Nordic Summer University study circle 4 on Process, Design & Aesthetics invites papers on Word becoming Flesh for the Vintersymposion to be held in Copenhagen March 28 – 30 2008
Word Becoming Flesh
According to Freud ”Man has become, so to speak, a God with artificial limbs [eine Art Prothesengott]” (in Civilization and Its Discontents (1929)). Equipped with ”all his auxiliary organs”, man has advanced to an almost god-like eminence. But, Freud warns, “let us also remember that modern man does not feel happy with his god-like nature.”
Although other animals use tools as well, it is man alone who seeks to improve or even replace his natural dispositions.
Technology, Evolution & Design
Tools and technologies are to be regarded as extensions of man, according to Marshall McLuhan. That is, technology is not something exterior to man. Biology and technology are not to be seen as antithetical to one another. When it comes to the use of tools and technology, evolution is no longer just a question of natural selection, as claimed by Darwin, but a process that involves innovation and design of the process as well. Thus, perhaps all technology should be considered a step towards the post-human?
Whether you believe man was created by God or not, the idea of improving God’s original design has haunted the imagination for ages. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the epitome of man’s attempt at being God. Today, for instance stem cell research seems to bring us closer to what was fiction just recently. What used to be words is rapidly becoming flesh.
In more general terms, design can be regarded as extensions of man. A knife is not just a tool for cutting. The design of the knife makes it a more or less functional extension of human faculties. Albeit the knife is not ‘flesh’, it becomes a supplement to the ‘flesh’ that improves the natural disposition. It is not just about the technology – that the knife is able to cut – but about the design as well: how does the knife fit to the hand, which design is the most efficient in transferring muscular force to the blade of the knife. Or is it possible at all to differ between the knife and the flesh, the structure of the design and its outcome?
The body and Man as designer
Recently, design has been used in the notion of “intelligent design”. To some, the Darwinian theory of evolution cannot account for the complexity of life; consequently, the evolution of life has to be attributed to some kind of intelligence (i.e. divine power). Evolution is progressing according to a grander scheme, a design. Although “intelligent design” appears to be an attempt to give scientific credibility to the biblical account of Genesis, the use of the notion of design is interesting. When a more scientific approach to dissection began to become customary during the Renaissance, it was the mechanics of the body that was at the focal point of attention. The body was a machine (Descartes) created by The Great Mechanic or Watchmaker – or indeed Designer. The insights into the mechanics of the body machine made it possible to repair, replace and improve parts of the machine and thus improve the design.
This has had a tremendous impact on medicine and medicinal technology – and has been decisive for the development and design of tools and technology as well. And not least, the idea of the mechanical body has been an incentive for the imagination as manifested in popular culture, science fiction and film (from Frankenstein to The Terminator and Blade Runner).
The avantgarde Manifesto
In the avantgarde movements of the 20th Century, the word as the manifestos and programs have had a great influence on the work of art. From new notation systems in music (Stockhausen, John Cage) to the systemic and rule following practice in the literature of Georges Perec, OULIPO and the concretists, the artist has taken the role of the rule making god.
Architecture and planning
The creative act as programme has recently been influential in planning and architecture. The architect Rem Koolhaas, who has worked with performance theater, has in collaboration with the canadian designer Bruce Mau, revitalised the manifesto as a planning tool. The programme for a given planning process is used as the general performative matrix for the making of architecture, urban landscapes and even geography. Word is becoming flesh as the imaginative scheme of ‘what might be there’ is sought materialized through the programming of the creative act.
Research by design
Within research, the notion ‘research by design’ is a practice based research method, which can be compared to the way the artist or designer works with the material. The design of the research process indicates research – whether artistic or academic – as a process, where the researcher’s project design and methodology influence the research results.
The question is what relations – in art design and research – there are between different methodologies and the types of knowledge and shapes they produce? How, in other words, word becomes flesh as production in art design and aesthetics.
Perspectives on this seminar could be but are not limited to:
- aesthetic approaches on the relation between the manifesto or the program and the work of art.
- the design as an approach to the notion ‘post human’.
- The theological ‘word becoming flesh’ and the incarnation portrayed in painting and literature.
- The programmatic approach in planning and architecture.
- How technologies affects the creative act.
- The artist and the researcher’s ‘research by design’
- Historical approaches to medicine, biology, anatomy and art on ‘the design’ of the body and life of the mechanical body.
- The design of the body in the popular imagination of science fiction, literature and film.
Proposals no longer than 250 words should be sent to the coordinators before December 1st.
Kristine Samson: kristine@ready-made.dk
Claus Krogholm: clauskrogholm@mail.dk
