TELEMATIC ART IN TRANSHUMANISM

Abstract

This paper considers the concept of telematic art in transhumanism. In the framework of the development of transhumanistic design (the projects “Primo Posthuman” by N. Vita-More), where the ideas and methods of technological art are implemented, including the art of new media, one of the first varieties was telematic art or, more broadly, media art. Its pioneers, in particular, Roy Ascott, enthusiastically speak about the transhumanist project “human enhancement” picturing it as an opportunity to implement the potential of telematic art, taking into account the growing influence of digital and other telecommunication technologies. The paper also discusses main directions and ideas of such a convergence from the point of view of philosophy and the history of art, highlights a common component – the convergence of the gnostic interpretation of matter with the ideas of planetary consciousness, the theory of a simulated universe, the theory of emergence, and the postmodern interpretation of nature as a kind of general metaphor that has a finite shelf life and should be removed from the modern discourse as irrelevant. R. Ascott suggests abandoning the term “art” and using the term “connectivism” instead. Furthermore, the transhumanists’s arguments come down to a simple substitution, according to the principle “an irrelevant metaphor is replaced by a relevant one”, i.e. a more convenient one (the old interpretation of nature is replaced by the new concept of “nature II”, which means a radically transformed natural environment, i.e., in fact, an artificial environment). This methodological framework is connected with the fact that, according to transhumanists, only artificial life will develop in the future, so there is no place for “a natural man”. The article provides a critical analysis of possible consequences of the reduction of art to the technological sphere and serving the goals of transhumanism.