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The Seven Greatest Examples of Experimentation in Art

The word “innovation” is one of the most commonly used words today, and when it comes to experimentation in art, the artists around the world has become super creative too

We currently live in an era where technology, art, and environment share similar ideas and works together in producing innovative artworks by artists. This has, indeed, improved skill as a whole.

Tracing back through time, you will discover an unending list of history books and art streams where seven prominent paintings have a similar story to tell.

These paintings reflect the artists’ mind in compelling us to view a subject in a different approach and perspective, and we should try to question the normalcy of the things we see.

Through their psychedelic and hyper-imagination, which they termed “normal,” was the way they expressed themselves and their ideologies.

Let us take a look at seven great examples of experimentation in art.

Grauer Tag Painting by George Grosz

George Grosz was well-known for his caricature-like paintings that showed how life looked like in the German city of Berlin at the time.

But in 1920-1921, Grosz looked for new agitprop with this work, one with stylish visual language.

With the use of mediums that breathes Italian metaphysical art themes, George Grosz went beyond Dada and New Objectivity group of the Weimar Republic era. Moving to the USA in 1933, he abandoned his earlier style of the subject matter.

Experimentation in Art Grauer Tag Georg Grosz experimentation in art

The paintings reminded the world of Giorgio de Chirico , which was something that looked like faceless people in empty areas in front of some standard industrial buildings.

These details mostly represented political issues and statements rather than existential.

The painting exposes controversial issues that were highlighted by a low brick wall.

There was a cross-eyed German nationalist council officer in the foreground.

According to the New Objectivity exhibition in Manheim in 1925, the other men behind the welfare officer was a disabled war veteran, a worker, and a black market dealer.

The illustration of this art divided society into two classes.

Grosz, however, started using the critical ‘Verism’ style and did not produce any more oil paintings as the years passed.

The Great Metaphysician by Giorgio Chirico

De Chirico was a mysterious man, and his ideologies reflected in his works. In this painting, he created an empty building square in the middle of a strange monument.

The monument was made with furniture parts and construction tools with an eerie overall display.

The edifice was lit up with the summer sunlight beaming upon it like a stage while the darkness of the skies in the horizons highlights the nightfall.

To maintain the discontinuity, the chimney of the factory can be seen in the sky where the modern era bursts into the cosmos of quattrocento.

For his transcended world view, De Chirico discovered Italy in a metaphysical stage. This view, however, was influenced by Nietzsche.

“The conception of a picture has to be something which does not make any sense in itself and no longer signifies at all from human logic,” He said.

The School of Athens by Raphael

Made by Raphael between 1509 and 1511, The School of Athens was identified as a sound reflection of the Renaissance theory .

The painting consists of many ideas of great and famous philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists formed into one image.

Here, men like Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Da Vinci, and many more can be seen in the painting.

The painting shows them learning and interacting with each other.

These great men did not live during the same time frame, but Raphael majestically brings them all together. This was meant to signify the celebration of that age.

The Italian Renaissance artist created the art piece to decorate the rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The rooms are now called the Stanze di Raffaello which was made to represent and pay homage to the Renaissance era.

The painting can still be found in some of the room sections, the Vatican, which was commissioned by his sponsor, Pope Julius II.

Der Radionist by Kurt Gunter

In early 1928, German art critic and historian Franz Roh discovered something about legendary paint created by Kurt Gunter.

He described the interiors as a petit-bourgeois living room.

However, this contradicts the intentions of Gunter’s idea.

“petit-bourgeois…has shut himself in on a Sunday with a crackling radio set, has clamped on headphones, opened a bottle of red wine and picked up an opera libretto and a cigar a vengeful bachelor’s idyll of our time and a musical fortification, with resistance glinting in his eyes.”

He described it as just a picture of Herr Schreck, a paraplegic and wheelchair-bound German listening to the radio as it broadcasts a program on October 29 th , 1923, which signified his improvement in expanding his social web.

In shaping the face of society, the theme of his painting highlighted the positivity and revolutionary effect of his invention.

It then later became a major subject of many more new objectives painting artworks to come.

Portrait of Madame Isabel Styler-Tas by Salvador Dali

This painting was created by the legendary Surrealists, Salvador Dali, in 1929.

The picture depicts the picture of successful Amsterdam jeweler Louis Tas’s daughter, Isabel, an arrogant and rich businesswoman.

The image had her wearing a sophisticated red clothe with a brooch of medusa pinned to her breast.

Portrait of Madame Isabel Styler-Tas by Salvador Dali

Behind her was a landscape embodied in deep fantasy. Opposite her was a fossilized version of herself, staring back at her.

With an excellent fascination for perspectives and illusion, Dali flirted with the modernism era, which was going through the cubist phase at the time.

He was able to translate old-fashioned artworks into modern issues, and that was one of the things that made him famous.

He also noted that “As far as a portrait painting goes, I intended to create a fateful connection between each of the different personalities and their backgrounds, in a manner far removed from direct symbolism.

This is in terms of medium and iconography to encapsulate the essence of each of my subject in mind”.

Roy Lichtenstein’s TAKKA TAKKA

In response to the revolution of popular culture in America in the 1950s and 1960s, there was an urgent need to maintain the status quo due to its power and growing fame.

After its emergence, there was no stopping in shaking up and then changing the perspective of art critics and conformist; in fact, the views of the whole world of art.

Takka Takka was created by Roy Lichtenstein , who was trained in the USA pilot and a World War II veteran but never saw combat.

He ironically used the style of a cartoon sound effect to name his work. “takka takka”; the sound of a firing machine gun. This artwork represents the entire elements of pop art and its importance.

About the cartoon shows and art of that time were always created to reach a common goal; a swashbuckling, funny, and ridiculously heroic commentary.

Using this style in effectively conveying his message, Lichtenstein aimed to leave a thought-provoking and effect on his audience using the juxtaposition to his advantage. This work is considered to be a great example of experimentation in art because of the artist’s courage to convey a strong perspective about a relevant subject

When Lichtenstein’s work was criticized for been militaristic, he smartly responded,” the heroes depicted in comic books are fascist types, but don’t take them seriously in these paintings. Maybe there is a point in not taking them seriously, a political position. I use them for purely formal reasons”.

The Suicide of Dorothy Hale by Frida Kahlo

This artwork is undoubtedly one of the most potent artworks to date. Despite the limited amount of details on the portrait, it was still powerful enough to shake the world when it was produced.

The artist displayed the image of Dorothy Hale’s suicide in a truly artistic manner – also one of the bold subjects when it comes to experimentation in art

However, it was not an initial plan of Frida Kahlo to paint the death of a fast-rising American actress of the time as she was commissioned to do. Read Frida Kahlo’s Lust for Life

The building she had fallen from can be seen behind almost entirely shrouded in clouds, representing the extent of the height in which she had reached and fell to her death. Frida passed her message in a strong sense of metaphor rather than literal.

Dorothy Hale’s body can be found at the bottom of the image, which symbolizes the impact of its realism.

20 famous paintings of Frida Kahlo

The painting possessed every sense of art, from the real to the surreal, which clearly shows every detail of Hale’s suicide.

Standing at 60.4 x 48.6 cm in the Pheonix Art Museum, the painting translates;

“In the city of New York on the twenty-first day of October 1938, at six o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Dorothy Hale committed suicide by throwing herself out of a very high window of the Hampshire House building. In her memory…”

Conclusion – Experimentation in Art

A brief story on how some of the most formidable artists have dug deep into their bright imagination and conjured great art pieces.

Using the medium of diverse technicalities, themes, and subjects, they flawlessly passed their message in a truly artistic manner that was sure to change the face of art as a whole.

Passionate experimenter with a heart for art, design, and tech. A relentless explorer of the culture, creative and innovative realms.

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experimental art

Quick reference.

An imprecise term which has sometimes been applied to art that is concerned with exploring new ideas and/or technology. It is sometimes used virtually synonymously with *‘avant‐garde’, but ‘experimental’ usually suggests a more explicit desire to extend the boundaries of the art in terms of materials or techniques, whereas ‘avant‐garde’ can include novel and provocative ideas expressed through traditional techniques. Most writers today would prefer more precise terms such as Kinetic or installation art for such activities.

The term implies a link with science. In 1923 Picasso said ‘I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting. In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find, is the thing’ (A. H. Barr Picasso: Fifty Years of his Art, 1946). These magisterial words are hardly an end to the matter. In practice the scientific notion of experiment or research has, legitimately or not, frequently been invoked by avant‐garde artists. Picasso himself spoke of a period in 1912 when ‘the studio became a laboratory’ (J. Richardson, Braque, 1959). In its early days the Surrealist movement conducted what it called a ‘Bureau of Surrealist Research’ and its first journal, La Révolution surréaliste, was modelled on a scientific journal.

Stephen Bann's 1970 book Experimental Painting uses the idea to cover a very wide range of art. It begins with Constable and Monet (because of their ‘scientific’ approach to nature) and goes through to Constructivists and abstract artists with a methodical or technological bent such as Vasarely. Then he takes in some figurative artists such as Giacometti and Auerbach, whom he sees as having an approach in common with the ‘auto‐destructive’ art of Gustav Metzger.

John A. Walker (Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design Since 1945, 1973, 3rd edn, 1992) writes of ‘experimental’: ‘It is a word with both positive and negative connotations: it is used to praise and condemn. Those writers for whom it is a term of praise often mean by it an empirical practice in which the artist plays with his materials and adopts chance procedures in the expectation that something of value will result…Those writers for whom “experimental” is a pejorative description mean by it “a trial run”, “not the finished work”, “something transitional”.’ Walker points out that in E. H. Gombrich's celebrated book The Story of Art, first published in 1950, the whole of 20th‐century art was originally embraced in a chapter called ‘Experimental Art’. Paradoxically it was Gombrich, in Art and Illusion (1960), who made one of the most thoroughly worked‐out attempts to relate the artistic process to that of scientific experiment. He was concerned here, not with strictly technical experimentation, but to argue for an analogy between the processes of representation as a series of experiments and that of the scientific ‘testing’ of a theory. Artists, in this model, test their theories (representations) against experience. As in science, therefore, there can be a kind of ‘progress’ as mistakes in the ‘theory’ are gradually corrected. There is no contradiction whatsoever between this notion of ‘experiment’ and Gombrich's generally conservative view of 20th‐century developments (see abstract art).

From: experimental art in A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art »

Subjects: Art & Architecture

Pushing Boundaries: Experimental Art Techniques

Art is a realm where boundaries are meant to be pushed, where creativity thrives on experimentation, and where artists are the fearless pioneers of new techniques and ideas. In this blog post, we'll explore the exciting world of experimental art techniques, from the importance of embracing experimentation to using unconventional materials and methods, and the role of risk-taking in artistic growth.

Embracing Experimentation in Your Art

At its core, art is about expression and exploration. Embracing experimentation means allowing your creative spirit to wander freely, unburdened by preconceived notions or rigid rules. Here's why it's crucial:

Discovery : Experimentation leads to new discoveries. By trying new techniques or materials, you might stumble upon unique ways to express your ideas or convey emotions.

Innovation : History's greatest artists were often innovators. Experimentation can drive innovation in your art, helping you stand out and leave your mark.

Personal Growth : Experimentation challenges you to grow as an artist. It encourages you to step out of your comfort zone and expand your skill set.

Creativity : Creativity flourishes in an environment of experimentation. When you're open to trying new things, your mind remains flexible and imaginative.

Unconventional Materials and Methods

Artists have a history of repurposing, combining, and reimagining materials and methods in groundbreaking ways. Here are some unconventional approaches:

Found Objects : Incorporate found objects into your art. Think of how artists like Marcel Duchamp used everyday items to create thought-provoking art.

Digital Tools : Combine traditional and digital art methods. You can create hybrid artworks by blending traditional painting with digital techniques or incorporating digital elements into your work.

Alternative Surfaces : Experiment with painting on unconventional surfaces like wood, fabric, metal, or even discarded materials. Each surface offers unique challenges and opportunities.

Textural Experiments : Use unconventional tools to create texture in your art. Try sponges, palette knives, or even your fingers to explore new tactile dimensions.

Resists and Masking : Utilize resists like masking tape, wax, or frisket to create areas that resist paint application. This can lead to exciting effects and patterns.

Collage and Mixed Media : Combine diverse materials such as paper, textiles, and found objects with painting or drawing to create mixed media art.

Risk-Taking and Its Role in Artistic Growth

Artistic growth often goes hand in hand with risk-taking. Here's why:

Stretching Boundaries : Risk-taking forces you to push your artistic boundaries. It encourages you to try things you might not have considered otherwise.

Learning from Failure : Failure is an invaluable teacher. When you take risks, you may encounter setbacks, but these setbacks offer opportunities for growth and learning.

Personal Expression : Taking risks can lead to more authentic and deeply personal art. It enables you to express your true self without fear of judgment.

Breaking Norms : Artists who take risks often challenge societal norms and provoke thought. They contribute to the evolution of art as a whole.

Inspiration : Your willingness to take risks can inspire others. By demonstrating the rewards of daring creativity, you become a source of inspiration for fellow artists.

In conclusion, experimental art techniques are the lifeblood of artistic evolution. Embrace experimentation, use unconventional materials and methods, and take calculated risks in your art. It's in the realm of the unknown that true innovation and personal growth occur. Remember that some of the most celebrated and influential artworks in history were created by artists who dared to push boundaries, challenge conventions, and embrace the spirit of experimentation. So, let your artistic journey be a fearless exploration of the limitless possibilities that art offers.

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Art & Tech

A personal list of some of the most interesting digital-art experiments of 2023.

Beyond headlines about A.I., there was lots of innovation, from a MoMA web3 postcard to an artist remaking 'Big Buck Hunter.'

What does 2024 hold for the world of art and technology? In the 1975 black comedy film A Boy and His Dog , 2024 is depicted as a time when humanity strives to survive underground after a nuclear war, possessing telepathic abilities to communicate with their dogs.

Luckily, as of now, humans are still living above ground. Less fortunately, we cannot speak to dogs (though the scientists are working on it .)

During a Twitter Space I hosted in 2023 , artist Zach Blas reflected on the intertwining of technologies and systems of power, and their ideological underpinnings. His notion that technology, with its pervasive influence and fervor, can resemble a religion, seems particularly relevant today, when tech moguls Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are enthusiastically building out “space habitats” and preparing to migrate civilization to outer space (in their own private shuttle services, of course), preaching faith in technology like modern-day messiahs.

As for the world of NFTs, once the subject of much futurist-infused excitement, the enthusiasm for PFPs (Profile Pictures) has dimmed, and many don’t even use the word “NFT” anymore. Instead, people talk about “digital art on-chain.” Obviously, last year wasn’t about setting price records. Sales have been generally on the wintry side, with a few exceptions. However, communities continue to flourish, and 2024 was quietly a year of experimentation and community-building for digital art enthusiasts. The art-centric Tezos ecosystem consistently has around 50 thousand monthly active wallets (cited from Kaloh ), indicating a still-niche but passionate demographic.

For artists and collectors, the question remains: to be (on-chain) or not to be? Artists who avoid the term “NFT” want to steer clear of associations with scams and speculation, but also assert that the technology does not constitute an art genre. Meanwhile, for collectors, whether a work is on-chain or not can significantly impact both collection management and alignment with ideological beliefs: Some collectors exclusively acquire works on-chain, believing it is the natural format for digital art, while others do the opposite.

As an advocate for on-chain digital art myself, I see 2024 as presenting abundant opportunities for more candid discussions about blockchain technology, strategies for sustainable artistic ecosystems, and a future that is more inclusive.

In no particular order, and without any claim to being comprehensive, here are some digital-art highlights from the past year that will continue to shape our journey into 2024.

Dmitri Cherniak, Mango-Grayscale-Dada . Image courtesy MoMA.

