Technological Landscapes

Chair: Michael Rose-Steel

“Play with Rubber Balls, not Robots! Jiří Trnka's The Cybernetic Grandma (Kybernetická Babicka, 1962) and the Critique of Technological Advancement in 1960s Czechoslovakia” by Adam Whybray

This paper shall address the 1962 stop-motion film The Cybernetic Grandma (Kybernetická Babicka, 1962) directed by Czech animator Jiří Trnka and demonstrate how Trnka embodies his resistance to technological advancement in communist Czechoslovakia in the form of a red rubber ball. The message of Trnka's animated allegory is communicated fundamentally through objects and the film's mise-en-scène, rather than through dialogue. His work is thus an example of embodied allegory. The critiques that Trnka is making in The Cybernetic Grandma complement and coincide with those made by Václav Havel in works he published as a dissident in the 1960s and 70s and later, as president of Czechoslovakia/ the Czech Republic. Both Trnka's film and Havel's writings argue for a return to 'rootedness' and a specifically Czech pastoral tradition, in the face of mass deforestation and industrialisation across (particularly Northern) Bohemia. As such, they both have a tendency to romanticise the traditional, at the expense of technological advancement, which is viewed with suspicion, or even demonised

“The Material Universe and the Technological World: Exploring the Ontology of Digital Literature” by Richard Alexander Carter

This paper will explore the basis of a new approach towards the analysis and interpretation of ‘digital literature’—an art form in which computer technology is employed for the generation, manipulation and presentation of literary or poetic language. In seeking to elucidate the key aspects of the relationship between the digital medium and the scriptural matrices it articulates, this paper will consider the potential for using ontological philosophy as a conceptual lens through which to analyse this art form. Starting from the observation that many extant works of digital literature are conceptually predicated upon questioning the ontological assumptions behind how our contemporary environment is understood, experienced and sustained, it will be proposed that a critical model of reading developed from more general ontological models can help to elucidate how the technical properties of the digital medium contribute towards an exploration of these issues. Key supporting ideas and concepts will be  drawn from the work of sociologist of science Andrew Pickering and the textual scholar Jerome McGann. This paper will conclude  by arguing that digital literature offers a rich and sophisticated insight into the ontological primitives behind the material, cultural  and political dimensions of the Western technological landscape.

“Technology and Contemporary Cultural Experience” by Cristina Locatelli

Art Maps is an application that relates artworks to geographical places. Users can locate works from the Tate collection on a digital map, and feed-back more precise geographical information, or a personal take or experience in relation to a specific place, artwork or artist. To do this, the application invites users to post their thoughts, comments or photos, videos and drawings through different online sharing and social networks.

While widening access to a national art collection, Art Maps utilises technology to enhance the very terms of cultural engagement, offering to its users not only the opportunity to find and respond to art in their everyday environment, but also to add their personal experience of a place or an artwork to the collective knowledge about that work.

Art Maps is an RCUK funded collaborative project between Horizon and Tate, which sees researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Nottingham working together with the Tate's Online, Learning and Research departments.

Investigating the way the application is used by different audiences, our aim is to better understand the nature of their learning experience, whether they are keen to share it with others and what is the value of the resulting collective knowledge to others and to Tate.