Experiments in Art and Technology: It’s a Likely Threat (Bonus)

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Announcer: This is a Getty Podcast.

Zoe Goldman: Hi, I’m Zoe, the producer of Recording Artists. And I’m back this month with more bonus clips from the archive.

One of the hard things about working in the arts is having to repeatedly articulate why making art and studying art and teaching art and talking about art actually matters. I mean, I still hold a grudge from a full decade ago when America's cool dad Barack Obama made fun of art history majors for being too impractical. So when I heard these next clips from Billy Klüver it really struck a nerve with me. Here was this Bell Labs engineer—working at a place known for doing great science but not exactly for hiring hip or artsy types—giving an incredible description of what good art can do for us and why that's important.

This first clip comes from one of Klüver’s lectures in Toronto in 1968, when he was touring around and encouraging artists and engineers outside of New York to start their own E.A.T.-style organizations. In a Q&A with the audience, he’s trying to explain how someone might be able to appreciate John Cage’s music that sounds nothing like music. This clip begins with Klüver rehashing a conversation he had with Robert Rauschenberg, who he calls Bob, about Leonardo DaVinci. Here it is:

Billy Klüver: I think, you know, the story about contemporary art seems to have been the same in history, that there is always this point of, of, of difficulty. People are disoriented. I remember a discussion with Bob about Leonardo and the perspective and all of that, and he suddenly says that the reason that a perspective came into painting was to disorient people. It wasn't that they had discovered a new way of seeing, but it was simply that they wanted to disorient the onlookers. And that's probably exactly what it did.

And this business of disorienting you makes it possible for you to see. If you, if you, if you're not willing to be disoriented, you're not going to see either. It, it— I personally feel that we are getting more and more rigidized and unwilling to be amazed or surprised. And, uh, to me, that's my personal great interest in art is from that point of view.

I'm no connoisseur of art or anything of that sort, but it seems to me to have a kind of a quality which implies an involvement that goes beyond the kind of normal activity that we have every day. And there is a certain adventure in art, and a certain type of, uh, it certainly has revolutionary aspects, in the sense that it always threatens you, in one way or another. It prevents you from going to sleep.

Goldman: Hearing Klüver discuss art’s purpose as disorientation got me thinking how for the artists, working with new technology may have had the same impact that working with art had on the engineers. Both sides of the E.A.T. partnerships must have really been stretching themselves.

Back to the value and importance of art, though—I think Klüver really drives home what this disorientation feels like in his talk at a convention for the Inter-Society Color Council. This audio is pretty rough.

Klüver: Usually when you see a new work for the first time, at least this happens with me, I always think it looks ugly. And then after a while, it becomes beautiful. Uh, art has this effect of dislocation. It's a little, it's a likely threat, the good art is. Always. Until you can see it, so to speak.

Goldman: It’s a likely threat, good art is—what a line!

Alright, that’s it for this bonus episode. I’ll be back next month with more clips from the archive. In the meantime, go look at something that makes you uncomfortable.

Recording Artists is sponsored by the Getty Patron Program. This series is produced by me, Zoe Goldman. This episode was mixed by Jaime Roque. Christopher Sprinkle is executive producer. Theme music by Bryn Bliska. Find transcripts and learn more on our website at getty dot edu slash recording artists.