Refik Anadol’s generative artwork Unsupervised—Machine Hallucinations—MoMA , on view at the Museum of Modern Art last year, unsurprisingly joined the institution’s permanent collection. This addition is courtesy of a joint gift from digital art collector Ryan Zurrer, through his 1OF1 Collection, and the RFC Collection, led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni. Nor was this the only blockchain project for MoMA in 2023: The “ MoMA Postcard ” initiative was launched in October, led by museum Web3 associate Madeleine Pierpont . This project is a nod to the Mail Art movement. Each blockchain-based postcard evolves collaboratively, accumulating stamps and contributions as it travels from one destination to another. No transactions are involved. Thus, “MoMA Postcard” represents an experiment in collective creativity on the blockchain, allowing everyone to create and explore blockchain technology. The first 15 artists invited by the museum to co-create digital “postcards” include: p1xelfool , ykxotkx, Grant Yun , Peter Burr , Anna Lucia , Sasha Stiles , Operator , Osinachi , IX Shells , Kim Asendorf , Sarah Friend , Linda Dounia Rebeiz , Casey Reas , LoVid , and Dmitri Cherniak .
In February, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) revealed a substantial donation of blockchain-based artworks from NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici. The donation includes 22 digital artworks by a cohort of 13 artists: Justin Aversano , Cai Guo-Qiang, Dmitri Cherniak, Claire Silver , Neil Strauss, Monica Rizzolli , Matt DesLauriers , Adam Swaab, Pindar Van Arman , plus a few including CryptoPunks and World of Women. This announcement coincided with LACMA’s “ Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982, ” an exhibition showcasing the ascent of computer technology and the genesis of digital art.
Also in February, the Centre Pompidou announced the acquisition of a series of 18 NFTs from 13 artists: Aaajiao, Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion, Claude Closky, Fred Forest, John Gerrard, Agnieszka Kurant, Jonas Lund , Larva Labs, Jill Magid, Sarah Meyohas, Robness , Rafael Rozendaal, and John F. Simon Jr. The acquisition—the first of its kind by a major French public museum—came as a result of a joint effort between scientific and administrative teams from the French Ministry of Culture and the Pompidou’s director, Xavier Rey.

Ian Cheng, 3FACE , 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

Christiane Paul, the Digital Art Curator who oversees the digital art committee established in 2017.

The art world bid farewell to Vera Molnár, a pioneering figure in computer-based and generative art, when she passed away in December 2023 at the age of 99. Molnár’s extensive exploration of mathematical principles and programming languages laid the foundation for contemporary algorithm-based digital art. In her final creative venture last year, she collaborated with generative artist and creative coder Martin Grasser to delve into the realm of NFTs. In July, their collection, “Themes and Variations,” achieved a remarkable feat, selling out instantly on Sotheby’s and accumulating a total sales volume of 631 Eth ($1.2 million).
Lu Yang was a prolific presence this year, headlining no less than six solo exhibitions across prestigious venues like MUDEC Museum, Kunsthalle Basel, Nxt Museum in Amsterdam, and FACT Liverpool. Additionally, the artist debuted a series of NFT in collaboration with Vellum LA, Fabricatorz Foundation, and Feral File, including 88 editions that sold out on the opening night. His diverse body of work revolves around gender, biology, neuroscience, and religious themes, blending gaming tech and Japanese manga. Culminating the year, Lu Yang was invited by Times Square Arts’s Midnight Moment to take over Times Square’s 90-plus billboards with a post-human dance party featuring his elaborately outfitted and lifelike avatars, “DOKU.”
Multimedia artist Nancy Baker Cahill embarked on several significant projects this year. Among them was her first solo museum exhibition in Georgia, alongside State Property , an animated neon AR depiction of a uterus exploding over the U.S. Supreme Court, a response to the ongoing reproductive rights crises in the U.S. Her recent project, CENTO , presented at the Whitney Museum, introduces a fictitious and futuristic bio-engineered interspecies entity. The monumental augmented reality “creature” hovers above the museum’s terrace, accompanied by a video that envisions the creature’s cave-like habitat.

Robbie Barrat, Big Buck Hunter Restoration . Image courtesy L’Avant Galerie Vossen.

Robbie Barrat ‘s latest project, Big Buck Hunter Restoration , debuted at the Paris Photo Fair in November. For this endeavor, Barrat reverse-engineers and modifies a Big Buck Hunter cabinet (a deer hunting arcade game from 2000), creating a non-violent wildlife simulation that generates infinite landscapes. Despite being hailed by the digital art community as a legendary A.I. artist who achieved substantial financial success through exploring artificial intelligence, Barrat became disappointed with the speculative aspects of the market and has since ceased producing NFTs.
A.A. Murakami , the London/Tokyo-based artist duo renowned for their nature-emulating sensory installations, premiered The Passage of Ra at NFT Paris in February in collaboration with Makersplace . It’s an immersive project presenting the artist’s vision of the “Mataverse.” Employing proprietary technology, they project both physical and digital fog rings into a dynamic seascape exhibited on screens, capturing the mesmerizing motion of swirling vortexes. The collection delves into the interplay of transience and endurance, juxtaposing a transient moment with the blockchain’s immutable nature. In May, A.A. Murakami created Metabolic Metropolis for Bright Moments Tokyo, where their signature fog rings continued their journey across the Tokyo cityscape in a game engine. Their latest generative artwork, Between Two Worlds , was presented with Verse Works . This new body of work draws inspiration from A.A. Murakami’s “Neon Sun and Fog Paintings,” creating an infinite range of luminous plasma lines suspended within vibrant color fields.

Kevin Abosch, Édition Ouverte. Photo: @kevinabosch on Twitter.

Kevin Abosch ‘s “Open Editions” mark a welcome approach for digital art aficionados seeking a more democratic collecting method during a wintry market. Launched in February and drawing from the aesthetic of his earlier “COMMENT-OUT” series in 2021, Abosch’s open editions swiftly became an online sensation, minting over 5,000 NFTs in a brief period.
At Bitforms Gallery, Casey Reas’s latest exhibition, “It Doesn’t Exist (In Any Other Form),” delves into conceptual software painting, utilizing simulation and computer graphics. As an early artist integrating computational techniques, Reas co-established Processing in 2001. This showcase serves as a definitive tribute to Reas’s career, featuring pivotal works. Reas also collaborated with digital-art platform Gemma, offering an open-edition video of the exhibition’s focal piece and teasing a forthcoming long-form generative piece with fx(hash).
Speaking of FX Hash … 2024 saw the launch of FX Hash0, both a generative art platform and a marketplace that lives as an open ecosystem. The platform was created by artist ciphrd in 2021, who has described the philosophy of fxhash as “no curation, open to everyone.” The Tezos-based platform has grown a network of diverse and loyal users. Now with its 2.0 upgrade, fxhash enables integrating Ethereum and more functionalities. The platform invited multiple artists and partners to drop new projects in the month of December, including drops from the rising Japanese artist takawo (with ARTXCODE) and qubibi , Dakar-based artist and curator Linda Dounia (with ARTXCODE), Mario Klingemann ( Quasimondo ) (with HEK – Haus der elektronischen Künste , a museum in Basel that boasts a DAO as part of its Web3 strategy), Taiwan-based artist SamuelYAN (with Volume DAO ), Geoff Davis (with Expanded.Art), ciphrd & znah, and many more.

Operator, Human Unreadable #16 (2023). Courtesy of the artist.

In 2023, collectors thefunnyguys and Zack Taylor unveiled Le Random , a new venture, dedicated to on-chain generative art. Beyond expanding its collection, Le Random curates a generative art database, producing editorial content that fosters discussions on generative art, and conducts interviews with artists working in the field.
Trevor Paglen ‘s first Web3 project, PRELUDES at Pace Verso , is part of the interactive artwork “CYCLOPS.” It plunges into 1960s C.I.A. mind control experiments and enigmatic historical events. The project offers interactive NFTs paired with visual scores, inspired by music pioneers like John Cage, along with composers Haydn, Brahms, and Messiaen, known for developing systems for encoding messages into their music. Paglen utilizes blockchain tech’s particularities to encode secrets within his NFTs, teaching cryptography fundamentals and probing political history along the way.

Installation view of Xin Liu, “Seedlings and Offsprings” at Pioneer Works. Courtesy of Pioneer Works. Photo by Dan Bradica.

At Pioneer Works, Liu Xin ’s “Seedlings and Offsprings” showcases recent and ongoing projects, including sculptures, videos, VR, and an outdoor installation. Exploring themes like space travel, vitality, mutation, and immortality, Xin delves into humanity’s drive to sustain its existence. New mixed-media sculptures, inspired by cryonics and egg freezing, reflect on on the disruption of natural life cycles. These sculptures use a cooling mechanism, creating frost layers and referencing Antarctic subglacial lakes and icy oceans on moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, where scientists seek traces of ancient life.
“ La Potière Jalouse: Rite of the Handmade ” is a work by Helena Sarin . Known as her Twitter handle @NeuralBricolage, the artist distinguishes her practice by emphasizing the training of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) on her own hand-crafted datasets, ensuring unique and exclusive outputs that set her work apart. In the last two years, the artist has been working on ceramics with imagery generated using GANs. These pottery ceramics are designated as “future artifacts”—tangible tokens of a present that bows to the past.

Herbert W. Franke, ZENTRUM , translated by Aaron Penne in 2023. Photo courtesy Foundation Herbert W. Franke.

ZENTRUM, a significant creation from 1982 by Herbert W. Franke —the computer art pioneer, scientist, and science fiction writer—was developed using an Apple II computer and the Basic programming language. This “ZENTRUM” project features an ever-evolving abstract animation, composed of structural elements and random codes. Before Franke’s passing in 2022, he actively pursued integrating this code into the blockchain. To fulfill his vision, the Herbert W. Franke Foundation, comprising his estate and managed by his wife, Dr. Susanne Päch, collaborated with artist Aaron Penne . Together, they adapted and translated the original ZENTRUM code for the 2023 release, presented jointly with ART and PROOF . Thus, one of the hottest things in today’s generative art just might be looking to the past of generative art.

These are the things that inspired me last year. Of course, my perspective has admittedly leaned toward a Western-centric focus, and I’m certainly eager to be reminded of the great projects that I have overlooked, as there are many.

More generally, it was interest in A.I. technology that dominated discussions in 2023, a trend that is likely to continue in the new year. Yet I think of a recent illuminating piece penned by Sougwen Chung for the New York Times : “ Where Does A.I End and We Begin ?” She asks, “Can fear and hope coexist in the mind simultaneously? How do we comprehend the potential risks, and anxieties of technological advancements all at once?”

Such queries echo within the the realm of digital art, whether on-chain, off, or some experimental combination of the two—a still vastly uncharted domain, in both art history and in the market. In 2024, we should keep asking the question: Where does technology end and art begin?

Jiayin Chen

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Home Issues 6 What Do We Mean by Experimental Art?

What Do We Mean by Experimental Art?

This essay explores and evaluates a number of possible ways in which the phrase “experimental art” might be understood, considering several particular examples. “Experimental” may be understood purely on the basis of the scientific model, though this is not what we usually mean by the term. The experimental quality of art is more likely to be understood as a matter of degree of innovation, though this approach is rendered problematic when put in a historical context. We are more liable to call something an experiment when it does not lay the foundations for a new movement, but is something of a dead-end. It may be thought that the size of the audience is important, experimental art often being of minority interest, but some counter-examples are cited. The next question the essay considers is: “Is experimental art always a matter of technique — of a trying-out of new forms? Or is it possible to be experimental in terms of content alone?” Experimental art as commonly understood often means not fully achieved art. The essay then sets the term “experimental” next to another term, “inventive”, drawing on the work of Jacques Derrida. Inventive art is very like experimental art, challenging the status quo, going beyond the “possible”, introducing that which is uncategorizable and unmarketable. The paradigmatic experimental work of art, perhaps, is one that is highly innovative in form, but doesn’t entirely succeed in what it attempts; it bears the marks of the artist’s trial-and-error procedures; it is appreciated by the few rather than the many; and it remains outside the mainstream of artistic production.

Cet article explore et évalue les différentes manières de comprendre l’expression “l’art expérimental”, en se basant sur des exemples précis. “Expérimental” peut être entendu comme étant entièrement basé sur un modèle scientifique, même si ce n’est pas ainsi qu’on l’entend habituellement. La qualité expérimentale de l’art est cependant beaucoup plus liée à un degré d’innovation qu’elle introduit, bien que cette approche puisse être problématique quand on la replace dans un contexte historique. Il est plus probable que nous désignions une œuvre comme “expérimentale” quand elle ne pose pas les fondations d’un nouveau mouvement, mais qu’elle représente plutôt une impasse. On peut penser que l’ampleur du public qui l’apprécie est importante, l’art expérimental n’étant souvent intéressant que pour une minorité de personnes, mais on peut trouver des contre-exemples. La question que se pose ensuite l’article est la suivante : « est-ce que l’art expérimental est toujours une question de technique, d’expérimentation autour de formes nouvelles ? Ou bien est-il possible d’être expérimental seulement au niveau du contenu ? » L’art expérimental tel qu’on le conçoit d’ordinaire est souvent un art qui n’est pas totalement achevé. L’article confronte le terme d’« expérimental » avec celui d’« inventif », en se basant sur l’œuvre de Jacques Derrida. L’art inventif est très semblable à l’art expérimental, il remet en question le status quo , va au-delà des possibles, introduit ce qui n’est pas catégorisable ni commercialisable. L’œuvre d’art expérimentale paradigmatique est peut-être celle qui est très innovante au niveau formel mais ne réussit pas tout à fait à atteindre le but recherché. Elle porte la marque de la procédure de tâtonnement de l’artiste, elle est appréciée par quelques-uns plutôt que par le plus grand nombre, et elle reste en dehors de la production artistique standard.

Index terms

Mots-clés : , keywords: .

1 What exactly do we mean when we call a work of art experimental? And how does experimental art relate to non-experimental — but still successful — art in the eyes of those who use these terms? To explore this question, I would like to approach it from six different directions; if we can gain a sense of how the term is generally used, we may be in a position to advance to a more theoretically based account.

2 (1) “Experimental” may be understood purely on the basis of the scientific model. That is to say, art may be used to test various hypotheses, or artists and scientists may work together to produce results that aim to illuminate the nature of reality or instruct the general public. One of many such examples is the “Synergy Project: Light and Life”, described on the project’s website as follows:

Tristan and artist Shawn Towne set out to develop a novel means of conveying human impacts on sea grass beds through art based on light and movement. Their inspiration is derived from underwater video taken off the coast of Cape Cod, focusing on fragile, ephemeral eelgrass beds. These are locations where man’s influence is driving rapid changes in the ecosystem, often for the worse.

Through their work together, they hope to communicate the degradation of these systems from coastal development, as well as provide a baseline view of particular ecological sites at a given point in time for potential scientific application. (Synergy Project)

3 However, this rather literal meaning is not what is usually meant by experimental art; the term may gain some authority from its overtones of hard science, but does not usually imply an actual engagement with science and scientists. The etymology of “experiment” takes us back to the Latin verb experiri , to test or try, and its associated noun experimentum , a trial, test, or proof; and the word in English of course predates the development of scientific method. (The earliest recorded examples of “experimental” mean “having experience of” or “based on experience” — and we may note that the French equivalent of “experiment” is expérience .) What does connect the modern scientific and artistic uses of the word is the sense of trial-and-error, of testing a hypothesis — but in the world of the arts, an experiment is not controlled in the same way as it is in scientific practice (a point I will come back to) nor is it a requirement that the experiment be repeatable by others.

