Overview
In Alien Agency, Chris Salter tells three stories of art in the making. Salter examines three works in which the materials of artāthe āstuff of the worldāābehave and perform in ways beyond the creator's intent, becoming unknown, surprising, alien. Studying these worksāall three deeply embroiled in and enabled by science and technologyāallows him to focus on practice through the experiential and affective elements of creation. Drawing on extensive ethnographic observation and on his own experience as an artist, Salter investigates how researcher-creators organize the conditions for these experimental, performative assemblagesāassemblages that sidestep dichotomies between subjects and objects, human and nonhuman, mind and body, knowing and experiencing.
Salter reports on the sound artists Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger (O+A) and their efforts to capture and then project unnoticed urban sounds; tracks the multi-year project TEMA (Tissue Engineered Muscle Actuators) at the art research lab SymbioticA and its construction of a hybrid āsemi-livingā machine from specially grown mouse muscle cells; and describes a research-creation project (which he himself initiated) that uses light, vibration, sound, smell, and other sensory stimuli to enable audiences to experience other cultures' āways of sensing.ā Combining theory, diary, history, and ethnography, Salter also explores a broader question: How do new things emerge into the world and what do they do?
This book title, Alien Agency (Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making), ISBN: 9780262549615, by Chris Salter, Andrew Pickering, published by MIT Press (October 31, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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