Proposta per un’analisi “Trans-azionale” della Telecommunication Art a partire da Knowing and the Known di John Dewey e Arthur F. Bentley

Abstract

Artistic currents using electrical and electronic devices for aesthetic and critical purposes can find valuable theoretical support in the thought of John Dewey. In the wake of widespread New Deal optimism toward technological progress, the thinker foreshadowed as early as the 1930s the scenario of integration, diffusion and democratization of aesthetics that would have taken place in the second half of the XX century through material tools advanced enough to reflect the fluidity of life itself. Borrowing from modern physics’ lexicon the concept of “Trans-action”, Dewey and Arthur Fisher Bentley derive from it a model of observation suitable for the study of essentially communicative situations. Since this criterion captures the essence of communication, this essay proposes its application to Telecommunication Art to illustrate its descriptive effectiveness from an aesthetic and phenomenological perspective.