4 (2) The experimental quality of art is more likely to be understood as a matter of degree of innovation . We do not use the label “experimental” for John Banville’s Book of Evidence (1989) or Colm Tóibín’s The Master (2004) or Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), though they are all outstanding examples of the novel form. We are more likely to apply the term to Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (2013) or Will Self’s Umbrella (2012) or Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000). McBride’s and Self’s novels announce in their first paragraphs that they are probing the limits of what is readable:

For you. You’ll soon. You’ll give her name. In the stitches of her skin she’ll wear your say. Mammy me? Yes you. Bounce the bed, I’d say. I’d say that’s what you did. Then lay you down. They cut you round. Wait and hour and day. (McBride 2013:1)

I’m an ape man, I’m an ape-ape man . . . Along comes Zachary , along from the porter’s lodge, where there’s a trannie by the kettle and the window is cracked open so that Muswell Hill calypso warms the cold Friern Barnet morning, staying with him, wreathing his head with rapidly condensing pop breath . (Self 2012: 1)

5 Danielewski’s experimentation begins even earlier: the title page states:

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Zampanò

with introduction and notes by Johnny Truant (Danielewski 2000)

6 We may then notice that the page facing the title page has the words “MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI’S” across from the title. And if we flip through the book, we encounter a host of different type faces, pages largely blank, print running sideways up the page, and so on. House of Leaves shows itself to be worthy of the adjective “experimental” even before we start reading the text. One problem with this approach is that it presents us with a spectrum, and a spectrum that has many works falling somewhere in the uncertain middle area. For instance, staying with novels, would Ali Smith’s How to Be Both (2014) be considered experimental? It appears at first to be relatively conventional, but when the reader discovers halfway through the novel that it is starting again in a different century (and especially if she learns that had she picked up a different copy of the same book she might have read the two halves in the other order) the term “experimental” might seem appropriate. Or take Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries (2013). From one point of view it is a long, highly conventional narrative imitative of the three-decker Victorian novel; but when we take into account its form we may want to call it experimental: each of the many characters is associated with a zodiacal sign or heavenly body, each of the 12 parts opens with an astrological chart relevant to the date on which the events of that part occur, and the parts diminish in length in imitation of the waning moon.

7 This uncertainty about the middle ground perhaps does not matter; we can live with the idea of degrees of “experimentalness” and have no problem with the idea that one work is “highly experimental” while another is “somewhat experimental”. More problematic is the effect of history and hindsight on this approach. Let us take Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony, for instance. In this work, first performed in 1805, Beethoven produced a highly radical piece of music which represented an immense challenge for its first listeners, who had heard nothing like it before. The composer, it must have seemed, was experimenting with the symphonic form. But we are unlikely to call it experimental today because of its place in the history of the symphony; Beethoven’s innovations soon became accepted resources for composers, and even longer, more discontinuous, more harmonically daring symphonies were to follow. Or take Picasso’s 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon : this work broke all the rules of representational art, and yet its influence has been such that it now has a solid place within the history of art that renders the term “experimental” unlikely in current discussions. We tend not to think of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) as experimental today, though Eliot certainly was experimenting with what could be done in poetry, nor of Le Corbusier’s starkly simple villas of the nineteen-teens, though they were aesthetically revolutionary buildings, in both cases because their innovations gave rise to entire movements in their respective art forms.

8 It seems, then, when we take historical processes into account, the term “experimental” does not simply mean “degree of innovation.” We need to complicate our approach to the idea of experimentation in art.

1 For a full discussion, see Attridge (1974). The movement had analogues in a number of other Europea (...)

9 (3) The examples I have mentioned suggest that we are more likely to call something an experiment when it does not lay the foundations for a new movement, as the Eroica symphony, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , The Waste Land , and Le Corbusier’s villas did. We are more likely to use the term for a work of art whose innovations proved to be a dead-end, an artistic gamble that did not pay off. One body of poetry that still often gets called experimental is the series of attempts by a number of poets in England in the late sixteenth century to write vernacular verse in quantitative metres, imitative of Latin and Greek verse (as they understood it). Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Thomas Campion and many others tried to determine which syllables of English words were “long” and which “short” and to construct lines of verse on this basis; however, the nature of English speech, dominated by stress, not quantity, was unsuited to this method, and the craze soon died out. 1 Readers voted with their eyes and ears, so to speak, and preferred the accentually-based verse of The Faerie Queene and Astrophel and Stella (not to mention the plays of the Elizabethan dramatists, who were wise enough not to meddle with the vernacular verse-forms they had inherited.) These attempts at quantitative English metre are often referred to simply as the “quantitative experiments”. Other examples might be William Blake’s experiments with colour printing, which did not stand the test of time, and the language invented by Ted Hughes and Peter Brook for their play Orghast , presented at Persepolis in 1971 but not used again. And no doubt there were innumerable experiments by artists of all kinds throughout history whose failure led to their being quietly set aside, and of which we are consequently unaware.

10 This seems a rather negative approach to experimentation in the arts, however; it more or less equates “experiment” with “failed experiment”. It ought to be possible to speak of successful experiments, even in the past. We need to complicate our picture further.

11 (4) Perhaps we should put the emphasis on the size of the audience . Is experimental art always art of minority interest? How does it relate to the notion of the avant-garde , which usually implies art that appeals to only a small number?

2 This is not to suggest that later artists have not been influenced by these experiments, but they c (...)

12 It is certainly true that most examples of what we are likely to call experimental art do not have wide appeal, for reasons that are obvious. Arnold Schoenberg’s second string quartet, written in 1908, in which the composer experimented with complete atonality for the first time, still does not draw large audiences. However, if what appears to be an experiment does in the course of time become popular, we may well cease to think of it as experimental — as with the examples by Beethoven, Picasso, Eliot and Le Corbusier mentioned earlier. But there are possible counter-examples. Late in his life, Matisse started creating works of art out of boldly coloured cut-out shapes in a manner that we might want to call experimental; Turner, also late in his career, experimented with swirls of colour to produce paintings that were abstract in all but name; Malevich conducted what are called “suprematist experiments” with blocks of colour or squares of black or white. Yet these three bodies of work were among the most popular exhibitions in London in the year 2014 — in fact, the Matisse cut-out show was Tate Modern’s most popular show since the gallery’s opening. Because these works did not become assimilated as central to major movements in art — what could follow Matisse’s snail (Figure 1), Malevich’s black square (Figure 2) or Turner’s seascapes (Figure 3)? — they have not suffered the same fate as the other examples; they still stand out as exceptional and experimental. 2

Figure 1. Henri Matisse, T he Snail (1952-3)

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/henri-matisse-the-cut-outs-art-review-9259383.html#gallery

Figure 2. Kasimir Malevich, Black Square (1915)

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/philip-shaw-kasimir-malevichs-black-square-r1141459

Figure 3. J. M. W. Turner, Seascape with Distant Coast (ca. 1840).

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-seascape-with-distant-coast-n05516

13 Music and literature do not furnish examples quite so easily, though it is worth noting that McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing , rejected by publishers over nine years of fruitless submissions, won the Goldsmiths’ Prize, the Bailey’s Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and is undoubtedly selling well as a result (if not always being read to the end). Some of the minimalist music of Arvo Pärt might be considered both experimental and popular, though to some ears it is too bland and unadventurous to merit the former label. Size of audience is not, it seems, a fool-proof guide to what we mean by “experimental”.

14 (5) The next question to be considered is: “Is experimental art always a matter of technique — of a trying-out of new forms? Or is it possible to be experimental in terms of content alone?” All the examples we have looked at so far involve formal innovation; they do not necessarily introduce material that has previously been kept out of the domain of art.

15 An artist who uses a relatively conventional form but depicts events or objects that have hitherto been excluded from art may well not be regarded as experimental. Zola represented aspects of reality that had not been the subject of fiction before him, but my sense is that we do not think of him as writing experimental novels, in spite of his own claim to be doing so (a claim based on approach (1) above, since he modelled his work on that of natural scientists). On the other hand, when there is a clear disjunction between new content and conventional form, we may reach for the idea of experimentalism to describe the work. When Mark Quinn creates a sculpture in Carrara marble representing the thalidomide victim Alison Lapper, naked and pregnant, and exhibits it on a plinth in Trafalgar Square, the contrast between the highly traditional polished marble and realistic carving and the unusual human body it represents is what makes the work powerful — and perhaps takes it into the realm of the experimental (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Marc Quinn, Alison Lapper Pregnant (2000)

Source: http://marcquinn.com/artworks/single/alison-lapper-pregnant1

16 However, the self-assurance of Quinn’s statue makes it hard to think of it as an experiment; it reads as the work of someone who knew exactly where he was going when he made it, rather than somewhat trying out an idea without knowing where it will lead. This brings us to the final question.

17 (6) Does experimental art as commonly understood, then, mean not fully achieved art, where the reader, listener or viewer senses the riskiness of the project in its not quite complete success? In such cases, we might feel we are sharing with the artist the trial-and-error character of artistic creation, rather than receiving from his or her hand something that bears no traces of the chancy process whereby it come into being. If we return to the Matisse cut-out exhibition I mentioned earlier, we find Zoë Pilger writing in a review published in the Independent : “The early cut-outs were small, experimental ” (Pilger 2014, my emphasis).

Figure 5. Henri Matisse, The Fall of Icarus (1943)

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/29/henri-matisse-cutouts-tate-modern-drawing-scissors

18 Presumably the later, larger, cut-outs, more suggestive of the artist’s confidence in what he is doing, do not register as experimental. Colin Wilson, reviewing the late Turner exhibition, makes the opposite point: “Nor are these dozens of paintings experiments but finished works by a master” (Wilson 2014, my emphasis). For Wilson, it is the impression the works give of being finished that prevents them from being called experiments. (Richard Dorment, though, notes that “Turner experimented with octagonal and round formats and explored ever wilder colour combinations” [Dorment 2014, my emphasis]; what motivates this comment, no doubt, is that octagonal and round formats never caught on, so they remain in the realm of the unsuccessful experiment, however finished they may seem.)

19 We can conclude from these various uses of the term “experiment” that we do not employ it in an entirely consistent manner. The paradigmatic experimental work of art, perhaps, is one that is highly innovative in form, but does not entirely succeed in what it attempts; it bears the marks of the artist’s trial-and-error procedures; it is appreciated by the few rather than the many; and it remains outside the mainstream of artistic production. But none of these criteria except the first is essential — and when we apply the term to contemporary artworks we can, as has often been noted, only do so in a provisional way: the future may turn current experiments into mainstream productions.

20 I want now to set the term “experimental” next to another term, “inventive”, and I will begin by quoting Jacques Derrida. Writing of the inventiveness of Francis Ponge’s little poem “Fable”, he says that writing such as this

3 Translation modified. The original French reads: “Cette écriture est passible de l’autre, ouverte à (...) is liable to the other, open to the other and worked by it; it is writing working at not letting itself be enclosed or dominated by that economy of the same in its totality, which guarantees both the irrefutable power and the closure of the classical concept of invention. […] Passing beyond the possible, it is without status, without law, without a horizon of reappropriation, programmation, institutional legitimation; it passes beyond the order of the demand, of the market for art or science; it asks for no patent and will never have one. (Derrida 2007: 46) 3

21 This account of invention makes it sound very much like experimentation in art, challenging the status quo, going beyond the “possible”, introducing that which is uncategorizable and unmarketable. But for Derrida, all art “worthy of the name” operates like this.

4 I have developed the notion of invention in The Singularity of Literature (Attridge 2004) and The W (...)

22 I find this a useful way to think about art’s relation to the norms and habits that exist at the time and place of both its production and its reception. 4 Invention, says Derrida, is always “invention of the other” (“ invention de l’autre ”), a phrase with a double genitive: the invention invents the other, but the other also invents. It is an act but also an event. In this act-event of invention, a way of doing art that is unthinkable within current norms is brought into being — an alterity that resists closure, troubles the institution, and demands new forms of attention and interpretation (and sets the critics searching for new ways of addressing — and inevitably circumscribing — the new work).

23 My question is this: Is it possible to distinguish between the inventiveness of all art (at least all art of any significance) and what is called experimental art? As we have seen, the term “experimental” suggests trial-and-error, the testing of new forms, the taking of risks; but isn’t this true of all inventive art? Wasn’t Sophocles being experimental in introducing a third actor onto the Greek stage? Wasn’t Chaucer being experimental in creating a verse-form we now call iambic pentameter? Wasn’t Defoe being experimental in writing a fictional narrative in the guise of an autobiography? These and many other innovations in the histories of all the arts were radical, untried, uncertain. I have already mentioned inventive works by Beethoven, Picasso, Eliot and Le Corbusier that, in the creative process, were experiments, and there are countless more examples. Only in hindsight do the new ventures by such artists appear obvious — a third actor hardly seems a surprising innovation, iambic pentameter feels like a natural verse-form in English, the novel in the guise of a fictional autobiography is hardly unusual — because they introduced new possibilities into the art form for others to take advantage of. Kant called this “exemplary originality” (Kant 1974: 150-1): not just that which has not been done before, which might be meretricious or trivial art, but that which, once done, creates fresh opportunities for new forms of originality. It is very easy to be original in the narrow sense: I could without difficulty produce a jumble of words, or sequence of sounds, or a pile of objects never before heard or seen. But these works of so-called “art” would not be inventive: they would not engage with the cultural, intellectual, political and ethical context within which they have been created, and they would not open up new possibilities for other artists. They would not, to use Derrida’s words, be “open to the other”.

24 The other, however, is not simply that which does not exist, or does not exist yet; it is other to “the economy of the same” — in other words, it is what is excluded by the current cultural configuration; it is what cannot be seen, or heard, or done, thanks to the power of the doxa . This is why the work of the true artist is difficult and risky: the task is to exploit the fissures and tensions within the economy of the same (which is never wholly coherent or totalised) to allow the other to be apprehended, and what that other is is not something that can be known in advance. And this is why it opens a path for future work.

25 It seems to me, therefore, that all art worthy of the name is experimental: all strong artists are working at the limits of what can be achieved, and all such artists are taking risks, engaging in a process of trial-and-error, going down a road without knowing where it leads. As J. M. Coetzee puts it with reference to verbal invention:

It is naïve to think that writing is a simple two-stage process: first you decide what you want to say, then you say it. On the contrary, as all of us know, you write because you do not know what you want to say. Writing reveals to you what you wanted to say in the first place. […] What it reveals (or asserts) may be quite different from what you thought (or half-thought) you wanted to say in the first place. (Coetzee 1992: 18)

26 The writer of poetry, drama or fictional prose experiments with language, with what it can be made to say but also with what it can make the writer say. This is what Derrida suggests by the ambiguity of “ invention de l’autre ”, and what I mean by the coinage “act-event”. (Coetzee captures this doubleness in his apothegm, which occurs just after the passage I have quoted, “writing writes us”.) The painter experiments with the possibilities of light, colour, texture and representation; the composer experiments with the possibilities of sound. And so on. The greatest artists, perhaps, are those who are most sensitive to the cultural context in which they are working (which is, of course, inseparable from the social, political and economic environment), most open to the ideas, forms, sounds, shapes and feelings it occludes and the possibilities that exist for accessing them, most daring in letting those possibilities become real in their work, and most skilled at knowing when what they are making has reached its full realization.

27 I believe it is right to go on calling some instances of this artistic making “experimentation”, especially when it involves radically new techniques that do not become part of the central narrative of the art-form in question because they are taken up and developed by other artists. But what is also important is that we try to identify and encourage those contemporary experiments that are not merely offering something different but are engaging with the unapprehended potential that the culture has excluded — the kind of experiment that Derrida would call an invention. In the future, hindsight may strip the label “experimental” from these works precisely because they have identified so powerfully what is needed to bring to visibility, audibility or readability what the culture has excluded; they may come to seem an essential part of the story of art. We should not forget, however, that they started as experiments: ventures into the unknown, trials without guarantee of success, failures leading to new attempts, and a trust in the work that is finally delivered over to public judgement.

Bibliography

Primary sources.

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. London: Bloomsbury, 2003.

Banville, John. Book of Evidence. London: Secker and Warburg, 1989.

Catton, Eleanor. The Luminaries . London: Granta, 2013.

Danielewski, Mark Z. House of Leaves . London: Random House, 2000.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment . London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1974.

McBride, Eimear. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing . Norwich: Galley Beggar Press, 2013.

Self, Will. Umbrella . London: Bloomsbury, 2012.

