Dmitry Bulatov

THE THIRD MODERNIZATION:
A techno-biological artwork

1. History of the 20th century art abounds with examples of art trends that appeared in the conditions of the so called «scope of complexity». By «scope of complexity» I mean such state of technical and socio-cultural human environment, which is characterized by lack or insufficient development of humanitarian technologies. In this case culture doesn't have enough time to adapt the emerging technological innovations to man, and technical periphery starts developing chaotically. Eliminating of such discord between man and technology requires effort of humanitarian technologies and return of the principle of their correspondence to physical technologies.

2. At such «scope of complexity» moments, trying to «match» the developmental levels of humanitarian and physical technologies, every time artists had to pay special attention to the material basis of their artwork. They were interested not only and not so much in construction and composition (i.e. formal aspect) of the representational sign, as, in fact, in technical mechanism of image's functioning (its physical technology). The very change of representational mechanism has always made possible the emergence of new physics of representation and as a result appearance of new models that give birth to new meanings and interpretations of structural superfluity of the system. Both art of Modernism, which was a reaction to the machine industrial revolution, and art of the second modernization (postmodern), stimulated by postindustrial computer and informational revolution, equally depended immediately on technical changes in functioning of representation mechanism. 

3. On the whole it's necessary to note that the main indicator that manifests the end of a certain historic period is the emergence of strong tendencies of the system's transition onto a more complex level — tendencies which are radically incompatible with the fundamental structures of that period. Incorporating those trends into the reality invariably leads to the systemic catastrophe, followed by the whole environment's shift to the new development phase. According to John Von Neumann, «any system's development occurs in the circumstances when it is on the verge of a catastrophe». 





A sound humanitarian base is formed in people's minds allowing to operate with new subject matters.

4. This characteristic is applicable to the state-of-the-art of man's technological and socio-cultural sphere. Introducing the definition, we understand the Third Modernization as the next stage in the development of the socio-economic and cultural Modernistic project, which is taking shape under radicalization and redundancy of the technological and scientific progress. At present the Third Modernization process is concurrently supported by two long-term tendencies, equally constituting a structural revolution, both in the socio-economic sphere, and in man's psychophysical organization. 

5. Firstly, this is the on-going revolution in the information science that already now enables handling of immense data arrays, and put forward the intellectual production, leading to an exceptionally fast and continuous renewal of the technosphere, and to an «instantaneous», from the point of view of ordinary perception, change of social and economic configurations. Radicalization which defines this process is well illustrated not only by the applications of Moore's law on the exponential growth of the computing power, but also by the change of technological paradigms substantiating it. The list of such paradigms, based on the five generations of the counting devices, is given by Ray Kurzweil: electromechanics, relay devices, electronic valves, transistors, integrated circuits etc. Every time the next paradigm exhausts its potential, it is replaced by the next one, starting from the point where its predecessor is «used up». Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century mankind was doubling the computing power every three years, while at the start of the 21st century we are doubling it every year. The redundancy level in this area (as well as in a whole series of other areas) can be described as the transition to nanotechnologies, operating fundamentally new properties of structures that are on the brink of merge between the smallest of man-made devices, and the biggest molecules of living organisms. 



The «new» biology will be forced to assess the development of the new entities by their economic, not evolutional, success.

6. Secondly, this is the revolution in biology bringing forth by means of biomedical technologies (genetic engineering, implantology, stem cell engineering, cloning etc.) the flexibility of the very species of «homo sapiens». The evolutionary potential contained in this trend secures not only the euhominid's breakaway from some of his primarily inorganic biological properties, but also his acquisition of features of «inhuman» character, and, consequently, — the modification of the very anthropomorphic pattern of the civilization. This tendency is radicalized by means of man's practical mastering of the transfer from the pro-creative position in generation of homothetic (and other living) creatures, which still preserved a play field for spontaneous natural forces, towards a rationally controlled techno-biological production. As for the redundancy of this trend, it can be characterized not only by the growing evolution speed of techno-biological individuals, who are by-passing the natural selection in the ecosystem, but also by the «qualitative» change of the very definition of evolution. The «new» biology will be forced to assess the development of the new entities by their economic, not evolutional, success. 

