The Artist as Inventor. Investigating Media Technology Through Art

The development of robotics, artificial intelligence, genetics, and many other sectors, is putting a strain on our very idea of humanity. We look at technology development as a linear process that goes from technology to society, we think that it is technology that changes the world and we are passive to the processes of innovation. The book aims to give a new approach to the study of media and technological development through the tools of art and media art studies. An approach that sees in the practice of artists a new engine, creator of contents and inventor of new technological tools that have often been subsequently placed on the market. An approach that combines art, technology and innovation. Artists working with technology can be an engine not only for the contemporary art world but for society in general. Artists today work in a team with technicians and engineers, inside scientific departments, companies operating in the technological sector, or in their own studio-company and, in some cases, limited companies. This kind of artist is by no means outside the world but, on the contrary, works within real processes of technological and scientific innovation. This attitude is not new. The intent of the book is to trace some fundamental moments in the history of the relationship between art, technology and innovation. From the avant-garde to Michael Naimark's experience at MIT in the late 1970s until the latest experiments with artificial intelligence, robotics and genetics.