Smith, Ali. How to Be Both . London: Hamish Hamilton, 2014.

Tóibín, Colm. The Master . London/New York: Picador, 2004.

Secondary sources

Attridge, Derek. Well-weighed Syllables: Elizabethan Verse in Classical Metres . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1974.

Attridge, Derek. The Singularity of Literature . Abingdon: Routledge, 2004.

Attridge, Derek. The Work of Literature . Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015.

Coetzee, J. M. Doubling the Point . David Attwell, ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.

Derrida, Jacques. “Psyché: Invention de l’autre.” In Psyché: Inventions de l’autre . Paris: Galilée, 1987.

Derrida, Jacques . “Psyche: Invention of the Other.” In Psyche: Inventions of the Other . Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg, eds. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2007.

Dorment, Richard. “Late Turner: Painting Set Free, review: ‘Don’t let’s get too sentimental about Turner’.” The Telegraph. 8 September 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/11081456/Late-Turner-Painting-Set-Free-review-Dont-lets-get-too-sentimental-about-Turner.html

Pilger, Zoe. “Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, Tate Modern, art review.” The Independent. 14 April 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/henri-matisse-the-cutouts-tate-modern-art-review-9259383.html

Synergy Project. http://science360.gov/obj/video/698ddccc-3558-40bd-a52e-bad1e90bf019/synergy-project-light-life

1 For a full discussion, see Attridge (1974). The movement had analogues in a number of other European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

2 This is not to suggest that later artists have not been influenced by these experiments, but they cannot be said to have initiated artistic movements when displayed. Later artists — the abstract expressionists of the 1940s and 1950s in the case of late Turner and the minimalists of the 1960s in the case of Malevich — may be seen to have built on them, but this does not lessen their experimental status in their own time.

3 Translation modified. The original French reads: “Cette écriture est passible de l’autre, ouverte à l’autre et par lui, par elle travaillé, travaillant à ne pas se laisser enfermer ou dominer par cette économie du même en sa totalité, celle qui assure à la fois la puissance irréfutable et la fermeture du concept classique d’invention. […] Passant au-delà du possible, elle est sans statut, sans loi, sans horizon de réappropriation, de programmation, de légitimation institutionnelle, elle passe l’ordre de la commande, du marché de l’art ou de la science, elle ne demande aucun brevet et n’en aura jamais.” (Derrida 1987: 61)

4 I have developed the notion of invention in The Singularity of Literature (Attridge 2004) and The Work of Literature (Attridge 2015).

List of illustrations


		Title	Figure 1. Henri Matisse, T (1952-3)
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		Title	Figure 2. Kasimir Malevich, (1915)
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		Title	Figure 3. J. M. W. Turner, (ca. 1840).
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		Title	Figure 4. Marc Quinn, (2000)
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		Title	Figure 5. Henri Matisse, (1943)
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Electronic reference

Derek Attridge , “What Do We Mean by Experimental Art?” , Angles [Online], 6 | 2018, Online since 01 April 2018 , connection on 11 August 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/angles/962; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.962

About the author

Derek attridge.

Derek Attridge is the author of, among other books, Peculiar Language: Literature as Difference from the Renaissance to James Joyce (Cornell, 1988), Poetic Rhythm: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1995), The Singularity of Literature (Routledge, 2004; reissued as Routledge Classic, 2017), Moving Words: Forms of English Poetry (Oxford, 2013), and The Work of Literature (Oxford, 2015). He is the editor of Jacques Derrida’s Acts of Literature (Routledge, 1992) and collections of essays on literary theory, James Joyce, and South African literature. Forthcoming is The Experience of Poetry: From Homer’s Listeners to Shakespeare’s Readers . Having taught at Oxford, Southampton, Strathclyde and Rutgers Universities, he is now Emeritus Professor at the University of York, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Contact: derek.attridge[at]york.ac.uk

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Experiments in Art and Technology

In 1966 engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman founded Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), a not-for-profit service organization whose goal was to promote collaborations between artists, engineers and scientists.

The website begins with the history of E.A.T. from Billy Klüver’s first collaboration with Jean Tinguely on Homage to New York in 1960, through the performance series 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering in 1966 and the founding of Experiments in Art and Technology the same year, It presents E.A.T.’s activities and projects in its most active years 1966 to 1975 and carries the story up to the present day. It chronicles the birth and early years of what has come to be called the art and technology movement, which has grown and developed in many directions, involving thousands of artists, engineers and scientists in all fields, producing works that reach and inspire an ever-growing audience.

Activities Leading to E.A.T.

E.A.T. Competition and Some More Beginnings

Communications and Development

9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering

Pepsi Pavilion

Activities, Projects, and Proposals 1969-1979

E.A.T. Founding and Early Activities

Projects Outside Art

Collaborations with Artists in the 1980s-1990s

Documenting E.A.T.

Articles & Features

Art Media: What Happens When Artists Experiment with Unusual Materials

art media. Embalmed shark by Damien Hirst.

By Tori Campbell

Art observers often focus their attention on the subject portrayed in artistic works — but often the art media used to create the works is just as, if not more, important than the subject itself. Though we usually think of visual artists working in paints, inks, or clays; artists have also experimented with art media as strange and unconventional as bubblegum, elephant dung, and human blood. Take a look with us at some of the more surprising materials artists have created with throughout time.

Burnt Plastic

Inspired by Jean Dubuffet’s use of dirt, sand, and organic materials; Italian artist Alberto Burri began to experiment with art while in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp in Texas. Thus, he worked with found materials like burlap, coal tar, and oil to hone his artistic style. Though born out of necessity, this practice became his signature style, and has culminated in his iconic series Combustioni Plastica of meticulously burnt sheets of plastic. By using a flaming torch as his paintbrush, and a sheet of plastic as his canvas, Burri creates postmodern pieces that hang from the ceiling and inextricably incorporate light and transparency into his media.

Artist Zhang Huan meat suit. My New York.

Meat as art media crept into popular culture in 2010 when Lady Gaga wore a dress of raw beef to the MTV Video Music Awards, but years prior performance artist Zhang Huan walked through the streets of New York City in a bulging meat suit. His piece, My New York, confronted his experience as an immigrant in the city, his relationship to Buddist tradition, and the animalism of man. Even further back, Carole Schneemann, performance artist and influential player in the Judson Church movement, choreographed and staged Meat Joy in 1964. The piece showed eight men and women chaotically writhing upon the floor whilst biting at raw chicken, fish, sausage, and scraps of meatpacking garbage. An instant shock to her audience, Meat Joy explored the relationship to the body and sexuality through raw flesh and allusions to erotic rites.

Smoke & Soot

Smoke and soot art by Jiri Georg Dokoupil

Czechoslovakian artist Jiri Georg Dokoupil has worked with a multiplicity of art media throughout his career, experimenting with materials such as milk and soap. Never one to be pigeonholed into a singular style or media, Dokoupil has famously built upon the Surrealist practice of fumage, utilising smoke and soot in his art. Presented for the first time in 1936 at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London surrealist artist Wolfgang Paalen’s Dictated by a Candle was created using the fumes from a candle held near a canvas. Dokoupil’s smoke and soot works are extensions of this surrealist technique, studied and expanded upon in pieces like his 2004 Pusteblumen, where he has masterfully ‘painted’ a garden scene with soot.

Dead Animals

Damien Hirst, Away from the Flock. Lamb and formaldehyde solution.

Somewhat of a celebrity in the art world; artist, collector, and entrepreneur Damien Hirst’s most iconic pieces incorporate dead animals as a primary art media. His 1991 piece The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, commissioned by British art collector Charles Saatchi, employed a dead 14-foot (4.3m) tiger shark in a tank of formaldehyde to communicate the mission of his work. The series comprised of more, and other, dead animals in formaldehyde tanks, occasionally partially dissected; including sheep, cows, birds, and even a zebra. The works came under public scrutiny in 2016 when a study reported that high levels of formaldehyde fumes were leaking from his pieces throughout their 2012 exhibition at the Tate Modern. Though these claims are being contested, it is one small example of the logistical and legal troubles artists can experience when utilising strange or controversial art media.

Elephant Dung

Another artist that is no stranger to the controversy surrounding their unorthodox choice of art media is Chris Ofili. Ofili is the artist behind the 1996 The Holy Virgin Mary, a massive 8-foot tall work created out of mixed art media including pornographic collage and elephant dung. To be crass the painting is quite literally ‘made of shit’ — or rather, elephant dung that Ofili brought back to London with him after a residency in Zimbabwe, allowing the work to become emblematic of everything that conservative thinkers thought offensive about modern art. The work travelled the world in the late 1990s as part of Charles Saatchi’s show Sensation , and it deeply upset Catholics everywhere it went — to the extent that it was defaced with white paint by a man who deemed the work ‘blasphemous’. Famously, then-mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, tried and failed to ban the work and strip the exhibiting Brooklyn Museum of its grant due to his aversion to the piece.

“There’s nothing in the First Amendment that supports horrible and disgusting projects!” Rudy Guiliani

Inspired by the realism and true-to-life nature of life casting, Marc Quinn uses the technique in a brand-new way, employing blood as his chosen art media. In his sculptural Self series Quinn uses ten pints of his own blood to craft a self portrait that is both an image of him, and literally a part of him. Drawn to the medium as blood is the essence of life, a material that has deep symbolic and true function, Quinn has also used animal blood and placenta to create his pieces. His upcoming work Our Blood, set to open as public art on the steps of the New York Public Library in June 2021, comprises the blood of over 10,000 donations. Meant to illustrate the equalising power of blood, and that we are all one as humanity, Quinn aims to raise money and awareness for the rights of refugees with this ambitious work. Learn more about Our Blood by watching the video below.

Pornographic Magazines

One of the leading figurative artists in the world, Jonathan Yeo creates his portraiture out of art media not typically seen in galleries and museums: pornographic magazines. By meticulously collecting snippets of flesh and genitalia, Yeo crafts collaged portraiture that might seem perfectly normal from afar, but far from it up close. Coordinating his media with his subjects, his Bush piece is a perfect example of how his chosen art media can poke fun and provoke the people he depicts. Given former United States president George Bush’s puritanical views about sex and human sexuality, Yeo is able to shed light on the hypocrisy of the political right with his work.

Chewing Gum

gum on unprimed canvas. Dan Colen, Untitled (Bubblegum), 2011.

Bubblegum: emblematic of the childhood fantasy-like wonder and enthusiastic playfulness of the artist that has been known to utilise the substance as art media. Dan Colen began to make ‘paintings’ out of chewing gum in 2006, ushering in an era of exploration around materials and medium as opposed to his previous tendency of representational subject matter. Primarily concerned with being guided by his art media instead of manipulating it himself Colen has mused upon this technique as a loss of control and an excitement with letting go, commenting that his paintings have taken on “inevitable forms — almost like destined forms” as if they have a life of their own.

Cassette Tapes

Enchanted by an event in which he cut out and carried the tape of a cassette around with him throughout the day, bringing a song physically in his pocket artist Gregor Hildebrandt has brought this inspiration into his artistic oeuvre. Defined by art media surrounding musical artefacts like cassette tapes and vinyls; Hildebrandt’s work literally incorporates songs, films, or poems within the visual art. Repurposing materials often found in garage sales and rubbage heaps, Hildebrandt purchases his art media from eBay in massive batches, displaying visually that which is recorded in audio — just like the grooves of a vinyl record.

Lottery Tickets

While walking their dog Banana, artists Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom noticed discarded colourful bits of paper; lottery tickets. The poetic implications of dreams unfulfilled or hopes dashed that accompanied these thrown away tickets was not lost on the artists, and their inspiration to create the series Ghost of a Dream was born. While collecting tons upon tons of the tickets, they also conducted research to find out what people buy when they win the lottery. They found that often, the first thing winners do is buy a car. Thus, Was and Eckstrom set out to create a full scale Hummer H3, the first piece of the dream trilogy that also included Dream Vacation and Dream Home, the top three things purchased with lottery winnings . Dream Car made of $39,000 worth of lottery tickets to represent the retail cost of the new car in 2008, is a large-scale installation that ruminates on money spent on dreams and the risky behaviours that accompany these goals.

art with discarded lottery tickets. Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was, The Price of Happiness, 2011.

Relevant sources to learn more

Learn from the Tate about what an art medium is Read for yourself about the controversy surrounding Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde Have you learned about the medium of textile art? Take a look at the work of our top ten favourite textile artists

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Modernisms 1900-1980

Course: modernisms 1900-1980 > unit 12, performance art: an introduction.

The Case for Performance Art
Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud (Doro ni idomu)
Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Duncan Terrace Piano Destruction Concert: The Landesmans’ Homage to “Spring can really hang you up the most”
Marina Abramović: The Body as medium
Marina Abramović: What is performance art?
Marina Abramović
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Cleaning the museum—maintenance art
Bill Viola, The Crossing
Vito Acconci
Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting
Unlock Art: Frank Skinner on Performance Art

When Art Intersects With Life

Historical sources, action & contingency, the private made political, where is it, don't try this at home.

RoseLee Goldberg. Performance: Live art since the 60s, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998, page 20.

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Experimental Art: How Taking Risks Impacts the Arts and Creators

Ready to explore the wild side of art? Embrace experimentation and see how taking risks impacts your art! Get inspired and become an innovator!

Are you looking to break out of the doldrums and try something new, even if it’s a little risky?

Take heart!

Experiments in creativity can be extremely rewarding - not just for yourself as an artist but also for the art world at large.

Experimental art--the process of pushing boundaries in the arts and taking risks with your own projects--is a fantastic way to express yourself and grow as an artist.

As artists, we often get comfortable with our styles and techniques, but taking creative risks and experimenting with different methods can result in game-changing discoveries, leading to incredible breakthroughs in our artistic pursuits.

Just like any creative endeavor, art requires constant experimentation, risk-taking and adventurousness.

If you want to breathe new life into your creative pursuits , it's time to embrace experimentation.

By understanding how experimental art works, what it has achieved thus far, and why it's so important to take chances with your creativity , creators of all sorts can unlock their full potential.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the impacts of stepping away from your comfort zone and pushing the limits of what we think is possible in our artwork.

Whether you are an amateur hobbyist or a professional artist, exploring new and unique ways of creating can spark creativity and inspiration that will invigorate your work in unique and unexpected ways.

Let's take a look at how taking risks helps artists explore different art mediums and techniques, why experimentation is important even (and often especially) when it doesn't lead to success right away, plus plenty of tips on getting started with experimenting in arts and crafts .

Get ready to take off on an experimental journey, where you will find new ideas and fresh ways to create unique works that are sure to spark inspiration among all kinds of artists!

Read on to see how embracing risk-taking can help open up a world of exciting opportunities for creators everywhere!

Artistic Experimentation

Art is a realm of boundless possibilities, where creativity knows no limits.

It is in this realm that experimentation takes center stage, pushing the boundaries and challenging the established norms.

In the context of art, experimentation refers to the act of exploring new approaches, techniques, and ideas that deviate from traditional or established methods.

It is an essential tool for artists seeking to break free from the confines of conformity and unlock their true creative potential .

Experimental art, my friends, is like a breath of fresh air in the stuffy room of traditional art forms.

It's an artistic movement that thrives on unfamiliarity, cherishing the element of surprise and pushing the limits of artistic expression.

It's about stepping outside the comfort zone and diving headfirst into the unknown, armed with nothing but curiosity and a thirst for innovation.

It's the rebellious cousin at the family gathering, the eccentric artist who dances to their own tune.

It's about pushing boundaries, embracing the unfamiliar, and daring to break free from the shackles of conventionalism.

Experimental art is essentially a style of art that aims to break free from tradition that explores new ideas, approaches, and techniques to create something unique, unconventional, and innovative.

The key to successful experimental art lies in taking risks and pushing boundaries to create something new and original.

But why is experimentation so crucial in the creative realm?

Well, my dear readers, it's because experimentation opens doors to uncharted territories; it allows artists to tap into their deepest wells of imagination, unearthing hidden treasures that would otherwise remain buried.