7. Despite of the evolutionally imminent and historically «positive» character of the inceptive aromorphosis (i.e. the system's transition onto a more complicated level), both of these long-term trends, the informational and the biological, are equally catastrophic. At least because from the point of view of the said «ordinary» perception they carry a practical systemic novelty, incompatible with the realities of yesterday. In order to eliminate such disbalance, the system needs an enhancement of humanitarian technologies, which is accompanied by intensive simulation of physical technologies losing their systemic properties. 





Image 4-5. To what extent do the artists' technological metaphors differ from the scientific models?

8. This very type of models in the sphere of contemporary art is represented by artworks generated with the help of biomedical and information technologies. In order to describe them, let's use the following «style» definition. We understand the Third Moderne as the general name for art tendencies which declare new constructive approaches, consolidating qualitative and quantitative characteristics of artefacts through organization, simulation or consideration of impact of the metabolic processes. In biology, metabolism, as is known, is understood as the exchange of substance, energy, and information. When we note that the main systemic requirement of the Third Moderne is metabolism of artworks, we thus speak of the necessity to provide embodied artefacts with the properties of growth, variability, self-preservation, and reproductivity. All these qualities of metabolashelp to proceed from observation of discrete objects in a discrete area to the description of materialized dynamic systems in the area of relations. 





The main systemic requirement of the Third Moderne is metabolism of artworks (the properties of growth, variability, self-preservation, and reproductivity).

9. Important to note is the fundamental distinction of techno-biological artworks from biological organisms. The main criterion to distinguish a biological organism is his possession of the information on self-reproduction that exists in the genotype inseparably from the individual. As is known, this allows biological organisms to evolve at a low rate set by the «blind» nature of the interspecific informational (natural) selection. The nature of selection in this case is defined by the absence of a rational agent, and its rate is set by the physical inseparability of the genotype (information on the species) from the individual. 

10. The techno-biological artwork combines the features of both a living organism, and a technical product. It means that, on the one hand, an artwork possesses the information on self-reproduction, in-built in its genotype, while, on the other hand, it has the «genetic» information, physically separated from it and existing as a document. The combination of these properties brings forth multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary artistic approaches, which earlier, in the context of the previous stages in art history, were totally unrealizable. Interaction with the living as technical  (variability) allows to perform an elementary act of the workpiece selection at the level of documentation (at the information level, with no physical realization). Interaction with the technical as living  (responsibility) creates a certain moral and ethical attitude towards the technological individual, adopting man to it likewise to a living entity. Finally, interpretation activity  (involvement) is the integration of this entity into a certain social framework by describing the origin of «life» created by the artist.





We are rapidly moving from the manipulation of more or less inanimate objects to the generation of more or less living organisms.

11. The paradoxical combination in a techno-biological artwork of properties of a living organism and of a technical object brings us, at least, to the following conclusions:
— It makes no sense any more to oppose the notions of the «artificial» and «natural» life, just as strive for further combining of life and art. With the emergence of a whole series of techno-biological artworks this debate is given a count-down. As David Kremers said, «… we are rapidly moving from the manipulation of more or less inanimate objects to the generation of more or less living organisms.» 
— Since the technology implanted into organic substance on the basis of symbiosis generates a new type of evolutionary synthesis, techno-biological creatures are no longer bound to «reflect» life, or «represent» it. What they are supposed to do is to participate pari passu with us in its impetuous flow. 
— We have to learn to perceive techno-biological artworks «flowably». It means that the differences between authenticity and falsification, reality and virtuality will now be of impulsive character, depending only upon us. Thus we find ourselves in the situation of an elaborate and unceasing game which localizes new correlations of mobility in granting and withdrawal of the gift of authenticity, and hence — the gift of existence.





The technology implanted into organic substance on the basis of symbiosis generates a new type of evolutionary synthesis.

The author would like to record his gratitude to the artists who granted the rights for publishing their works in Russia; and also the Kaliningrad Branch of NCCA for informational and creative support.

Dmitry Bulatov  (Kaliningrad, Russia)
Artist, researcher, art theorist. His research activities focus on different aspects of interdisciplinary sci-art media (robotics, genetic engineering, nano-tech, etc.). Author of more than 30 articles on contemporary art published in Russia and abroad, also of international books and anthologies.