IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE: HOW ART EXPLOITS TECHNOLOGY

<!--HTML-->Technical innovation in the arts creates new opportunities for perceptual shifts that lead to lasting achievements. One of the most important events took place in the 15th century not far from CERN on the other side of the Alps in Venice. Titian, in one life time, exploited these new material developments to expand the range of expression like no other artist of his generation. Titian was able to harness these new innovations to emerge as the supreme competitor and hustler, a notion that seems very much a part of the modern promotion of art as exemplified by Warhol , Jeff Koons and Damian Hirst. The language of science and technology has created social networks, changed the mediums and the subject of fine art. Fast forward to CERN 2012, the most expensive experiment in the history of science. The knowledge of dark matter will either help confirm, or not, the Standard Model. This information will be part of what Michel Foucault calls "epistemological breaks", shifts in consciousness that change our perceptions. Technological inventions change the nature of expression and the content of art. My investigations in culture have always been through the lens and language of science and technology, the international language of our time. This talk will help explain why it is urgent for an artist to be at CERN.