It challenges the status quo, forcing us to question our preconceived notions of what art should be.

Picture this: an artist standing before a blank canvas, armed with brushes, paints, and an unwavering desire to create something that has never been seen before.

They throw caution to the wind, surrendering themselves to the process of experimentation.

Colors blend in unexpected ways, brushstrokes dance across the canvas in a frenzy, and forms emerge from the chaos.

This is the magic of experimental art unfolding before your eyes.

Let's delve into the world of experimentation and discover its impact on the arts, creativity , and creators.

The Evolution of Experimentation

Experimentation in art has evolved over time, taking on various forms and embracing new technologies and mediums.

From the Renaissance period's scientific approach to artists like Leonardo da Vinci, who explored anatomy and perspective, to the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, such as Dadaism and Surrealism, that challenged societal norms, experimentation has always been a driving force in pushing artistic boundaries.

Throughout history, experimentation has played a pivotal role in shaping artistic movements and propelling artists to greatness.

Take, for instance, Jackson Pollock, the maestro of abstract expressionism.

With his iconic drip paintings, he revolutionized the art world, defying conventional techniques and embracing spontaneous gestures.

His experimentation paved the way for future generations of artists to let loose their creativity and follow their artistic instincts.

In modern society, experimentation has expanded beyond traditional mediums like painting and sculpture.

With the advent of digital art , installation art, performance art, and conceptual art, artists now have a vast playground to experiment with.

The rise of technology has opened up new avenues for exploration, allowing artists to blend traditional techniques with digital tools, creating immersive experiences that transcend the boundaries of the physical world.

Modern and contemporary art is a testament to the power of experimentation and risk-taking in art.

From interactive installations, to virtual reality works, and multimedia performances - these are all examples of how artists have transcended the limitations of traditional forms by embracing risk-taking.

In the contemporary art scene, experimental art has become a guiding force, igniting the flames of creativity and inspiring artists to think outside the box.

It encourages us to see the world through a different lens, to question the norms, and to embrace the freedom of self-expression .

It challenges us to confront our own biases and preconceptions, opening our minds to new possibilities.

Experimental art is about pushing boundaries in every artistic medium imaginable.

Think immersive installations that transport you to alternate realities, sculptures crafted from unconventional materials, and performances that challenge our very perception of time and space.

Experimental art takes us on a journey beyond the realm of the familiar and into uncharted territories of imagination .

It's an adventure that's full of surprises and delights, allowing us to explore new realms and rediscover our inherent creative powers.

Experimental art is a powerful tool for sparking creativity, inspiring innovators , and propelling the arts forward.

The Importance and Power of Experimentation

Experimentation is the lifeblood of artistic evolution.

It fuels innovation , challenges conventions, and propels the arts forward.

Without experimentation, art would remain stagnant, confined to predefined rules and limitations.

It is through experimentation that artists discover their true potential, find their voice, and leave an enduring impact on the world.

Experimentation holds immense significance in the arts, offering numerous perks for creators and the wider artistic community.

Firstly, experimentation allows artists to break through creative roadblocks by encouraging them to step outside their comfort zones.

By venturing into uncharted territory, artists can discover new techniques, materials, and forms of expression that they may never have encountered otherwise.

Moreover, experimentation challenges established norms and pushes the boundaries of what art is and can be; it disrupts the status quo, inviting viewers to question their preconceived notions and experience art in unconventional ways.

By embracing experimentation, artists can pave the way for new artistic movements, redefine artistic practices, and ignite critical conversations.

Experimental art is also an excellent platform for cultivating collaboration.

It encourages artists to embrace different perspectives, work together to find innovative solutions, and explore new ideas that may not have been possible alone.

At its core, experimentation in art fosters a culture of discovery, creativity, and innovation—one that is essential for the development of the arts and the growth of individual creators.

Benefits of Creative Experimentation

Experimentation is a powerful tool for unlocking creativity and uncovering hidden potential.

By taking risks and exploring unfamiliar methods, artists can discover new techniques, refine their skills, and create unique works of art that stand out from the crowd.

Whether practicing the visual arts, performing arts, or any other artistic endeavor, experimentation can help artists hone their craft and unlock the full range of their talents .

So, why should you take risks with your creative pursuits?

Here are some key benefits of embracing creative experimentation:

Inspiration and Motivation:

Experimenting encourages artist to explore their creative limits and think outside the box.

It can be an excellent source of motivation when tackling large projects, allowing them to stay inspired and focused on the task at hand.

Refinement of Skills:

By exploring different approaches and methods of creating, artists can hone their skills and refine their techniques.

With practice, they can become more comfortable working with unfamiliar materials and styles, gaining valuable knowledge in the process.

Experimentation also allows artists to explore different techniques, encouraging them to think critically and push their creative boundaries.

Unlocking Potential:

Experimentation can help artists unlock hidden potential, prompting them to discover new forms of expression that may not have been possible before.

By taking risks, they can explore uncharted territories, uncover latent talents, and potentially create works of art that can truly stand out.

Overcoming Creative Roadblocks:

Experimentation can be an effective tool for overcoming creative roadblocks, allowing artists to view their current situation from a new perspective and discover fresh ideas and solutions that they may not have thought of before.

While the outcomes of experimentation are never guaranteed, it can lead to incredible breakthroughs in creativity , providing a much-needed spark of inspiration for tackling tough projects.

Professional Growth:

Experimenting can help artists stand out from their peers, broadening their network of contacts and paving the way for professional success.

It also serves as an excellent platform for learning new skills, building confidence , and showcasing their talents to the world.

In short, experimentation can open up a world of exciting opportunities for artists of all skill levels.

Real-Life Examples

Throughout history, countless artists have embraced experimentation, leaving an indelible mark on the art world.

Experimental artists come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, each with their own unique creative style .

To get a better sense of the power of experimentation in art, let's take a look at some real-life examples.

One notable example is Pablo Picasso, whose cubist paintings shattered traditional notions of representation.

His bold exploration of multiple viewpoints and fragmented forms revolutionized the art scene and inspired generations of artists to challenge conventions.

Another artist who exemplifies the power of experimentation is Yayoi Kusama.

Through her immersive installations and polka dot motifs, she transports viewers to otherworldly realms, blurring the boundaries between art and reality.

Her fearless experimentation with space and repetition has captivated audiences worldwide and propelled her to iconic status.

Hiroshi Fuji's recycled art sculptures offer yet another example of the potential impacts of experimentation.

His sculptures, crafted from discarded materials embody his environmentalist ethos while redefining what art can be.

By embracing unconventional materials and techniques, Fuji has transformed everyday objects into fascinating works of art, inspiring a wave of eco-friendly creatives in the process.

These examples illustrate the many ways in which experimentation can lead to groundbreaking works and transform the art scene as we know it.

They also demonstrate how taking risks can inspire others to embrace their creative potential, explore uncharted territories, and leave an unforgettable mark on the world.

The art world is filled with artists who have embraced experimentation, offering us a glimpse into the potential of taking risks in art.

Some showcase their artworks in an exhibition, others whisper it from the rooftops, while some simply let their work speak for itself.

Regardless of how they choose to showcase their artworks, these artists are a testament to the power of experimentation and risk-taking in art.

By understanding their stories and exploring their works, we can gain valuable insights that will help us expand our own creative horizons.

Artistic production is, after all, a process of experimentation and exploration - one that should be embraced and celebrated.

Only by taking risks can we hope to create something truly unique and memorable.

Incorporate Experimentation into Your Practice

For creators looking to incorporate experimentation into their own art making practice, there are several practical steps to consider.

Formal innovation isn't the only way to make art; it's also important to explore informal techniques and methods that challenge traditional practices.

Creating a conducive environment that fosters experimentation is crucial.

This includes setting aside dedicated time for exploration, creating a supportive network of fellow artists, and embracing a growth mindset that welcomes failure as an opportunity for growth.

Another way to experiment with your art is to change your approach to materials; taking risks is an essential aspect of experimentation.

Instead of sticking to the same canvas and paint, why not experiment with new materials and mediums?

Artists should be willing to step outside their comfort zones, try new techniques, and explore unfamiliar subject matters.

By stepping out of your comfort zone and using new materials, you can unlock new artistic possibilities and discover new avenues of creative expression.

Another way to experiment with your art is to change your perception and outlook.

Try looking at your subjects from a different angle, or trying out a different color scheme.

This can help you to explore new perspectives and unlock new artistic possibilities.

An idea that is often overlooked when it comes to experimenting with art is collaboration .

When like-minded artists come together, they can trade ideas and techniques, collaborate to create unique artwork together, and bring fresh perspectives to the table.

Collaboration plays a significant role in experimentation, as it allows artists to combine their unique perspectives and skills, pushing the boundaries even further.

Working with fellow artists can unlock powerful insights, spark innovative ideas, and provide valuable feedback on your works.

By collaborating with other creatives, you can break down creative roadblocks, explore new possibilities, and discover hidden potential in your work.

At the end of the day, experimentation is an essential tool for unlocking creativity , inspiring innovation, and propelling the arts forward.

Whether drawing, crafting a story with written word, or playing around with sound, experimentation is a powerful tool that can help you explore new artistic territories and uncover your true creative potential.

By embracing experimentation, artists can unlock a world of possibilities and create something truly remarkable.

A single risk could lead to an incredible breakthrough in your creative practice, so take a chance and see what happens.

Tips for Experimentation in Art

So, you're ready to take a leap of faith and dive into the world of artistic experimentation?

Awesome! Here are some useful tips to get your creative juices flowing.

Start Small:

It's perfectly fine to start experimenting with smaller projects and gradually expand your creative endeavors.

Small experiments can help you to gain confidence in the process and build up your artistic skills before tackling more ambitious projects.

Experiment with Different Techniques:

From traditional mediums to digital tools, there are many techniques that artists can experiment with.

Try mixing different mediums together, combine painting and photography, or experiment with materials and textures.

Embrace Technology:

In the digital age, technology is an invaluable tool for experimentation.

Try exploring virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing , or any other tools that can expand your artistic capabilities.

Take Risks:

Experimentation requires taking risks and pushing boundaries.

Don't be afraid to take risks and explore uncharted territories; you never know what new creations you may come up with!

Find Inspiration Everywhere:

For inspiration , look beyond the art world for ideas.

Draw inspiration from everyday life, nature, music , literature—anything that can help to spark your imagination.

Get Feedback:

Asking for feedback is essential to experimentation.

It can help you identify areas for improvement and uncover new creative possibilities.

Above all, remember to have fun!

Enjoy the process and don't take yourself too seriously; experimentation should be liberating and enjoyable.

So, dear creators, dare to dream, embrace the unknown, and let experimentation guide you on a journey of self-discovery and artistic growth.

As the great artist Henri Matisse once said, "Creativity takes courage."

Embrace that courage, ignite your imagination, and let experimentation be your guide to unlocking the true essence of your artistic brilliance.

Embracing Experimental Art

Experimentation is the key to unlocking your true creative potential as an artist.

From inspiring innovation to cultivating collaboration, experimentation can open up endless possibilities in the arts.

Don't be afraid to try new techniques, materials or collaborate with others to create something unique.

It might seem daunting at first, but risk-taking and adventurousness can result in game-changing discoveries.

By embracing experimentation, artists can discover new techniques, challenge themselves to think outside the box, and leave an unforgettable mark on the art world.

If you're looking to take the next step in your artistic pursuits, embrace experimentation and unleash the incredible creativity that resides within you.

Let's celebrate the bold, the audacious, and the wonderfully weird.

Let us immerse ourselves in the world of experimental art and allow our imaginations to run wild.

After all, it is through experimentation that we discover the true essence of creativity and unlock the boundless potential within ourselves!

Now, go forth and explore the unexplored, embrace the unconventional, and let your creativity soar to new heights.

The world is your canvas, so why not paint it with the vibrant colors of experimentation?

Interested in learning more about experimenting in art and the creative process ? Check out Helen Wells Artist: Sketchbooks + Art Ideas' video!

Want even more content about creativity and art?

Be sure to check out all of our creative chronicles !

Ready to experiment and tap into your creative side ?

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- Art of mindfulness

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- Benefits of microlearning

- Digital nomadism

- Creative burnout

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Tate Modern Launches New Commission for Monumental Experimental Art

By Francesca Aton

Francesca Aton

Associate Digital Editor, ARTnews and Art in America

A new annual initiative aimed at supporting experimental artists around the world is being launched by Tate Modern .

British-israeli activists at tate modern protest len blavatnik: 'don't mess with freedom of the press', tate modern launches acquisition fund for sámi and inuit art.

Tate Modern already facilitates another major commission series that sees sizable works debut in its Turbine Hall. The Turbine Hall commissions are closely watched, and the Infinities Commissions are likely to be as well.

The prize will be granted to an artist by a panel of experts. The selected artist will create a new monumental work that will premiere in the Tanks—the museum’s dedicated performance, film, and installation spaces—the following spring. Additionally, three other artists will be selected by the panel to receive £10,000 (roughly $12,215) for the research and development of their work. All recipients will then discuss their practice at a public event.

The inaugural selection panel includes musician and artist Brian Eno, critic and curator Oulimata Gueye, artist Anne Imhof, artistic director of Munich’s Haus der Kunst Andrea Lissoni, and executive director and chief curator of New York’s the Kitchen Legacy Russell.

Wood will chair the panel and the commission will be curated by Rosalie Doubal, a Tate Modern senior curator of international art with a focus on performance.

The panel will select the first artist to be commissioned in summer 2024. The first commission will be on view free to the public in spring 2025, which coincides with the annual event.

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The Artists Who Defined the East Village’s Avant-Garde Scene

For a short time in the early ’80s, the Manhattan neighborhood was the epicenter of experimental art. Jeff Koons, Peter Halley, Ashley Bickerton, Joan Wallace and Barbara Bloom remember the moment.

By M.H. Miller

By 1981 in New York City, the contemporary art scene was a booming business, with SoHo as its epicenter. Dealers like Leo Castelli, Ileana Sonnabend and Mary Boone championed artists such as David Salle and Julian Schnabel, whom critics labeled Neo-Expressionists, and whose style appealed to a growing art market willing to pay large sums of money for young painters. But just a few blocks and a world away — in the East Village — a smaller but no less important community of galleries was emerging as well, a kind of conceptual and anti-commercial satellite orbiting the art world’s mainstream.

What was the East Village art scene? A historical footnote? A cautionary tale? A sincere artistic movement? It was a little of all of these things. Artists and writers from Peter Hujar to Allen Ginsberg had long populated the neighborhood; in the early ’80s many of them started opening their own businesses there. In 1981, Patti Astor, an underground film actress, and her friend Bill Stelling opened the Fun Gallery , which became a popular hangout for the hip-hop scene and where artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf — then known primarily as graffiti artists — had early exhibitions before decamping to SoHo. Many galleries in the East Village (International With Monument, Nature Morte and Cash/Newhouse, among others) were opened and operated by visual artists showing the work of like-minded peers, all categorized under short-lived names (Neo-Geo, Neo-Conceptualism, Commodity Art) that offered an alternative to Neo-Expressionism. These artists — who were raised on television and Andy Warhol — were concerned with critical theory and punk rock in equal measure. Perhaps most of all, they were fascinated by what the culture’s growing consumerism was doing to people’s minds, and to art in particular. The influence of the art of this era is wide-ranging and, as contemporary art becomes increasingly co-opted by the ever-ballooning market surrounding it, is felt even more today than perhaps it was at the time.

Last fall, T gathered some of these artists to discuss the East Village and its influence: Ashley Bickerton , 58, who moved to New York in 1982 and now lives in Bali, whose work includes assemblages made of found objects and corporate logos; Barbara Bloom , 67, a New York-based conceptual photographer and installation artist who lived in Berlin for much of the ’80s but was a fixture in the East Village galleries, unsparingly documenting American greed and shallowness; Peter Halley , 64, a born-and-raised New Yorker, abstract painter and co-founder of the influential Index Magazine; Jeff Koons , 63, who moved to New York in 1977 and whose use of banal objects like vacuum cleaners and basketballs later made him, for many, an emblem of the avarice his generation had started out critiquing; and Joan Wallace , 58, who came to New York in 1981 and, in those years, collaborated with her artistic partner Geralyn Donohue on monochrome paintings that also included found commercial objects such as rearview mirrors. They were joined by Gianni Jetzer, 48, who curated a show about this era at Washington D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden called “ Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s ” (closing May 13).

