Plugimi (Sascha Pohflepp)

Ute Meta Bauer of MIT’s Visual Arts Program gave a very inspiring lecture at Tesla Salon in Berlin yesterday night. It was interesting to see how her being part of a mostly technology-oriented institution like the MIT changed part of her view on how things work as someone primarily concerned with the arts. Some of her points were very lucid and she had a sense of realism (and interest for understanding the motivations of the so-called enemy, see below) about her which people who are exclusively involved in the art world often lack.

Art, science and economy all rely on fiction – Art pieces, scientific theories and also things like business models really are models about how the world works.

There is no outside anymore – Critical distance is good and important but just as much, it is arguably a thing of the past. Art is a highly evolved market and as such part of the economy and uses the products of science (like the computer you’re currently sitting in front of).

The sets of theoretical tools are virtually identical – Talking about one of her students, Oliver Lutz who used to work at Wall Street for a decade before returning to art, she said that the was amazed to find that corporate economists often refer to the same theorists as artists do for their interpretations of the world.

(Critical) art can only work in cooperation with the sciences anymore. Otherwise it cannot get hold of the complexity of even the current questions.

Interesting also the reaction of those who actually mainly are part of the art world. Lots of criticism for her acceptance of working along researchers who work for the military etc. Fairly militant yet pretty naïve rethorics: “Know where the enemy stands”, “Alliances”, “Working in the heart of darkness” and so on.