LIMINAL STAGE
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During a ritual's liminal stage, participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes.
All social relationships have their forms of ritual. Collective Intelligence Art is a particular kind of social relationship, with its own particular ritual. This ritual has 3 stages: 1) The Liminal Stage 2) The Event 3) The Reflection The Liminal Stage prepares participants for the Event in two ways:
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UNDERSTANDING COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
THE PHILOSOPHY OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE ART
The seminal work on the philosophy of Collective Intelligence was written 20 years ago by Pierre Levy (Professor at the University of Ottawa). HIs ideas for collective intelligence as an 'emerging world in cyberspace' are closely related to my vision for the development of a collective intelligence art. He uses the notion of 'Utopia', but this is closely related in many minds with an impossible dream for society; so, I prefer to think of CI-Art as creating a multitude of 'Micro-Eutopias' - 'good places' - which may show the way to more generalised collective intelligences. These collective intelligences can be thought of as artificial intelligences, which emerge from the interaction of human intelligences in cyberspace.
In order for you to understand the wider philosophical context of my work, and the great value of your participation, please read these extracts from Pierre Levy's work:
"What is collective intelligence? It is a form of universally distributed intelligence, constantly enhanced, coordinated in real time, and resulting in the effective mobilization of skills…the basis and goal of collective intelligence is the mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals.
In an intelligence community the specific objective is to permanently negotiate the order of things, language, the role of the individual, the identification and definition of objects, the reinterpretation of memory. Nothing is fixed. Yet, this does not result in a state of disorder or absolute relativism for individual acts are coordinated and evaluated in real time, according to a large number of criteria that are themselves constantly reevaluated in context.
Collective intelligence is less concerned with the self-control of human communities than with the fundamental letting-go that is capable of altering our very notion of identity and the mechanisms of domination and conflict, lifting restrictions on heretofore banned communications, and effecting the mutual liberation of isolated thoughts.
Through our relationship to others, mediated by processes of initiation and transmission, we bring knowledge to life.
If our personal intelligence is the soul of a small world, collective intellects envelop much larger and more varied worlds. They enrich our thought to the extent that we participate in them, and their thought is improved as they incorporate other souls and other worlds. So long as its nomadic members continue to discover new dimensions and infuse it with fresh air from the outside, the collective intellect, by contemplating the virtual space that expresses its diversity, can think itself and the world its envelops.
With respect to the intellection of the collective intellect, it resides, now and forever, in the experience, apprenticeship, and mental gestures of its individual members. It merges the journeys, negotiations, contacts, decisions, and effective actions of those involved in the continuous creation of a shared world.
A virtual world of collective intelligence…harbors unimagined language galaxies, enables unknown social temporalities to blossom, reinvents the social bond, perfects democracy, and forges unknown paths of knowledge among men. But to do so we must fully inhabit this site; it must be designated, recognized as a a potential for beauty, thought, and new forms of social regulation.
The true ‘great works’ remain to be accomplished within the universe of digital information and at the new sites for the emergence of collective intelligence"
Pierre Levy (1997) Collective Intelligence - Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace.
In order for you to understand the wider philosophical context of my work, and the great value of your participation, please read these extracts from Pierre Levy's work:
"What is collective intelligence? It is a form of universally distributed intelligence, constantly enhanced, coordinated in real time, and resulting in the effective mobilization of skills…the basis and goal of collective intelligence is the mutual recognition and enrichment of individuals.
In an intelligence community the specific objective is to permanently negotiate the order of things, language, the role of the individual, the identification and definition of objects, the reinterpretation of memory. Nothing is fixed. Yet, this does not result in a state of disorder or absolute relativism for individual acts are coordinated and evaluated in real time, according to a large number of criteria that are themselves constantly reevaluated in context.
Collective intelligence is less concerned with the self-control of human communities than with the fundamental letting-go that is capable of altering our very notion of identity and the mechanisms of domination and conflict, lifting restrictions on heretofore banned communications, and effecting the mutual liberation of isolated thoughts.