We met at Katz’s Delicatessen, the iconic restaurant on the corner of East Houston and Ludlow Street — besides Katz’s, there really aren’t many other structures or landmarks from the era that remain, unchanged. Art in the East Village expanded rapidly in the early ’80s as collectors began to embrace conceptualism and the avant-garde, but by 1988 most of the hundred or so galleries that had sprouted up in the previous seven years had gone out of business or moved to SoHo, and then later, Chelsea. Some could no longer afford the rent in a neighborhood they had helped gentrify. Far from a complete view of this scene, the following conversation, which has been edited and condensed, illustrates the range of work being made by artists that had been lumped together mostly by some miracle of geography. — M.H.M.

Did you feel in the East Village in the 1980s that you were part of a coherent culture or scene? What was your sense of it while it was happening?

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Portland's Favorite Experimental, Time Based Art Festival Bounces Back

On the tba 2024 schedule: weird music, black horror, and an opera about the prime meridian..

It was once a given that art audiences associated Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) with its flagship fall fete, the Time Based Art Festival (TBA). But due to the pandemic and major leadership changes in 2023, Portland hasn't seen a typical TBA since 2022 and before that 2019.

Not that a festival named for the placeholder phrase “to be announced” was ever meant to be predictable.

Now in its 21st iteration, TBA returns this September with fresh energy and three (!) weekends of performance, dance parties, conceptual stand-up comedy, and an exhibition of worn down rubble from ancient mountains that may never have existed—to name just some of what is planned. PICA just dropped the festival's full schedule, and by all appearances, this one is set to be a doozy!

In keeping with recent years, TBA 2024 is set to take place at venues all over the city, radiating from PICA’s inner Northeast headquarters, reaching into Downtown, and spreading out as far as Performance Works NorthWest in Foster Powell.

Interactivity—always an element of TBA—is a major force of the fest's opening night as music and digital media experimenters Videotones invite the public to bring their own instruments and jam out a cacophony at PNCA’s 511 Gallery . From there, audiences filter forth to explore local galleries participating in the Pearl District’s First Thursday art walk , offering a graceful way to bring the festival into conversation with the wider arts community.

The following night, TBA kicks into high headiness with performances like Sam Hamilton's experimental opera based on the political implications of global mapmaking, Te Moana Meridian . If that doesn’t entice you, how about a dance performance that evokes a new aesthetic tradition of Black horror? You'll want to check on Marikiscrycrycry's Goner . On September 14, a conceptual music performance called Granular Synthesis will likely hit a sweet spot in the city's weird music niche.

Interested in a deeper dive? TBA's free "Institute" sessions, scattered throughout the fest, are a great way to hear how contemporary artists come up with these eccentric, sometimes even profound, ideas and turn them into brilliant performances. Q&A fiends, here is your thing.

But if you're not ready to go back to school with Institute, that’s okay too—PICA has a long history of viewing the party as art. Late night TBA events have worn a number of names over the years, and this year's hottest night programming is now called "After Party." Look for plenty of dancing, movies, and drag performance.

So, does 2024's return to compressed fest form mean TBA is finally settling into a predictable, standardized framework? Of course not! As artistic directors Erin Boburg Doughton and Kristan Kennedy wrote in this year’s program, the fest's flexibility is a feature, not a pivot, and it's even more necessary in these uncertain times: “21 years in, we know that there will not be a new normal," the intro reads. "We will keep changing.”

Find the whole TBA 2024 schedule here .

The Time Based Art Festival will be at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) and various other locations, Thurs Sept 5–Sun Sept 22, schedule and ticket info .

Martha Daghlian

Theater Review: Shaking the Tree Explores the Overlap Between Posession and Inspiration

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25+ Works of Art Made Using Unusually Awesome Mediums

different art mediums trash art installation

Different art mediums open up a host of possibilities. Beyond classical painting and sculpture, today's avant-garde artists often experiment with unexpected materials and unconventional methods of creating. In fact, across all genres of art, you will find artists who are able to transform ordinary works into pieces that are unbelievably extraordinary. Here, we showcase the unusual mediums used by some of today's top creatives.

From Yuken Teruya—who delicately carves commercial paper bags and transforms them into magnificent miniature trees—to Maurizio Savini, who turns Hubba Bubba into high art, these selected artists are the ones who remind us that the best kind of art isn't always the most complicated; it's the kind that leaves us with an experience.

Explore these innovative mediums of art and get your creative juices flowing.

Photo: Tom Deininger

Cassette Tapes

Photo: iri5

Spilled Coffee

Photo: Giulia Bernardelli

Recycled Carrier Bags

Photo: The Eden Project

Colored Pencils

Photo: Jennifer Maestre

Dice and Gambling Chips

Photo: Liu Jianhua

Photo: Liz Hickok

Coffee Cups

Photo: Anastassia Elias’

Photo: Hazel Zakariya

Post-it Notes

Photo: ih8gates

Kodaimai Rice

Photo: Pink Tentacle

Chewing Gum

Photo: Maurizio Savini

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Experimental Art & Technology

Fostering an atmosphere of radical creativity and thoughtful engagement with emergent and established technologies.

Experimental Art & Technology at the University of New Mexico is an interdisciplinary experimental program within the Department of Art. Students are expected to make work that comments on, engages with, and expands our notions of what technology based art can be through courses that explore high tech immersive environments alongside consumer electronic hacking and simple analog circuit building.

Labs are equipped with industry standard software as well as free open source analogous software options. Studio production is coupled with critical inquiry into the relationship between art, technology, politics, society and culture.

Experimental Art & Technology Faculty

Leah Buechley

Affiliated Associate Professor

Stewart Copeland

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Lee Montgomery

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Experimental Photography: A Primer for the Curious

Jonathan Jacoby

Last updated:

April 8, 2024
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Want to explore and develop your creative path beyond established photographic norms? In that case, experimental photography might be right up your alley.

Many factors go into the experimental photographic process, including composition and creative flow matter. But just as much, the non-traditional way of using your camera and development techniques defines such images.

What is Experimental Photography?

So what exactly makes certain pictures experimental in technique or look? To answer that question, we will need to examine the principles behind experimental photographs closely. From theory all the way to execution, let’s take a look at the science behind the art!

In doing so, I hope I will be able to instill in you some inspiration for future experimental projects of your own!

The History of Experimental Photography

As long as photographers have been creating pictures, innovators and abstract artists have dared to experiment. Let’s take a minute to look at the diverse history of different experimental approaches to photography.

Dadaist Experimentation and the Birth of Modern Abstract Photography

A Dadaist-style collage of abstract shapes. Experimental photography using color and geometry.

Today’s notion of experimental photography mostly emerged in the wake of the first World War. At that time, the Dadaists, Cubists, and Futurists were the talk of the painting world. Their ideology revolved around a libertine, pacifist, and satirical view of the world that challenged all sorts of established norms.

These aesthetic influences soon bled over into photography as well.

Important Dadaist photographers like Man Ray developed their own unique process for producing abstract , experimental images. Then, the most common techniques in use were multiple exposures, non-standard lighting, and soft focus.

Many Dadaists and Futurists also experimented with collage work, layering multiple images and arranging them in a particularly creative way. This would become a staple of experimental photography in later years.

Experimental Photography Since 1945

As time passed, more wild opportunities for creating experimental photography became available or were discovered. For example, X-ray and infrared photography took off massively after World War II, leading to a slew of notable experimental art in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

An experimental infrared color photograph showcasing eerie shades of orange and blue at a rocky beach.

Advanced forms of image manipulation and alternative processes spread, too. Some artists like Ray K. Metzker would make use of this to take existing expressions further, experimenting with what he would dub “composites”.

These were wildly arranged frames consisting of numerous photographic images, sometimes as many as hundreds. Metzker based this on older types of collage but amplified by the more modern, radical darkroom processes available at the time.

Others would dip their toes into the world of cameraless photography, using chemicals, papers, and brushes as their main image-making tools and working entirely within the studio.

Experimental Photography in the Digital World

The immense power of digital editing means that experimental photographers today can produce pictures that previous generations could have only dreamed of! Thanks to post-processing software, real limitations to radically altering your experimental images no longer exist.

With that said, it’s not really possible to recreate the aesthetic possibilities offered by chemical-based photographic techniques using digital effects.

Because of this, many experimental photographers continue to work across both mediums, film and digital, utilizing the strengths of each.

In-Camera Experimental Photography Techniques

An experimental photograph showcasing a street scene in black and white. Multiple exposure, with darkroom editing creating a grungy look.

Let us now take a look at some concrete examples of experimental photography techniques used by artists past and present to create stunning images!

The following are examples of in-camera techniques. That is, they represent an easy and foolproof way to add some experimental elements to an otherwise conventional photograph by manipulating one particular aspect of how you use your camera.

Deliberate Use of Light Leaks

This technique mostly relates to film photography. Though it’s possible to create light leaks on a digital camera, it might not be as easy as described below.

A light leak occurs when light from the environment reaches the film or sensor – but not through the lens.

Colorful beams caused by light leaks in-camera. An abstract, experimental color photograph.

In many analog camera designs, especially SLRs, there are a series of foam-based seals that keep the body perfectly shut when the film is loaded. By messing with these seals, you can create localized leaks that produce interesting flashes or streaks of color and light on your exposure.

How exactly a light leak will show up on your capture is almost impossible to predict. But, for the experimental photographer, that’s the fun bit!

Even the earliest abstract photographers realized that you could render an otherwise mundane scene visually more interesting by toying with focus.

Instead of narrowing down the focus to a precise, pin-sharp point, as most of us were taught to do, you can achieve soft focus by focusing slightly in front of or behind your main subject. Playing with unusual aperture settings is also a way to bring the depth of field into a “softer” range for your shot.

Some go even further by using specialized lens filters to blur their subjects further.

A closeup of a flower. Color macrophotography using soft focus.

The controversial British photographer-cinematographer David Hamilton became famous for his photo series and movies shot in the 1970s that all feature a very distinctive “impressionist” soft focus look. Allegedly, he achieved this by smearing vaseline all over his camera lenses!

Soft focus is an amazing fit for portraits. Still, the technique can also render still lives and other types of experimental photography in a fascinating fashion!

Intentional Motion Blur

The idea of using motion blur and intentional camera movement is similar to the notion behind soft focus. It is a way of achieving a blurred, more abstract view of your subject that can be aesthetically more interesting (if less precise) than sharp focus.

The only prerequisite for deliberate motion blur is some moving subject. In the case of static subjects, you may try to move your camera instead.

A closeup of flowers, intentionally blurred using intentional camera movement (ICM). An example of color abstract experimental photography.

You can even try shooting from a moving vehicle (as long as it’s safe, of course)! Creating blur is also relatively easy by itself. Simply aim for a long exposure by modifying your shutter speed to blur your surroundings selectively.

Light Painting

Some photographers have further expanded on the idea of creating a picture with light in motion as the main subject. They became interested in developing a technique where long exposures could be used to create shapes and figures out of nothing more than light trails.

This is called painting with light , and it is particularly popular nowadays in the new era of abstract digital photography.

Neon light trails elegantly painting a black backgound. Light painting. Experimental color photography.

Light painting is highly inventive and can really help you unlock your potential. I highly suggest trying it out as one of your first experimental photography techniques!

Double (Triple, Quadruple…) Exposures

Taking a number of exposures on the same frame is another time-tested method to lend any picture elements of daring uniqueness.

A double exposure is considered the most beginner-friendly option. This is because the difficulty of preventing an overblown image increases drastically the more exposures you use.

An abstract photography achieved with multiple exposures. Experimental photography of a lakeside view overlaid with a yellow balloon figure.

Multiple exposures work best when there are large contrasts you want to exploit in your image.

For example, a first (base) frame with lots of dark areas lends itself well to this technique. A brighter second exposure will show brilliantly against the darker backdrop.

If exposing more than two times in total, make sure to graduate your individual exposures to prevent areas that are too bright from washing out large parts of your image.

Shooting Expired Film

If you’ve been dabbling in photography for a while, you have no doubt noticed the expiration dates on packs of film. Owning a roll or two that have “gone bad” is no reason to toss them into the trash, though! A film that’s expired can indeed still be used.

More than that, you can create some stunning experimental photography with it!

How exactly expired film turns out on your final print is pretty much impossible to predict. It depends on the film stock’s chemical makeup, its age, conditions of storage, and countless other factors.

Sometimes, an expired roll can turn out just like a brand-new film!

Other times, crazy chemical reactions can radically alter the look of your image. Using a film like this is definitely a gamble, but one that can produce stunning results.

It also doesn’t require any special prerequisites, making it very beginner-friendly.

Shooting Photographic Paper

Did you know that film isn’t the only thing you can put into your analog camera? Indeed, some photographers like to experiment by using paper in its place.

This is most easily accomplished on cameras that take sheet film in the same size as common paper sizes, such as 4×5″ or 8×10″.

However, by cutting and forming paper in the darkroom, you can custom-fit it to nearly any camera, given the right tools and lots of patience!

Because photographic paper is intended for printing, its chemical properties and the way it captures light differ strongly from the film.

Everything from sharpness and depth of field to development techniques work differently when using paper negatives. The upside is that highly surrealist, experimental pictures can result, making for a rewarding journey!

The Diverse Possibilities of Experimental Photography Gear

Of course, what makes experimental photography so exciting is that it’s not just about how you use your gear but also about what you use to capture images in the first place!

Owing to their anti-traditionalist roots, experimental photographers from all over the world have photographed with a huge variety of non-conventional tools.

Here, we’ll take a look at a few of those to give you some inspiration!

Toy Cameras

A Diana-type toy camera against a white background. An example of a lo-fi, cheap "lomography" camera.

Especially recently, in the wake of the Lomography movement, toy cameras have surged in popularity. Humble in origins, they can often be had for pocket change at yard sales and flea markets.

These kinds of machines usually offer a minimum of controls, bodies made of bakelite, and meniscus (single-element) lenses.

Because achieving sharp focus is difficult and body sealing often very poor on these kinds of cameras, they are fairly frustrating to use for high-definition, professional photography.

However, those same properties make such toy cameras extremely attractive for creatively using techniques like light leaks, motion blur, and soft focus.

The Power of Large-Format Photography

In many ways, large-format photography is king when it comes to experimental photography techniques. Because large-format film only comes in single sheets, developing and processing using advanced techniques becomes a lot easier than with rolls and spools of smaller formats.

A large-format view camera focused on a flower. Focusing screen photography using large format film.

The physical size of the negative also makes it much more convenient to contact print instead of enlarging. That further opens up possibilities for certain post processing techniques which may not work well otherwise.

Selective Focus with Camera and Lens Movements

Using a large-format camera in itself is a totally different experience from what you’re probably used to. It’s many times slower, more antiquated, in a lot of ways, far less convenient.

However, it also offers you unprecedented levels of creative freedom, not just in the darkroom!

Most large-format designs are view cameras, where the lens board and the image plane are linked by bellows and rails. This allows them to move at any angle and distance relative to each other (or at least as far as the bellows allow), unlike regular solid-bodied cameras where the two are always parallel.

By making use of the power of bellows and lens movements, you can create effects of depth, fine selective focus, and much more that is hardly possible with smaller, less flexible gear.

For many, that’s a fair price to pay in exchange for the cumbersome, heavy, and slow nature of large-format photography!

You Don’t Need a Camera to Take Experimental Photos

Some hunt for the most elusive specialist gear to take experimental photographs with. Others choose to go with nothing at all !

That’s right – there is a school of experimental photography that deals with cameraless art, created entirely without the traditional construct of lens, shutter, and such.

