GMU:From Process Art to Processual Art

From Medien Wiki
Revision as of 07:04, 10 May 2010 by Sujaschko (talk | contribs) (Created page with 'Process Art that emerged in the mid 60ies as 'an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment and world view where the end product of art and craft, the objet d'art, is not …')
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Process Art that emerged in the mid 60ies as 'an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment and world view where the end product of art and craft, the objet d'art, is not the principal focus. The 'process' in process art refers to the process of the formation of art: the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, and patterning. Process art is concerned with the actual doing; art as a rite, ritual, and performance. Process art often entails an inherent motivation, rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.' (Wikipedia)

So what are the similarities and where are the differences? What Process Art shares with Processual Art is the focus on the action, the activity and the performance - and less on the final object -- although this is debatable, since the form and aesthetics of the object is not neglected. But in contrast to Process Art it is not the performative gesture and the action of the artist which is key to the artwork, but the action is transfered to a system that performs with a great deal of autonomy. Once released into the world, the system works untouched by the artist and in a more or less unpredictable way. (In the show, Isabelle Jenniches' works don't follow that canon - because she remains a major element of the process - however one may argue that the freedom of her activity is relatively limited by the rules she predefined.) Jenniches' spontaneity and improvisation stays on a low level - in contrast to being relevant factors of Process Art.

Two other characteristics of Processual Art should be mentioned: the aspect of time/duration and the notion of life that Processual Art inheres. While Process Art celebrates the moment and gesture of performance, the event, sometimes the spectacle, Processual Art involves slow and persistent emergence in real-time. It is linked related to ideas of natural cycles like growth and decay or the infinite. Eventually these qualities - together with the relative autonomy and predictability of the systems' behaviour, the systems of Processual Art evoke the impression of systems that are 'alive'. See e.g. Antoinne Schmitt's 'Still living'.

This description is certainly neither complete nor too precise, but maybe helps to understand the specific perspective that we have on process in contemporary art. Processual Art is certainly touching upon concepts of generativity, artificial life, software art - but it does not stay on this technological level, but also includes the creation of larger human systems/processes.