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Aesthetics and Neuroscience pp 199–211Cite as

Paintings as Complex Dynamic Systems

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Abstract

This chapter deals with the description and analysis of an artistic experiment: the Matrice Active project that aims to transform a work of art by Wassily Kandinsky painted according to the rules set forth in his treatise on pictorial composition Point and Line to Plane into a dynamic system. Details about the process of creation and realization of this project allow to present how the Distributed Artificial Intelligence technologies and more specifically agents based computer modeling used by scientists for the simulation of complex systems, provide new ways of expression to the visual artist and different modes of perception, participation, and action to the viewer. For the artist, it is to depict reality, not as a set of visible and stable forms but as a dynamic phenomenon of self-organization in which the form is emergence of behaviors and interaction processes. The shape emerges from a field of informational data, allowing the system-image viewer an enacted position that simultaneously locates him/her inside and outside this simulated reality. The painting image, in the Matrice Active project has moved towards the creation of a 3D dynamic virtual scenography composed of Agents in interaction inside a complex system, bearing witness to a paradigmatic shift in the economy of representation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    László Moholy-Nagy published with Zoltan Kemeny in the journal Der Sturm in 1922.

  2. 2.

    Lavaud-Forest (2005).

  3. 3.

    Attributed to Richard Wagner, the term designates a total work of art. In German, the three words that make up this word have this literal translation: gesamt (total, complete, all together), kunst (art), werk (work).

  4. 4.

    Lestocart (2005).

  5. 5.

    Lestocart L-J, op. cit., pp 495–523.

  6. 6.

    Kandinsky (1991).

  7. 7.

    See the excerpt of my thesis defense report by Edmond Couchot, President of the jury: http://www.sophielavaud.org/?p=1396.

  8. 8.

    See the double entry table as a scriptwriting tool on: http://www.sophielavaud.org/wp-content/uploads/conception_tab_sceniquen%C2%B01.pdf.

  9. 9.

    Briot and Demazeau (2001).

  10. 10.

    Hutzler (2000).

  11. 11.

    Hutzler G, op. cit., p 36.

  12. 12.

    The team involved in the design of the first prototype Tableau scénique n° 1 was made up of Yves Demazeau, research director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and head of the LEIBNIZ—IMAG laboratory at Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, for the scientific aspects and Yves Gufflet, independent computer engineer for the implementation and myself for the artistic aspects.

  13. 13.

    On which the body knowingly acts via keyboard, mouse, touch screen, joystick, and microphone.

  14. 14.

    When there is no direct touch or voluntary action from the body to manipulate it (environmental data sensors, cameras, detector).

  15. 15.

    Huhtamo (1995).

  16. 16.

    Varela et al. (1993).

  17. 17.

    For Pierre Lévy, this term means “in particular existence” a “truly human existence—being a human being” in the tradition of classical philosophy and German phenomenology (e.g., Heidegger). For Lévy, the most salient point is that to exist (a word etymologically derived from the Latin sistere, be placed, with the prefix ex, out of) is “to be there or to go out” (italics added). Lévy’s position is reminiscent of Michel Serres’ in his book Atlas, specifically how Serres considers the themes of the virtual and processes of virtualization (imagination, memory, knowledge, religion, computers and digital networks) as “out-there.” In Lévy (1998).

  18. 18.

    Ascott (2002).

  19. 19.

    Merleau-Ponty (1999).

  20. 20.

    Berthoz (2003).

  21. 21.

    Bateson (1979).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ACTE: Institute of Arts Creations Theories & Aesthetics, CNRS and University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Sophie Lavaud-Forest

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  1. Sophie Lavaud-Forest
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Correspondence to Sophie Lavaud-Forest .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe IRIS, CNRS, University Paris-Descartes, Paris, France

    Zoï Kapoula

  2. Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Marine Vernet

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Lavaud-Forest, S. (2016). Paintings as Complex Dynamic Systems. In: Kapoula, Z., Vernet, M. (eds) Aesthetics and Neuroscience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46233-2_13

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