Text by CLOT Magazine
Last month CLOT Magazine editors gave a keynote talk at the 3rd International Conference on Biodigital Architecture & Genetics at ESARQ (UIC Barcelona). Organized by Alberto T Estevez, the Conference revolved around ideas of the Anthropocene and subsistence: Now, in this crucial moment, we have new techniques of enormous potential: biological and digital techniques. And even the fusion of both, in something that can be named Biodigital Architecture”.
The talk, Digital and Material Worlds: An artistic view, produced a paper included in the book published annually after the Conference. The publication, edited by Alberto, compiles the reports presented at Conference. Below is an excerpt:
When, in 1995, Nicholas Negroponte predicted that “being digital” would have us entering a realm increasingly unconstrained by the world’s materiality, he was mostly right. Two decades later, our everyday lives are even more suffused by computation and calculation. But relevance persists and continues to reassert itself.
More and more, in recent t years, artists have been using technological and material advancements as their artistic means, either as a reflection and critique of our society or just as an aesthetic exercise to push boundaries forward. This paper will give an overview of some of the most exciting artists that blend both the digital and the material worlds for their creations.
In times when a profound revision of how we live and how we understand and treat the natural world is needed, these are some of the immensely talented minds and their projects, which are trying to push us forward to a better version of our world. When materials become programmable, integration of the human body and clothing with technology appears, and new art forms emerge when biologic systems stem become computers. They reinterpret our relationship as human beings with our environment and with technology.
