(Deep) Media Art and Meme Shaping: the Artistic Involvement in Science and Technology and the Foundation of Alternative Narratives

Abstract

The turbulent relationship between art, science, and technology has a long and fertile histo- ry. While the separation of these disciplines in modern times continues to increase, many at-tempts to bridge them again are flourishing in recent times [1]. Digital technologies – from Artifi- cial Intelligence to Bioinformatics – are deeply embedded in our life and the efforts to involve a larger community in the discussion of their meaning and consequences are necessary. The capitalist imperatives prevail on a global scale, allowing leading companies that have achieved the monopoly of international services – Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Uber, etc. – to produce immense benefits through automation. The products of these companies are affecting our life in a subtle way and we have developed a symbiotic relationship with algorithms: we change our behaviours and adapt our lifestyle to accommodate the applications that we use while these provide massive amount of personal data to instruct and improve their algorithms. This bond is not a novelty. We are defined by the technology that we have developed through the centuries, from the primitive, agricultural tools to the products of the industrial and later digital revolution. While often viewed as the counterpart of nature, technology is by many considered the exten-sion of nature, a credo that is widespread among progressive thinkers, as well. In the light of the growing embedding of digital technologies in our everyday life, the artistic engagement with technology and scientific research is a necessary one. On the one hand, it is a beneficial step in the dissemination and understanding of science outside the privileged field of practitioners, a point often emphasised by promoters of art and science endeavours. On the other – the hypothesis that I am proposing – it allows to develop alternative lectures regarding the narratives that are given us by the scientific community and by the corporations producing and administering these technologies. In this article I am mainly considering the works that engage with the recent developments of computation and digital technologies, and their application in entertainment, bio-technologies and economics. I am interested in the attitude and the contribution of artists toward the techno-scientific discourse, rather than at- tempting to define a specific field of artistic production related to a specific media.