The concept of ‘moistmedia art’: Two interviews with Roy Ascott

Abstract

Abstract

The Socio‐Cultural Impact of the War of American Independence on Liverpool, 1775‐83

“…This was made possible through their wealth and social prestige. 63 Furthermore, many of these merchants shared business, familial and religious ties, thereby preserving their influence on the council. 64 In general, these businessmen were a clubbable people, and attended several local societies.…”

The cybernetic moment: Roy Ascott and the British cybernetic pioneers, 1955–1965

“…Ascott said that these two approaches to art 'produced in me an extreme psychosis' (Ascott 2011, 203). In terms of the Basic Design course at Newcastle, Hamilton brought the concepts of 'Flow and Process'; whereas Pasmore provided 'Point and Line to Plane' (Ascott 2016). Indeed, Ascott averred that he responded not to Hamilton's collages but to his precise way of working and also his longstanding interest in Duchamp.…”

“…(Grieve 1982, 547) Having made reliefs until the late 1950s, Pasmore eventually returned to painting due to his experience of designing the Peterlee new town in County Durham, following Berthold Lubetkin's departure from the project. The housing designs emerged from Pasmore's constructivist concepts, and he also brought in his students to work on the designs; Ascott recalls being asked to develop several buildings (Ascott 2016). Following this, Pasmore said, 'after the full experience of urban design at Peterlee, making reliefs seemed rather ridiculous, it was too limiting, so I thought I would go back to painting' (Watkins 2001, 287).…”

“…Here he discovered the sensibility for understanding an artwork as an organism: he could see that Cézanne's later paintings are unresolved and the resolution comes from the viewer; in this sense they are interactive. Understood in the light of cybernetics, the work of art is a system, including painter and viewer (Ascott 2016). Later, he recognized that sensors and other mechanisms could facilitate or enhance this interactivity but for some time he did not include mechanisms in his works.…”

“…Following the positive crit, this set up a kind of a chemistry between Ascott and Gowing, and when Ascott was doing his dissertation he was able to go into Gowing's studio and study portfolios of facsimile watercolours of late Cezanne which informed the writing. Gowing was still doing his Euston Road paintings, and was of course responsible for bringing Hamilton and Pasmore to Newcastle (Ascott 2016).…”