For example, by utilizing cyanotypes, you can expose objects directly on paper using sunlight or an artificial UV light source. Essentially, you are “contact exposing” your image, much like contact printing a negative!

A cyanotype print created by placing a flower on photographic paper and exposing in the sun.

This type of art is called a photogram to distinguish it from a photo graph taken with a camera. While cyanotypes make a cyan blueprint, you can explore countless other processes that will produce photograms with a different look.

Altering Experimental Photographic Images with Processing Techniques

As I already mentioned, much of the magic behind any experimental image occurs after exposure in post processing. Here are some basic techniques you can use to bring out the most desirable features of your art!

Avant-Garde Printing Processes

In a similar vein to processes like cyanotype photograms, other avant-garde printing techniques can allow artists to experiment wildly with their own vision.

Take, for instance, gum printing. An old photographic process first developed in the 1800s, it doesn’t use silver emulsions like the kinds of mediums we are familiar with today. Instead, it is based on a few different salts and proteins.

Alternative experimental photography created using the gum bichromate process. Alternative film development for experimental photographs.

Experimenting with gum prints is like learning photography all over again. The results are also quite unlike anything else you’ll ever see!

There are countless other processes out there that you can explore, from printing with platinum to developing in red wine (no kidding!). Take your time to explore this strange world and see what sticks with you!

An Experimental Photographer’s Favorite Recipe: The Film Soup

One process that I have grown particularly fond of is the so-called film soup. In souping, you immerse your roll in a homemade “soup” of liquid ingredients after having exposed, but before moving on to developing.

A strip of 35mm film negatives after souping. An example of using household ingredients to transform images for experimental photography.

The ingredients you can soup with can be almost anything. Proven examples include green tea, vinegar, all kinds of spices and herbs, fruit extracts, and more. Your imagination is the limit here!

Souping can create all kinds of different effects, and it’s easy to experiment with, so I would especially recommend this one to beginners.

Painting in the Darkroom

For more advanced and daring photographers, there are techniques like chemograms, or as I like to call them, “darkroom paintings”.

In a chemogram (and other related processes), you paint on your photographic paper in much the same way as you would paint on a canvas. But instead of watercolors, you use developer and other photo chemicals!

This can result in extremely unconventional images, especially when exposing objects in double exposures or in non-traditional settings and angles.

Blending Art Forms and Expanding Your Horizons as an Experimental Photographer

Ultimately, the bases covered in this short guide represent nothing more than simple, abstract techniques to get you started in the world of experimental photographs.

An old SLR camera with photographic prints on a table. Color analog retro photography.

Start with what you’ve learned today and choose to go beyond. Many of history’s most successful experimental photographers grew their portfolios largely by deciding on a unique artistic vision, a framework for their aesthetic output.

I recommend trying to use the techniques we looked at today to construct such a framework. This can give direction to your craft and help you set clear goals.

Most important of all, don’t forget to practice as much as you can! There’s a lot to learn in experimental photography, and none of it will sink in over the long term if you don’t expose yourself to it regularly.

With that, I wish you good luck and a lot of fun experimenting! Till next time!

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Published: 04 August 2024

Experimental insights into cognition, motor skills, and artistic expertise in Paleolithic art

Olivia Rivero 1 ,
M. Soledad Beato 2 ,
Alicia Alvarez-Martinez 2 ,
Miguel García-Bustos 1 ,
Mar Suarez 2 ,
Ana María Mateo-Pellitero 1 ,
Javier Eseverri 2 &
Xabier Eguilleor-Carmona 1

Scientific Reports volume 14 , Article number: 18029 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Environmental social sciences

The production of Paleolithic art represents one of the most intricate technical and cognitive endeavors of Homo sapiens , marked by its profound antiquity and vast temporal and spatial framework. Despite its significance, there have been no prior studies aimed at understanding the cognitive and motor skills linked to the creation of realistic images characteristic of this artistic cycle. This research integrates archaeology and experimental psychology, premised on the assumption that the neurological basis of Anatomically Modern Humans has not changed substantially since the Upper Paleolithic. This work employs an innovative interdisciplinary approach, utilizing psychometric tests and drawing and engraving tasks monitored by motion-sensing gloves, to compare the performance of experts and non-experts in visual arts when faced with challenges akin to those of Upper Paleolithic artistic production. The results revealed that expertise in visual arts is linked to enhanced spatial abilities and specific patterns in drawing from memory. Additionally, both experts and non-experts displayed similar motor skills when engraving using Paleolithic techniques, suggesting that these techniques required specialized training in the contemporary experts. In conclusion, this research deepens our understanding of the processes involved in Upper Paleolithic artistic production.

Dynamics of artistic style: a computational analysis of the Maker’s motoric qualities in a clay-relief practice

New indices to characterize drawing behavior in humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

A 51,000-year-old engraved bone reveals Neanderthals’ capacity for symbolic behaviour

Introduction.

In the discovery and authentication of Paleolithic art 1 , 2 , one of the main features that has attracted the attention of early researchers to this graphic production was the high degree of technical perfection of some of its representations and the cognitive development involved, attributed to Anatomically Modern Humans. Visual art is considered since then one of the hallmarks of humanity, linked to modern human behavior around the world 3 , 4 , 5 . Paleolithic graphic productions, starting 51,200 years ago, represent some of the earliest examples of creativity and cognitive complexity attributed to Anatomically Modern Humans 6 . However, although Paleolithic art constitutes the first and one of the clearest examples of realistic drawing generated by Homo sapiens , there is a notable scarcity of studies that have used Paleolithic art as a basis for understanding the cognitive processes involved in the perception and execution of this representational art. In the context of Paleolithic art, the term “art” is used to describe a set of technical and stylistic skills that are characteristic of a specific savoir-faire in each region and period. It is important to note that this term does not imply any aesthetic connotations. For its part, the term “art” and "graphic production" are used to describe all non-functional representations created by the first Anatomically Modern Humans.

Unravelling how the first artists engaged different cognitive processes (e.g., visuospatial ability or perceptual and attentional processes) and motor skills to achieve advanced drawing performance is fundamental for understanding artistic expertise, a concept defined in psychological research as having experience and/or skill in visual art production 7 , and the cognitive development of our species. Since drawing and artmaking are viewed as a window into human thought and action 8 , 9 , the graphic expressions of our first ancestors can be considered a means to understand how early representatives of our species acquired the spatial, perceptual, and motor control skills needed to create Paleolithic motifs 10 .

In recent years, notable advances have been made in the field of cognitive archaeology, which seeks to provide answers about the cognitive abilities inherent to our species, particularly in the field of lithic technology 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 and, more recently, about the specific cognitive abilities associated with the symbolic behavior of Homo sapiens 15 , 16 . These studies employ experimental reference protocols that assume that there are sufficient neurological bases to establish connections between Paleolithic individuals and current humans, despite genetic and cultural variations 16 , 17 .

At the same time, Psychology has made significant contributions to the understanding of human cognitive processes. Through empirical and experimental research, psychologists have studied how our cognitive functions are influenced by biological factors, such as genetics, as well as social and cultural factors, among others. Specifically, some studies have explored the cognitive processes associated with the creation of visual art. These investigations have focused on understanding perceptual and learning processes in artmaking, with particular emphasis on discriminating cognitive abilities between artists and non-artists, measured through psychometric approaches 10 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 .

When studying the conditions necessary to achieve mastery in a specific domain, it is crucial to quantify the level of expertise in that domain. Traditionally, in expertise research, fields such as sports have been extensively investigated 26 , 27 , partly because they represent measurable domains. However, exploring the factors leading to expertise in the visual arts is particularly challenging, primarily due to the non-homogeneous nature of the group of artists in terms of subject matter or artistic medium chosen in their works 28 . Despite the methodological challenges associated with quantifying factors in artistic production, some research efforts have endeavored to elucidate the relevant cognitive processes in the realm of artistic expertise 20 , 23 , 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 .

In the few available studies, artistic expertise has been found to be associated with an enhanced capacity to attend to, manipulate, or process specific aspects of visual information more efficiently 7 , 23 , 28 , 31 , 35 . This reveals that artists have an advantage over non-artists in various perceptual, attentional, and spatial skills. For instance, artists have exhibited superior performance in object identification in unfocused photographs and in detecting embedded patterns in more complex images 20 . Furthermore, other skills important to the visual arts include visual memory 36 , flexibility in shifting between global and local attention 22 , the ability to integrate local details into global representations of objects 35 , and the ability to generate and transform mental images 18 . However, it is noteworthy that while these findings emphasize the existence of specific cognitive skills in artists, the scarce results have not always been consistent, with studies failing to find the expected differences in favor of artists 7 , 22 , 23 , 30 , 37 , 38 . In conclusion, given the paucity of research on visual arts expertise and the inconsistency of the findings, the relationship between cognitive abilities and artistic expertise remains uncertain in current research.

Additionally, ongoing debates persist regarding the basis of expert knowledge and the reasons why artists produce realistic depictions. In particular, the role of innate talent 7 , 39 , 40 , the effects of artistic media 41 , and the integration between perception and motor skills in drawing abilities 7 continue to be discussed. The difficulty of reaching firm conclusions in these areas is in part due to the nature of the cognitive assessments used in these investigations. These assessments have often been very general, requiring the engagement of diverse abilities. However, a more appropriate approach would be to advocate the use of cognitive tests tailored to specific cognitive abilities. This has already proven relevant for visuospatial cognitive processing and for psychomotor skills involving motor movements, precision, coordination, and strength 42 . Previous research focused on addressing the motor skills necessary to achieve superior drawing performance has used gestural analysis of Paleolithic engraving production 43 , 44 , 45 . Rivero and Garate 45 conducted a comparative analysis between individuals with no prior experience in engraving and experts with over a decade of expertise in Paleolithic engraving. Their findings revealed the existence of gestural parameters that influence the interaction with the tool and the support, enabling expert engravers to create visible and technically accurate motifs. The results of this experimental study corroborate the evidence of artistic learning highlighted by the analysis of archaeological material 44 , 46 , 47 . This evidence is based on the identification of microscopic indices, called stigmas, that reveal inexperience in the handling of the tool.

Artistic and technical practices encompass pedagogical, imitative, and other forms of social learning, facilitating the transmission of information that shapes cultural traditions between individuals and across generations. The development of artistic skills occurs within "communities of practice" 48 , 49 , wherein the collective knowledge of the group's members is utilized to advance the group's collective expertise. The study of the chaînes opératoires involved in the production of graphic motifs has enabled researchers to overcome the constraints faced by research on the symbolic behavior of Upper Paleolithic societies. Technical analysis establishes a link between the art and the wider archaeological record, thereby endowing Paleolithic art with social and cultural meaning 50 . The identification of learning processes yields information regarding individual cognition, cultural structure, intergroup relations, changes over time and space, and the role of art within Paleolithic societies 44 , 46 . However, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of how artistic skills developed in the Anatomically Modern Humans and the cognitive abilities involved in the creation of this artwork.

Pioneering a coherent interdisciplinary approach, the present research integrates experimental archaeology, cognitive psychology, and biomechanics of gesture to identify the cognitive abilities and characterize the psychomotor aspects involved in the creation of Paleolithic art motifs by comparing individuals with artistic expertise (referred to as “ experts” hereafter) and individuals without artistic expertise (referred to as “ non-experts” hereafter). Carefully selected materials and cognitive tests, based on previous research findings, have been used to answer the following research question: What cognitive abilities and motor skills are involved in the creation of art and engravings? In Study 1, we investigated the cognitive abilities of experts and non-experts in visual arts, whereas in Study 2, our interest was specifically focused on analyzing the motor skills exhibited by experts and non-experts during drawing and engraving with Paleolithic techniques. By addressing this question, we contributed to a deeper understanding of the cognitive and motor processes underlying Paleolithic artistic production.

Study 1 explored the cognitive abilities involved in the creation of visual art. Particularly, we focused on some cognitive processes traditionally associated with drawing and artmaking: spatial ability and memory.

On the one hand, although recent emphasis has been placed on the relevance of spatial ability for studying cognitive development in our species 42 , it is noteworthy that spatial ability is one of the less-explored cognitive abilities in cognitive archaeology. Spatial ability refers to the “skill in representing, transforming, generating, and recalling symbolic, nonlinguistic information” 51 p. 1482 . Despite the lack of consensus on the factors underlying spatial ability, previous research has identified three factors: spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perceptual speed 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 . In previous studies, the spatial ability of visual art experts was typically limited to either spatial visualization or mental rotation skills 18 , 29 , 30 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , showing inconsistent results. In Study 1, we independently analyzed spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perceptual speed to gain an understanding of the spatial abilities that contribute to artistic expertise.

On the other hand, some studies have suggested that differences in spatial ability may be due to differences in working memory 53 . As working memory is responsible for temporarily holding information to actively process it for a specific task, it could play a crucial role in tasks involving mental manipulation and representation of objects in space, making it indispensable for the creation of art. Moreover, it is essential to recall visual details, object shapes, and their spatial arrangement while painting or drawing 32 . Therefore, both short-term memory and working memory are engaged in such tasks. Given the importance of visual memory in art production 36 , it would be reasonable to assume that memory is a factor that may help explain cognitive differences between experts and non-experts in visual arts. Thus, in Study 1 we included tests assessing both working memory and short-term memory.

In summary, given the scarcity of research and the inconsistency of the results regarding cognitive advantages associated with artistic expertise, in this study, for the first time in the literature, we jointly analyzed three factors of spatial ability (spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perceptual speed) and memory capacity (short-term memory and working memory) to clarify the differences between experts and non-experts in visual art.

Participants

A total of 100 undergraduate students ( M age = 20.68, SD age = 1.50; 79% of women) agreed to participate in this study and signed a consent form. The participants were divided into two groups based on whether they had artistic expertise or not: experts versus non-experts. The group of experts comprised 50 students of Fine Arts from the University of Salamanca (11 men and 39 women), who had varied prior formal training in drawing or painting. The group of non-experts included 50 Psychology students (10 men and 40 women) from the same university, who had no prior formal training in drawing or painting and, therefore, had no artistic expertise. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Salamanca and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

To assess spatial ability and memory, the following psychometric tests were used.

Firstly, we assessed spatial ability through spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perceptual speed tasks. Spatial visualization was measured by the Space Relations (SR) subtest of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT-5) 60 . The DAT Space Relations test is a mental folding test consisting of 50 items, each composed of an unfolded figure and four folded alternatives. Participants were asked to identify the folded figure that matched the unfolded figure on the left. The score is the total number of correct responses. To measure mental rotation, we used the Spatial subtest of the Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities (PMA-S) 61 . The PMA-S comprises 20 items, each including a flat model figure and six alternatives that must be evaluated against it. Some alternatives were simply rotated versions of the model figure, while the remaining ones were mirror images. The task was to select only the rotated figures (several alternatives could be correct for each item). The score is the total number of correct responses (i.e., appropriately selected figures) minus the total number of incorrect responses (i.e., inappropriately selected figures). Finally, perceptual speed was assessed using the Clerical Speed and Accuracy (CSA) subtest of the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT-5) 60 . This task involved finding letter and/or number combinations in strings of random letters and/or numbers. The test consisted of two parts, each with 100 items, and lasted 3 min. Only the second part was considered, with a maximum score of 100 points.

Secondly, two types of memory were measured, short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), using both verbal and visuospatial information. To assess verbal STM and WM, we used the Forward and Backward Digit Span subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) 62 , respectively. In these subtests, participants repeated increasingly longer strings of numbers forward or backwards, with the forward condition always presented first. The length of the number strings ranged from two to nine for the forward condition and from two to eight for the backward condition. Two different sequences of numbers were presented for each length, making a total of 16 and 14 trials, respectively. The test ended when participants failed to recall both trials for a given length. To assess visuospatial STM and WM, we employed the Forward and Backward Spatial Span subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III) 63 , respectively. In this task, the examiner touched a sequence of blocks (one per second) in different locations that were mounted on a 10-block board, and participants were asked to reproduce the sequence either in the same (forward) or reverse (backward) order. The number of blocks to be touched in each sequence increased from two to nine, with two block sequences for each length. The test ended when participants failed in both trials for a given length.

