next Society.“
„Like all pedagogy, Next
Art Pedagogy has to be
radically thought
towards future.“
2013
http://kunst.uni-koeln.de/kpp/_kpp_daten/pdf/KPP29_Meyer.pdf

Next Art Education
Next Arts Education
2013
http://kunst.uni-koeln.de/kpp/_kpp_daten/pdf/KPP29_Meyer.pdf

I. Digitality:
Code, Data, Networks, Interfaces

The digital Web ist a mycelium.What seems to be an object – e.g. of pedagogical
intervention, like digital gadets or platforms – is a mere manifestation
of an underlying infrastructur which always remains invisible.
h"ps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heksenkring.jpg

Digital „Bildung“ (?)
Education in digital cultures?
Arts education in digital cultures?

Code
Data
Networks
Interface

Code
Data
Networks
Interface

Software/Code/Algorithms
Data
Networks
Interface

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldMsMDGu0V8
New Virtual Instruments not
based upon sample technology,
but on simulation models
of the physical models of the
complex, dynamically
interacting materiality of
musical instruments by means of
complex, dynamically
interacting algorithms.
These platonic instruments are
not „false real“ things, but „true
virtual“ things, coming along with
many or even more of the
expressive possibilities than their
material counterparts.

http://meta-ex.com/

Software/Code/Algorithms
Data
Networks
Interface

Data
= digital cultural objects
defined by
Protocols
performed by
Software/Code/Algorithms

Look, it’s the Mona Lisa!
0xFF 0xD8 0xFF 0xE0
0x00 0x10 0x4A 0x46
0x49 0x46 0x00 0x01
…

Protocols and formats „lock in“
the relation of cultural objects and
perception
mp3 – psychoacoustics
jpg – psychovisualistics
.h264 – ps.vis. in time

MIDI
(Music Instrument Digital Interface)
byte 1: note on/off
byte 2: coded note value (diachronic)
byte 3: velocity (0-128)

MIDI
(Music Instrument Digital Interface)
not only defining basic understandings of notes, but
being an industry standard of music production
globally (synchronizing studio production and
postproduction tools).

Software/Code/Algorithms
Data
Networks
Interface

Software/Code/Algorithms
Data
Networks
Interface

SLOrk – Standford Laptop Orchestra
http://slork.stanford.edu/

Onyx Ashanti – BeatJazz
https://www.ted.com/talks/onyx_ashanti_this_is_beatjazz

{Code +
Hardware
data
materiality
senses ↔ sense

Code + data requiring the most
versatile materialities

Today, we are surrounded by
super versatile materialities:
silicone (logical/temporal resolution)
Displays (visual resolution)
Speakers (auditive resolution)
Nanomaterials, 3d Printing Materials
(spatial & mechanical resolution)

Software/Code/Algorithms
Data
Networks
Interface

https://www.ableton.com/de/live/

„Software Studies“
Software as cultural expression
Software, Power, and Hegemony
Software as individual/collective
expression
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/software-studies

II. Digitality, Mediality,Aesthetics

symbolic/cultural forms
vs.
aesthetics
vs.
mediality
materialities

„media“
vs.
„mediality“

Medium loosely coupled forms
Form Visibility, Order, Meaning
„Mediatization“
(emergent event,
signs appearing)
„Mediatisierung“ nach Dieter Mersch 2002, S. 56 ff. (im Anschluss an Luhmann)
Mersch, D. (2002). Ereignis und Aura: Untersuchungen zu einer ÄstheGk des PerformaGven. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp.
= form + materiality

„The Medium is the
Message“,
i.e. the underlying
„structuring structures“.
Marshall McLuhan
(1911-1980)

Digital Transformations of
Aesthetic Processes

symbolic/cultural forms
vs.
aesthetics
vs.
mediality
digitality materialities

symbolic/cultural forms
vs.
aesthetics
vs.
mediality
digitality materialities

symbolic/cultural forms
vs.
aesthetics
vs.
mediality
digitality materialities
Art, as a reflexive discourse by means
of cultural forms of expression (arts),
transgresses common and taken-for-
granted relations of forms, aesthetics,
medialities and materialities,
enabling experience of and reflection
upon their multiple implications.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915

Yves Klein, L'accord bleu (RE 10), 1960

Magri"e, La trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), 1929

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

III. „Bildung“

„Bildung“ encompasses
subjectivation/power
self-determination
alterity
reflexivity
identity
transgression

„Bildung“ as a transgression of
framings (world-views)
Marotzki, W. (1990). Entwurf einer strukturalen Bildungstheorie. Weinheim: Dt. Studien-Verlag.

cultural/aesthetical, arts-related
„Bildung“ encompasses
subjectivation/power, self-
determination, alterity, reflexivity,
identity, transgression
with respect to symbolic forms
through aesthetic articulation

code rules:
closed vs. open digital architectures
e.g.Virtual Worlds/Avatars
Visual Digital Tools
Cultural Hacking

Jörissen, B. (2009). Strukturale EthnografieVirtueller Welten. In: Grell, Petra/Marotzki,Winfried/
Schelhowe, Heidi (Hrsg.): Neue digitale Kultur- und Bildungsräume.Wiesbaden:VS-Verlag, S. 119-143.

http://chucks-fun.blogspot.de/2015/01/cartoon-fun-18-images.html

http://crackberry.com/wallpaper-art-megan-fox-mona-lisa
https://ohmydior.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/thenewnormal-conchita-wurst/

http://www.bianicastro.com/2012/09/as-varias-faces-de-monalisa.html

e.g. Modding/Cultural Hacking
https://culturalhacking.wordpress.com/

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Jörissen
http://joerissen.name
benjamin@joerissen.name
Digitality and Aesthetics:
Challenges for Next Arts Educations
Plattform Kulturelle Bildung: „Perspektiven
Kultureller Bildung in Europa“
Schloss Genshagen, 18. November 2015