Material base of media art: three practices of discovery

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification of minimum units of existence and action, which modern complex artistic-theoretical practices help to reveal. Through a number of examples – IT based cultural theory (A. Galloway), medium oriented postbiology (D. Bulatov) and literature inspired new materialism (J. Bennett) – the author explores the description and terms that would be equally effective in the variety of disciplines, in­cluding humanities and exact sciences. Underlying the process character, dynamism and principal non-completion of compression-decompression, reversible vector shifts, alter­nation of influx and efflux of “gravitational sympathy”, accordingly, the author sees the insistence to discover some autonomous existence behind them, however small, generic or quantic it may turn to be. It obviously means the shift from what seemed a mere artistic practice to ontological and existential questions. Further, analyzing the ba­sic characteristics of this autonomous existence, the author identifies the relationship be­tween high-tech procedures and degree of intensity of the autonomy in question. Having opened before us a huge number of new experiences, new technologies present us with existence which appears to be not only “weak”, but literarily “semiliving”. Therefore, open-ending into physical cosmic space the multilevel technological contours seek to out­line a new world whose description needs time to develop.