The Topology of Technoetics Via Theoria: Roy Ascott and the Techne of La Plissure du Texte

摘要

The work of Roy Ascott on cybernetics and telematics, became a hallmark in the art of the 21st century. However, the novelty of his work should be explored in the restoration of the concept of technology as techne and logos, thus the manifestation of Theoria. Through technoetics, Ascott links technology to consciousness and noetic practice, while he redefines the convergence of art and technology, instead of a mere practice of new media art, subject to innovative tools and protocols, as a process that leads to the transformation of matter and mind. Ascott acknowledges Cezanne's submission on the artist's variable viewpoint, focusing restlessly in scanning a world in flux. Evidently, Cezanne had reached a point of maximum visibility, capturing the convexity in nature, while he even conceded to live that life, half human and half divine. Yet, Ascott, as a theoros, unfolds the "another-our-nature," thus, to live that life, both carbon and silicon, not half-half, but simultaneously fully human and fully divine. This is because Ascott's topology conveys the wholeness of the curvature since it manifests both its convex and concave nature. By using moistmedia as the agencies of change, this topology is where one may find "love in telematic embrace" (Ascott, 1990, p. 241); there, where the fields should be given to visionaries; where the image leads to interconnectedness and integration by accepting the many-self aspect of a person(s) in communion.