Through our relationship to others, mediated by processes of initiation and transmission, we bring knowledge to life.
If our personal intelligence is the soul of a small world, collective intellects envelop much larger and more varied worlds. They enrich our thought to the extent that we participate in them, and their thought is improved as they incorporate other souls and other worlds. So long as its nomadic members continue to discover new dimensions and infuse it with fresh air from the outside, the collective intellect, by contemplating the virtual space that expresses its diversity, can think itself and the world its envelops.
With respect to the intellection of the collective intellect, it resides, now and forever, in the experience, apprenticeship, and mental gestures of its individual members. It merges the journeys, negotiations, contacts, decisions, and effective actions of those involved in the continuous creation of a shared world.
A virtual world of collective intelligence…harbors unimagined language galaxies, enables unknown social temporalities to blossom, reinvents the social bond, perfects democracy, and forges unknown paths of knowledge among men. But to do so we must fully inhabit this site; it must be designated, recognized as a a potential for beauty, thought, and new forms of social regulation.
The true ‘great works’ remain to be accomplished within the universe of digital information and at the new sites for the emergence of collective intelligence"
Pierre Levy (1997) Collective Intelligence - Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace.
THE AESTHETICS OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
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"Art is not an object, but an experience". Josef Albers
The 'art' of Collective Intelligence Art is not simply (or even primarily) the art object that is created in The Event. This art object (e.g. the digital painting) is critical because it is around the creation of this work that the collective intelligence emerges and develops - the art object mediates the work (and later becomes a focus of reflection). However, it is the creation of this collective intelligence itself that is of primary interest. The complex set of interactions/relationships that exist for a short time during the event produce a 'relational aesthetic' or 'aesthetic moment'. In the Nexus series these interactions between participants are reflected in the complex and dynamic interactions of colours used, a reference to the pioneering work of Josef Albers, whose work 'disputed traditional notions of taste...it sought to engage rather than merely inform' (Weber, 2006). The Nexus 4 ‘Chromophilia’ experiments are a challenge to the traditional ‘good taste’ of the chromophobes. But this is done not through my self-expression, but through an experimental process I have instigated that sets geometrical objectivity against the inter-subjectivities of the group from which the collective intelligence emerges – the interaction of colour being at the heart of this experiential process. One writer has this to say about Alber's ‘Homage to the Square’ series: “The perceptual exercises …experiment with and complicate the relationship between the artist, artwork, and audience, drawing attention to these relationships within the reduced format of strict geometry and colour” (Murawski, 2016) My Nexus experiments further ‘complicate’ these relationships, in that the audience are now also the participants in the painting process, and each participant contributes towards the aesthetic sensibility of the collective intelligence, through a complex and dynamic set of relations. Would there be the Nexus series or the 'Homage to the Square' without the ground breaking work of Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg? Almost exactly 100 years ago in 1917 Mondrian wrote that the artist is: “…only the more or less appropriate instrument through which the culture of people is expressed aesthetically…" (Mattick, 2003) According to Paul Mattick, Mondrian believed that " the individual’s true interests are discovered to be those shared with others...the artists role is paramount, because his work embodies the new spirit in the real things, compositions in which the needed equilibrium of spirit and matter, universal and individual, is made visible…oriented towards the universal, art must not represent particular objects. Nor should it express the vision of the individual artist, which must be subsumed in the collectively practised principles of a style answering to abstract reality...The artist’s task was the disengagement of universals from natural appearances, to create the spiritual preconditions for life lived collectively in accordance with modern possibilities" (Mattick, 2003) In 'The New Art - The New Life' Mondrian wrote: "Non-figurative art is created by establishing a dynamic rhythm of determinate mutual relations which excludes the formation of any particular form. We note thus, that to destroy particular form is only to do more consistently what all art has done...If all art aims at expressing universal beauty, why establish an individualist expression?..This fact leads to a