Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art
This thesis explores emergence as a focal point within my art practice. Emergence is the phenomenon through which complex systems exhibit properties and behaviors that are not directly attributable to any of the individual components within a system. Instead, these properties emerge through the (oft...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2024
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153336 |
| _version_ | 1826199126142877696 |
|---|---|
| author | Medina, Alejandro |
| author2 | Urbona, Gediminas |
| author_facet | Urbona, Gediminas Medina, Alejandro |
| author_sort | Medina, Alejandro |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This thesis explores emergence as a focal point within my art practice. Emergence is the phenomenon through which complex systems exhibit properties and behaviors that are not directly attributable to any of the individual components within a system. Instead, these properties emerge through the (often entangled) relationships and interactions between individual, and often heterogeneous, components of a system. By orienting my work towards emergence, I propose a necessary shift towards an ecological and systems-based understanding of the world, one in which artworks can begin to be imagined in networks of relations and interdependence, doing so as a means of probing new ways of Being in an increasingly complex and entangled world. The thesis presents two frameworks for further exploring emergence, including an understanding of the exhibition as a “speculative ecology” and the different roles that instructions, rule-based systems and contracts could take on in staging evolutionary processes. The ecological framing of the exhibition emphasizes a renegotiation of agency amongst the exhibition’s components, open-over-closed systems and a focus on the integration of life cycles into the work; the use of instructions, rule-based systems and contracts enables the translation and embedding of evolutionary processes as part of the work's conceptualization and execution, aiming to inscribe change and instability as a core element in the work. The thesis draws on references from the fields of art and computation to expand upon historical lineages of thinking, in relation to several works that I have developed during my time at MIT’s program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:14:49Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/153336 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:14:49Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1533362024-01-17T03:41:24Z Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art Medina, Alejandro Urbona, Gediminas Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture This thesis explores emergence as a focal point within my art practice. Emergence is the phenomenon through which complex systems exhibit properties and behaviors that are not directly attributable to any of the individual components within a system. Instead, these properties emerge through the (often entangled) relationships and interactions between individual, and often heterogeneous, components of a system. By orienting my work towards emergence, I propose a necessary shift towards an ecological and systems-based understanding of the world, one in which artworks can begin to be imagined in networks of relations and interdependence, doing so as a means of probing new ways of Being in an increasingly complex and entangled world. The thesis presents two frameworks for further exploring emergence, including an understanding of the exhibition as a “speculative ecology” and the different roles that instructions, rule-based systems and contracts could take on in staging evolutionary processes. The ecological framing of the exhibition emphasizes a renegotiation of agency amongst the exhibition’s components, open-over-closed systems and a focus on the integration of life cycles into the work; the use of instructions, rule-based systems and contracts enables the translation and embedding of evolutionary processes as part of the work's conceptualization and execution, aiming to inscribe change and instability as a core element in the work. The thesis draws on references from the fields of art and computation to expand upon historical lineages of thinking, in relation to several works that I have developed during my time at MIT’s program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT). S.M. 2024-01-16T21:52:02Z 2024-01-16T21:52:02Z 2023-06 2023-07-13T21:28:10.336Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153336 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Medina, Alejandro Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title | Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title_full | Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title_fullStr | Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title_short | Emergence: Speculative Ecologies & Evolution in Art |
| title_sort | emergence speculative ecologies evolution in art |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153336 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT medinaalejandro emergencespeculativeecologiesevolutioninart |