<nettime-ann> [CAS] January Lecture - Grant Taylor: Computer Art and its

Computer Art and its Discontents

Taylor will examine the story of computer art through the lens of art criticism. We know from artist accounts that a certain type of negativity, which often bordered on the hostile, met most forms of computer art. Such criticism was widespread enough to make computer art, especially in the eyes of the orthodox art world, synonymous with negative criticism itself. The nature of computer art’s criticism, however, was complex and multileveled, often reflecting modes of traditional art criticism and at the same time being entirely divorced from it. Evidently, much of what informs the reception of computer art emerges from various cultural sources. The heated debates between art and science, the societal anxiety over nascent computer technology, and the myths and philosophies surrounding digital computation all impacted the judgment of computer art.

Taylor is the author of the recent book When the Machine Made Art: The Troubled History of Computer Art (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). Taylor curated and wrote the catalogue essay for the 2013 travelling exhibition The American Algorists: Linear Sublime, which was the first large-scale exhibition of the Algorists in the United States. He is also an Associate Editor of Media-N (the journal of the New Media Caucus). Taylor completed his graduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Western Australia. At UWA, Taylor taught courses in new media art and American art and worked with the biological arts laboratory SymbioticA. Beyond his scholarship in art history, Taylor has wide interests that included new media practice. Taylor has completed various art projects, including a documentary film and multimedia installations in the United States and Australia. He currently teaches modern and contemporary art at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania.