Nervous Systems

Art, Systems, and Politics since the 1960s

Johanna Gosse, Timothy Stott, Johanna Gosse, Timothy Stott

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781478014768
  9781478013822
• eBook ISBN:
  9781478022053
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Theory & Criticism

The contributors to Nervous Systems reassess contemporary artists' and critics' engagement with social, political, biological, and other systems as a set of complex and relational parts: an approach commonly known as systems thinking. Demonstrating the continuing relevance of systems aesthetics within contemporary art, the contributors highlight the ways that artists adopt systems thinking to address political, social, and ecological anxieties. They cover a wide range of artists and topics, from the performances of the Argentinian collective the Rosario Group and the grid drawings of Charles Gaines to the video art of Singaporean artist Charles Lim and the mapping of global logistics infrastructures by contemporary artists like Hito Steyerl and Christoph Büchel. Together, the essays offer an expanded understanding of systems aesthetics in ways that affirm its importance beyond technological applications detached from cultural contexts.

Contributors. Cristina Albu, Amanda Boetzkes, Brianne Cohen, Kris Cohen, Jaimey Hamilton Faris, Christine Filippone, Johanna Gosse, Francis Halsall, Judith Rodenbeck, Dawna Schuld, Luke Skrebowski, Timothy Stott, John Tyson

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Foreword / Judith Rodenbeck
• Acknowledgments
• After the Breakdown: Sixty Years of Systems Art / Johanna Gosse and Timothy Stott
• Section I: Systems Aesthetics to Systems Politics
• Section II: Nervous Interfaces
• Section III: The Contemporary Art World Described as a System
• Selected Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index