preference for a more or less mechanical execution or to the employment of materials produced by industry. Hitherto, of course, these materials have been imperfect from the point of view of art. If these materials and their colors were more perfect and if a technique existed by which the artist could easily cut them up in order to compose his work as he conceives it, an art more real and more objective in relation to life than painting would arise". One hundred years later we now do have the 'mechanical means' to establish a 'dynamic rhythm of determinate mutual relations' beyond the 'individualist expression' and thus approach a more real and objective work of art in relation to life - that is the methods and processes of Collective Intelligence Art. A means beyond anything that Mondrian could have imagined. Prophetically, Mondrian continues: "It is thus clear that he (artists sharing Mondrian's approach) has not become a mechanic, but that the progress of science, of technique, of machinery, of life as a whole, has only made him into a living machine, capable of realizing in a pure manner the essence of art. In this way, he is in his creation sufficiently neutral, that nothing of himself or outside of him can prevent him from establishing that which is universal. Certainly his art is art for art’s sake . . . for the sake of the art which is form and content at one and the same time." And so too with CI-Art, the participants become part of a machine of sorts, an artificial intelligence - a symbiosis of science and art and social relations. Mondrian concludes: "Today one is tired of the dogmas of the past, and of truths once accepted but successively jettisoned. One realizes more and more the relativity of everything, and therefore one tends to reject the idea of fixed laws, of a single truth. This is very understandable, but does not lead to profound vision. For there are “made” laws, “discovered” laws, but also laws a truth for all time. These are more or less hidden in the reality which surrounds us and do not change. Not only science, but art also, shows us that reality, at first incomprehensible, gradually reveals itself, by the mutual relations that are inherent in things. Pure science and pure art, disinterested and free, can lead the advance in the recognition of the laws which are based on these relationships". The 'aesthetic moment' of CI-Art comes from the emergence of a collective intelligence when participants interact with each other using the science and technology of digital networking and collective intelligence decision making processes. This symbiosis of 'pure science and pure art' 'gradually reveals' a reality to us of a world of dynamic relationships. This art is perhaps best approached then using Nicolas Bourriaud's 'relational aesthetics'. According to Bourriaud, the space where relational aesthetics art operates is: “The space of interaction, the space of openness that ushers in all dialogue. What they produce are relational space-time elements, inter-human experiences (Bourriaud, 2002, p.45) CI-Art reflects the fact that, according to Bourriaud: "The essence of humankind is purely trans-individual, made up of the bonds that link individuals together in social forms which are invariably historical (Marx: the human essence is the set of social relations)..the inter-human game which forms our object (Duchamp: “Art is a game between all people of all periods”) nevertheless goes beyond the context of what is called “art” by commodity” (Bourriaud, 2002, p.18) |
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SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE AND COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
Collective Intelligence Art references the new field of social neuroscience, and the work of Dr. David Eagleman. In his book 'The Brain' he writes:
Normal brain function depends on the social web around us. Our neurons require other people's neurons to thrive and survive.
Although we typically feel independent, each of our brains operates in a rich web of interaction with one another - so much so that we can plausibly look at the accomplishments of our species as the deeds of a single, shifting mega-organism.
Our societies are built on layers of complex social interactions. All around us we see relationships forming and breaking, familial bonds, obsessive social networking and the compulsive building of alliances. All of this social glue is generated by specific circuitry in the brain...and understanding this circuitry is the basis of a young field of study called social neuroscience"
Together members of a group can help each other overcome challenges. This drive to bond with others is called eusociality (eu is Greek for good) and it provides the glue...this has allowed human populations to thrive across the planet, and to build societies and civilizations - feats that individuals, no matter how fit, could never pull off in isolation..our eusociality is one of the major factors in the richness and complexity of our modern world.
In this age of digital hyperlinking, it's more important than ever to understand the links between humans. Human brains are fundamentally wired to interact.
