The contributors to Nervous Systems reassess contemporary artists' and critics' engagement with social, political, biological, and other systems as a set of complex and relational parts: an approach commonly known as systems thinking. Demonstrating the continuing relevance of systems aesthetics within contemporary art, the contributors highlight the ways that artists adopt systems thinking to address political, social, and ecological anxieties. They cover a wide range of artists and topics, from the performances of the Argentinian collective the Rosario Group and the grid drawings of Charles Gaines to the video art of Singaporean artist Charles Lim and the mapping of global logistics infrastructures by contemporary artists like Hito Steyerl and Christoph Büchel. Together, the essays offer an expanded understanding of systems aesthetics in ways that affirm its importance beyond technological applications detached from cultural contexts.
Contributors. Cristina Albu, Amanda Boetzkes, Brianne Cohen, Kris Cohen, Jaimey Hamilton Faris, Christine Filippone, Johanna Gosse, Francis Halsall, Judith Rodenbeck, Dawna Schuld, Luke Skrebowski, Timothy Stott, John Tyson
Foreword / Judith Rodenbeck vii
Acknowledgments ix
After the Breakdown: Sixty Years of Systems Art / Johanna Gosse and Timothy Stott 1
Section I: Systems Aesthetics to Systems Politics
1. Jack Burnham Redux: Reappraising System Aesthetics / Luke Skrebowski 31
2. The Artist as "Weatherman": Hans Haacke's Critical Meteorology / John Tyson 55
3. Desalineación: Open Systems as Social Transformation in Tucumán Arde / Christine Filippone 78
Section II: Nervous Interfaces
4. The Irresolutions of Charles Gaines / Kris Cohen 103
5. Light and Space as Institutional Critique / Dawna Schuld 125
6. One among Many: Experiencing Complexity in Participatory Art Systems / Cristina Albu 148
Section III: The Contemporary Art World Described as a System
7. Abstraction, Dispersion, Deflation, and Noise: Liam Gillick's Disappointing Systems / Francis Halsall 173
8. Aesthetic Action as Planetary Praxis: Mel Chin's The Arctic Is . . . / Amanda Boetzkes 192
9. Mapping, SEA STATE, and State Violence on the Shores of Singapore / Brianne Cohen 213
10. Toward Infrastructure Art: Containerization, Black Box Logistics, and New Distribution Complexes / Jaimey Hamilton Faris 235
Selected Bibliography 261
Contributors 277
Index 281
