Class Arts and Technologie

The art-technology relationship is far from being a one-way street, but a dynamic resonant process that transcends simple causality or determinism. How does technology shape our understanding of art and the experience and production of sound? Are the arts, in the time of digital platforms now a mere technological playground? Does the dream of the creative machine show a techno-determinism? Or is art the field that gives us back meaning of life and believe in the world, offering us a basis for reflection on technology? If art wants to be a praxis whose ends are interior to its means, technology could refer to a doing/producing/artifact, operationalized to drive prosthetic solutions, re-mediated, augmented, accelerated and as a technical shortcut. This lasting relation between technology and art underlines the deep entanglement with its means, media and tools. Our aim is to illuminate coincidences, divergences, and historical-philosophical resonances of the art-technology relationship.

Not applicable

1.              Art as Technology: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates 2.              Sonic Thinking: From Psychoacoustics to AI in Sound Design 3.              Aesthetic Judgment in the Digital Age 4.              Performativity, Art, language and Technics 5.              Digital Attention Aesthetics and Contemporary Art 6.              Noise and Resonance 7.              Epistemology of Aesthetics: Dieter Mersch's Approach 8.              Media Archaeology and Sound Figures 9.              Synthetic Sound: History, Technology, and Aesthetics 10.           Embodied and Disembodied listening in Film 11.           Towards Posthuman Sound? Exploring New Auditory Frontiers 12.           The Changing Face of Art: AI, Avatars, and Digital Identities 13.           Improvisation and the Digital: New Forms of Artistic Expression 14.           Artistic Practice in the age of AI: Human-Machine Creativity 15.           Artistic Practice in the age of AI II

With results and skills guided by theory, this theoretical course is based on master classes as methodology. The mapping and problematization of the development of the relationship between art and technology, its concepts and controversies, sound technologies between noise, performativity and resonance, and their impact on artistic practices are the main elements to be used. Verification and monitoring of the acquisition of skills through the open discussion of chosen arguments and concepts and in the realization and improvement of thoughts when speaking in the presence of others. Assessment: qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative moment is the student's active presence in class and participation. The writing of a 3000-5000 word scientific article will be the quantitative assessment element. Weighting: Oral presentation & participation: 40%; Final essay: 60%.

Benjamin, W. (1992). Sobre arte, técnica, linguagem e política. Relógio d´Água Blumenberg, H.([1957]) “Imitation of nature. Toward a Prehistory of the Idea of the Creative Being”in: (2020). History, Metaphors, Fables A Hans Blumenberg Reader. Cornell University Press. Bishop, C. (2024). Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today. Verso. Cox, Christoph (2018). Sonic Flux. Sound, Art and Metaphysics. UCP   Groys, B. (2022). Becoming an Artwork. Polity Kant, I. (1993[1790/17932]) Crítica da Faculdade de Juízo. Kramer, Lawrence, The Hum of the World. A Philosophy of Listening. University of California Press. Nietzsche, F. (2024). O Nascimento da Tragédia. Edições 70 McCormack, J., et al.  (2023). Is Writing Prompts Really Making Art?. In: Artificial Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design. Mersch, D. (2015). Epistemology of Aesthetics. Zurich/NY Zeilinger, M. (2021). Tactical entanglements : AI art, creative agency, and the limits of intellectual property. Meson Press.