You might assume that you end at the border of your skin, but there's a sense in which there's no way to mark the end of you and the beginning of all those around you. Your neurons and those of everyone on the planet interplay in a giant, shifting super-organism. What we demarcate as you is simply a network in a larger network.
If we want a bright future for our species, we'll want to continue to research how human brains interact - the dangers as well as the opportunities. Because there's no avoiding the truth etched into the wiring of our brains: we need each other".
Collective Intelligence Art references the new field of social neuroscience, and the work of Dr. David Eagleman. In his book 'The Brain' he writes:
Normal brain function depends on the social web around us. Our neurons require other people's neurons to thrive and survive.
Although we typically feel independent, each of our brains operates in a rich web of interaction with one another - so much so that we can plausibly look at the accomplishments of our species as the deeds of a single, shifting mega-organism.
Our societies are built on layers of complex social interactions. All around us we see relationships forming and breaking, familial bonds, obsessive social networking and the compulsive building of alliances. All of this social glue is generated by specific circuitry in the brain...and understanding this circuitry is the basis of a young field of study called social neuroscience"
Together members of a group can help each other overcome challenges. This drive to bond with others is called eusociality (eu is Greek for good) and it provides the glue...this has allowed human populations to thrive across the planet, and to build societies and civilizations - feats that individuals, no matter how fit, could never pull off in isolation..our eusociality is one of the major factors in the richness and complexity of our modern world.
In this age of digital hyperlinking, it's more important than ever to understand the links between humans. Human brains are fundamentally wired to interact.
You might assume that you end at the border of your skin, but there's a sense in which there's no way to mark the end of you and the beginning of all those around you. Your neurons and those of everyone on the planet interplay in a giant, shifting super-organism. What we demarcate as you is simply a network in a larger network.
If we want a bright future for our species, we'll want to continue to research how human brains interact - the dangers as well as the opportunities. Because there's no avoiding the truth etched into the wiring of our brains: we need each other".
THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Collective Intelligence Art is real time synchronous interaction between participants in cyberspace, in which the collective intelligence emerges from the groups focus on the creation of an art object; for example, the creation of a digital painting. This is why we use Google Apps, as they allow this special form of networked activity. But another important aspect of the decision making process of any collective intelligence is that choices are made using a truly consensus building process. For this, I am collaborating with Dr. Louis Rosenberg who had developed the UNU collective intelligence platform. He has studied the collective intelligence that emerges from the activity of honey bees, amongst other things, and developed a scientific model of these interactions and translated the mathematics and physics into a user friendly interface. This enables the collective intelligence to make important decisions without social bias confirmation, and without the crude democracy of majority rule. At key points in the collective intelligence art process, we use this UNU to make decisions.
You access the collective intelligence art UNU here:
http://unu.ai/unums/200
You will be given a password and username before the event.
When you are asked a question in the UNU, you will need to continually click and drag the 'puck' to your desired answer. After each 'vote' we watch the 'Replay' to see how it went. We go between the UNU and the Google App to make the artwork. If at any time you want the group to take a vote in the UNU, write this at the top of the Google App, otherwise stay in the Google Doc until instructions are given.
You access the collective intelligence art UNU here:
http://unu.ai/unums/200
You will be given a password and username before the event.
When you are asked a question in the UNU, you will need to continually click and drag the 'puck' to your desired answer. After each 'vote' we watch the 'Replay' to see how it went. We go between the UNU and the Google App to make the artwork. If at any time you want the group to take a vote in the UNU, write this at the top of the Google App, otherwise stay in the Google Doc until instructions are given.
In the following video I talk more about some of the philosophy, art theory, and science of collective intelligence art, and you can see the operation of the UNU platform and the processes of the Event.
THE PROCESSES AND SKILLS
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Open the DEMO doc that I will send to you (or create your own if you have gmail) and watch the following videos that demonstrate some of the techniques you will use;
a) Creating a palette of colours. Sometime the group decides to use the colours made within the Google Doc. At other times the group decides that each participant should submit a 'palette' of colours to the group for consideration: Creating a palette to share with the collective (this shows several ways of creating a colour palette that can be shared with the group by inserting into the Google App, ready for voting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxrwG_rFplA If you have Windows, you need to use the 'Snipping Tool' to snip the palette that you make in Adobe Colour. You get the snipping tool in 'Accessories' or just search for 'Snipping Tool' in Windows Search. It is good to drag this tool to the task bar so it is always to hand. If you have a Mac you need to use the Grab tool: The selection grab can be executed using the keyboard shortcut “Shift + Cmd + A” and will let you select a portion of your screen. If you find this part of the process too technical, please ignore it and simply Google search for 'colour palette' and select one that has 5 colours. Save this to your computer. NOT ALL OF THE FOLLOWING TOOLS/PROCESSES ARE USED IN EVERY NEXUS EXPERIMENT - A LOT DEPENDS ON THE DECISIONS OF THE GROUP - HOWEVER IT IS BEST TO FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH THESE TOOLS
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b) 'Drawing' and 'Painting' This video shows you how to open the doc that has been sent to your email, and how to use the merge and unmerge tools to remove and add lines to the drawing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJut4cKFGY When we get to the painting stage, I will make the custom palette using the colours that the collective intelligence chose in the UNU. Please wait while the palette is made - I will let everyone know when we can begin to paint (this process takes a few minutes as special HEX codes for each colour have to be made and inserted into the Doc. When the palette has been made, and we can begin to paint, you simply click in the box you want to paint, and your menu will then show a paint bucket icon or 'background colour'. You will see in the drop down window a 'custom palette' has been made of the colour we voted for in the UNU. Please only use these custom colours. |
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THE STAGES OF THE EVENT
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The following instructions assume that you have followed all the preparation steps above, including being signed into the UNU and opened the Google App link for the event that I sent to you. The actual steps of the process vary from experiment to experiment, but most follow these general stages:
Stage 1 COLOUR PALETTES INTO THE GOOGLE APP At the designated time, everyone will join the UNU where we will make the initial decisions about the size of the work, and the colours to use. you will see all the other participants join the Google Doc (top right). You can chat, using the chat box, or if this doesn't work, you can write short messages at the top of the Doc (please only do this if you are having problems). I will write all instructions here too. Please insert your colour palettes into the Nexus Google Doc below the Grid. Wait for all the palettes to be inserted by all the participants, then make a note of your favourites (each will be numbered). When directed, go to the CollectiveART UNU room, ready for voting. The first decision will usually be the shape/size of the painting. Then we will vote on colour palettes. When the decisions have been made, we return to the Google Doc and begin the drawing process. Merge and un-merge cells to create the drawing. The method is to select a group of cells and then mouse right-click (PC) or the equivalent on the MAC you have. You will have an option to merge cells (half way down the menu) if you have selected a few cells. If you click in a cell that was made from previously merged cells, you will get the option to 'unmerge' the cell which will take you back to the original cells in that area. When anyone decides that they think the drawing should stop, they should call for a vote using the chatbox in the Google Doc or by writing a short message at the top of the Doc - sometimes the Chat box doesn't work. When a vote has been called, everyone goes to the UNU CollectiveART room and votes to STOP or CONTINUE. If CONTINUE wins, the drawing continues until a vote is called (you can only call for a vote once, and then you have to wait until everyone else has voted before you can call for another vote). IF a STOP vote wins, the drawing stops and everyone moves to Stage 2. Stage 2 - The drawing is painted using the custom palette. Don't start painting until instructed, as we have to wait for the custom palette to be made. After we have been waiting for a while, anyone can call for a vote to STOP or CONTINUE and the UNU room is used to make the decision. Stage 3 - After we have completed the painting, I will send you a 'Feedback form' (to help me with my research) with the finished piece, and a video of the making. This is also part of the 'ritual' - The Reflective Stage. Thank you for your participation. Please do not publish any results without contacting me first, as this may affect the reliability of future experiments. |
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