All participants were tested individually, and the session lasted approximately one hour. Before starting the study, participants were presented with an informed consent form to read and sign, followed by a demographic questionnaire collecting data on age, sex, handedness, hours of sleep, potential vision corrections (i.e., contact lenses or glasses), and any artistic expertise (i.e., formal training in painting, drawing, or engraving). Next, the Forward and Backward Digit Span subtests (FDS and BDS, respectively) were administered, followed by the SR and the CSA subtests of the DAT. Subsequently, the PMA-S was completed, followed by the application of the Forward and Backward Spatial Span subtests (FSS and BSS, respectively). Once the tasks were completed, participants were thanked for their participation, any questions they had were answered, and the research purpose was briefly explained to them.

Data analyses

Data analyses were conducted using the JASP software 64 . Alpha was set at 0.05 for all analyses. Effect sizes were reported using Cohen’s d, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) provided. Independent samples t-tests were performed to examine differences between experts and non-experts in the assessed cognitive abilities. Additionally, Pearson correlation analyses were conducted to investigate potential relationships between different cognitive abilities.

Results and discussion

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the cognitive abilities measured in Study 1 and the results of the independent samples t-tests used to analyze the differences between experts and non-experts in memory (verbal and spatial STM and WM) and spatial ability (spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perceptual speed).

No significant differences between experts and non-experts were found in the Forward Digit Span subtest, t (98) = 1.68, p = 0.095, Backward Digit Span subtest, t (98) = 0.37, p = 0.710, Forward Spatial Span subtest, t (98) = 0.60, p = 0.549, nor in the Backward Spatial Span subtest, t (98) = 0.79, p = 0.432. In other words, there were no significant differences between experts and non-experts in any of the memory tests, whether involving verbal or spatial content, neither in short-term memory nor in working memory.

Regarding the assessment of spatial abilities, there were no significant differences between the groups in CSA, a test measuring perceptual speed, t (98) = 0.57, p = 0.570. However, significant differences were found in spatial visualization between experts ( M = 34.04, SD = 8.14) and non-experts ( M = 28.20, SD = 7.16), as revealed by the Space Relations subtest of the DAT, t (98) = 3.81, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.76, 95% CI [0.35, 1.16]. Furthermore, significant differences were also found between groups in PMA-S, a mental rotation test, t (98) = 2.67, p = 0.009, Cohen’s d = 0.53, 95% CI [0.13, 0.93], where experts ( M = 29.14, SD = 9.03) scored higher than non-experts ( M = 23.70, SD = 11.21). In other words, individuals with artistic expertise scored higher in spatial ability, both in spatial visualization and mental rotation, than those without such expertise. However, similar to memory, there were no significant differences between experts and non-experts in perceptual speed.

Finally, to gather more information regarding the potential relationship between the cognitive abilities, a correlational analysis was conducted (see Table 2 ).

Positive correlations were observed between the Forward and Backward Digit Span subtests, r = 0.513, p < 0.001, and between the Forward and Backward Spatial Span subtests, r = 0.367, p < 0.001. In other words, our results showed that there was a relationship between short-term memory and working memory, for both verbal and visuospatial information. In line with previous research, these results indicated that higher scores in working memory were associated with higher scores in short-term memory 65 , 66 .

More relevant to our study, results revealed a significant positive correlation between SR and PMA-S, r = 0.345, p < 0.001, suggesting that the higher the spatial visualization ability, the higher the mental rotation ability. However, neither of them correlated with the CSA, a perceptual speed test (see Table 2 ). Additionally, both SR and PMA-S, but not the CSA, showed significant positive correlations with Backward Spatial Span, r = 0.266, p = 0.007; r = 0.289, p = 0.004, respectively. This implies that higher scores in spatial working memory were associated with higher scores in mental rotation and spatial visualization, but not in perceptual speed. Furthermore, only PMA-S (a mental rotation test) positively correlated with Forward Spatial Span, r = 0.290; p = 0.003, suggesting that high scores in short-term memory for spatial information are associated with high scores in mental rotation.

In Paleolithic art, the technical analysis of artistic production has revealed the presence of learning processes during the European Upper Paleolithic 44 . These processes, identified through experimental protocols and the analysis of the archaeological record, allow us to infer the existence of artists and distinguish between experts and non-experts in the Upper Paleolithic, as well as the motor aspects related to Paleolithic graphic production 45 . However, no biomechanical analysis of gesture has been conducted to date in the study of Paleolithic graphic production, unlike other technical fields such as lithic reduction 12 , 67 . Thus, the purpose of Study 2 was to conduct a biomechanical study of hand movements in experts and non-experts in visual art when performing various graphic production tasks with both current techniques and prehistoric instruments. This study aimed to obtain data on motor skills associated with expertise in graphic production and to further expand upon the findings from Study 1. Both psychometric tests of cognitive abilities (Study 1) and motor analyses (Study 2) were carried out on the same population to elucidate whether artistic expertise led to cognitive and psychomotor differences compared to non-expert participants.

In this study, a total of 33 undergraduate students (M age = 21.46, SD age = 2.50; 63.6% of women) participated voluntarily. They all agreed to take part and signed a consent form. As in Study 1, participants were divided into two groups based on their artistic expertise: experts versus non-experts. The group of experts included 12 Fine Arts students (2 men and 10 women) from the University of Salamanca. The group of non-experts included 21 Psychology students (10 men and 12 women) from the same university who did not have any prior artistic expertise. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Salamanca and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

To assess the biomechanics of gesture and the drawing and engraving skills related to Paleolithic art production, the following tasks were performed. Following previous research 68 , participants were asked to make three horse figures, the most represented animal in Paleolithic art 69 .

Task 1 required participants to complete a drawing from memory task, where they were asked to draw a horse from memory on paper. This task aimed to assess the ability of both experts and non-experts to generate a realistic image from long-term memory.

Task 2 was also a drawing from memory task, but in this case, participants were first shown a tracing of a horse figure depicted in Paleolithic art from the site of Les Trois Frères 70 , known for its large quantity of anatomical detail, and then asked to draw that particular horse from memory on paper. This task primarily assessed participants' visual short-term memory for the formal characteristics of the figures and their fine motor skills involved in drawing them.

Task 3 involved reproducing the same image used in Task 2 from memory, but this time using a media and tool representative of Paleolithic art. To do so, participants employed a dihedral burin, an archaeological tool associated with engraving artistic motifs 71 . The motifs were made on a schist slab, a material suitable for engraving and used in Paleolithic art 72 . This task aimed to discriminate the specific biomechanical characteristics of engraving from previous drawing from memory tasks and to assess the abilities of both experts and non-experts to produce the motifs using Paleolithic tools and procedures.

During the execution of Tasks 1, 2 and 3, participants' movements were monitored with Rokoko Smartgloves, from which the coordinates of the phalanges' positions were obtained. The movements were also recorded on video with a Nikon D850 camera (see Figure S1 in Supplementary Information).

The protocol was developed in the Prehistoric Technology Laboratory of the University of Salamanca. Participants completed the tasks individually, and the duration of the study was approximately 30 min. Before starting, participants were presented with an informed consent form to read and sign. Afterwards, participants completed a demographic questionnaire collecting data on age, sex, height, level of education, and artistic expertise (i.e., formal training in painting, drawing, or engraving). Next, the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory 73 was applied to assess the participants' laterality. Finally, forearm measurement was taken from each participant, and the Rokoko Smartgloves were calibrated using the reference posture (see Figure S2 in Supplementary Information).

The protocol began with drawing a horse from memory in pencil on paper for one minute (Task 1). Afterwards, a tracing of a horse figure from the cave of Les Trois Frères appeared on a computer screen for two minutes, with a size of 34 × 23 cm and at a distance of 2 m (Task 2). Figure orientation varied according to the laterality of the participants, with the motif oriented to the left for right-handed participants and to the right for left-handed participants, following previous research that established a relationship between manual dominance and the sequence followed in graphic representation 74 . After the image disappeared, participants had to draw the horse from memory on a sheet of paper with the same pencil as in Task 1. Participants were given a maximum of two minutes to complete this task. Finally, participants reproduced from memory the horse previously shown on the screen using a burin to engrave the figure on a shale plate (Task 3). The maximum time provided for this task was 10 min (see Fig. 1 ), as previous experimental studies on Paleolithic engraving 45 have shown that the time available for the task did not influence the result. Participants were instructed to copy the stimulus as accurately and efficiently as they could.

( a ) Task 2: drawing from memory a representation of Paleolithic art in pencil on paper. ( b ) Task 3: engraving from memory a representation of Paleolithic art on a lithic media.

Biomechanics of gesture

The analyses of the biomechanics of gesture aimed to differentiate grip patterns according to the tools used, as well as different movements depending on the task performed. To this end, an executable (BHV2ANGLES) was generated to process the data provided by the Rokoko Smartgloves to obtain the anatomical angles of flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction of the fingers of the hand: Flexion/Extension and deviation of the wrist (WRIST_F and WRIST_A), Flexion/Extension of the proximal phalanges (PIP_F), Flexion/Extension of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP_F), Relative abduction/adduction of each finger (MCP_A), and Flexion/Extension and Abduction/Adduction of the carpometacarpal of the thumb (CMC) (see Figure S3 in Supplementary Information).

Based on the data generated by the BHV2ANGLES software, we analyzed the data through multivariate statistics to compare gesture sequences between experts and non-experts, as well as between tasks. The data obtained were processed using the open-access R Statistical Software (V.4.2.3) 75 . The analysis required the FactoMineR: Multivariate Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Mining package 76 . Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (Ward's method and Euclidean distance) were performed to identify the formation of groups based on the similarity in the use of certain hand positions to a greater or lesser extent.

Analyses of realistic image generation, and drawing/engraving of Paleolithic motifs

For the analyses of the drawn figures, Tasks 1 and 2 were scanned. For its part, for the analyses of the engraved figures, digital tracings of the Task 3 figures were made. The generated .jpg files were converted to a .dxf CAD data file format using an online converter. This transformation allowed vectorization, enabling automated measurements through AutoCAD software. In Task 3, close-range photogrammetry was applied to the engraved slabs produced by the participants 77 . The images were processed using Agisoft Metashape software to generate highly detailed 3D models with flash-type grazing lighting 78 . These models were then scaled to obtain the topography of both the surface of the media and the engraving. Subsequently, formal and technical analyses were conducted to characterize various aspects of the representations produced by the participants.

In formal analyses, firstly, we analyzed the similarity between the figure used as a model and those reproduced by the participants. For these analyses, we considered the size of the parts of the drawn/engraved figures with respect to the size of the original model. To evaluate similarity, a mathematical approach was used for the first time in this field. This approach involved measuring Euclidean distances and normalizing them to obtain a quantitative “similarity index” (see Fig. 2 , and Table S1 in Supplementary materials). In Task 1, the similarity index was calculated using measurements taken from a real horse and comparing them with the drawing produced by the participants. For Tasks 2 and 3, reference measurements were taken from the representation of Les Trois-Frères to compare them with the measurements of the motifs produced by the participants.

Measurements taken on the sample representation and on an example of the representations produced in Study 2 to calculate the Euclidean distance.

This process started with the selection of key measurements to obtain specific values in the image to be replicated. A total of 19 measurements were chosen, enough to characterize the size of this animal (see Fig. 2 and Table S1 in Supplementary Information). The Euclidean distance between the model and sample value was then calculated for each measurement taken:

In Eq. ( 1 ), x is the value of the measurement in the model and y is the value of the measurement in the sample.

The results obtained were normalized to fit the distances to a common scale, with all distances contributing equally to this assessment. Finally, the average of the normalized distances was calculated, providing an overall size and a similarity index. A high percentage indicates a similarity closer to the model. To select the most similar samples, a cut-off value of 75% was employed.

Secondly, the relative sizes of the figures produced in Tasks 1, 2 and 3 was evaluated to assess how experts and non-experts utilized the available space in the media. A statistical study based on comparison tests was used. Before running the comparison tests, normality and homoscedasticity were assessed using Shapiro–Wilk test and Fisher’s test, respectively. For Task 1, as data was not normally distributed, the non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test was used; while for Tasks 2 and 3, as data met the normality and homoscedasticity assumptions, Student's t-tests were used.

Finally, the presence/absence of relevant anatomical details was examined in the realistic image generation task (Task 1) and in the drawing and engraving from memory tasks (Tasks 2 and 3). The goal of these final formal analyses was to objectively assess the quality and accuracy of the generated images compared to the original model, examining differences between experts and non-experts in visual arts. For this analysis of the presence/absence of anatomical details, a total of 33 attributes and 79 values were defined (see Table S2 in Supplementary Information), which were subsequently analyzed using a Correspondence Factor Analysis (CFA) 79 and a Cluster Analysis (Ward's method and Euclidean distance).

Regarding the technical analyses, in Task 3, we calculated a “technical analysis index” of the productions made with prehistoric tools. Specifically, the presence/absence of errors in the execution of the engraving from memory task was analyzed, assessing the ability to engrave without executing involuntary accidents, which could result from a lack of knowledge of the interaction between the burin and the media, as well as imbalances of the forces exerted 45 .

The motifs were observed using a Leica MZ 16 with 16:1 apochromatic zoom, 7.1× to 115× magnification, using an added-on Leica IC90E, and a Dino-Lite AD-7013MZT version 1.3.2 digital microscope, with 5-megapixel resolution and 10× to 250× magnification. Microscopic analysis of the lines was based on previous work 44 , which determined a series of technical indices or stigmas (i.e., microscopic indices that reveal the engravers' gesture) 47 indicative of greater or lesser motor control of the tool and the engraver’s actions. There were six stigmas associated with expertise (i.e., depth of the incision; use of combined profiles using different active parts of the tool to generate different types of strokes; precision in the actions; differential relief; combination of techniques; and preparation of the surface) and six associated with non-expertise (i.e., difficulty in deepening a single groove; the tool going outside the line; inflexions in curved lines; inflexions in straight lines; slips; and rectifications) (see Table S3 in Supplementary Information).

With these indices of expertise and non-expertise obtained from the technical analyses, a database was generated using Livecode© software to describe the motifs engraved by the participants. Expertise indices were quantified positively, while non-expertise indices were quantified negatively. Consequently, the “technical quality index” for each motif was between -10 and + 10, depending on the degree of expertise of each engraver. This methodology follows a framework previously applied to archaeological record and experimental programs 44 .

The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the finger positions of the dominant hand of each participant highlighted the most active parts of the hand during the tasks. In Tasks 1 and 2, movement patterns mainly involved the flexion/extension of the proximal and metacarpophalangeal phalanges of the five fingers, with the middle finger being particularly active. There were few flexion/extension and deviation movements of the wrist, and abduction/adduction of each finger and the thumb were not significantly involved in the movement of the hand. Task 3 showed a different pattern, with noticeable change in the most frequently used anatomical angles (see Fig. 3 ). The index, ring, and little fingers dominated in flexion and extension of the proximal and metacarpophalangeal phalanges, as well as in the involvement of the wrist with flexion, extension, and deviation movements. As in the previous tasks, abduction/adduction of each finger did not seem to be involved in the movement of the hand. Additionally, there was limited involvement of flexion and extension of the carpometacarpal joint of the thumb in this engraving task. No significant differences between experts and non-experts regarding the biomechanic data in any of the tasks were found.

Principal component analysis of the median times of each of the anatomical angles analyzed in the flexion and abduction movements, and heat map of the most used phalanges and joints during the execution of the tasks.

Formal analyses of realistic image generation and drawing/engraving of Paleolithic motifs

Based on their size, the similarity index between the drawn figure and the model (a real horse and the horse depicted in the cave of Les Trois-Frères) showed differences between experts and non-experts in Tasks 1 and 2. Specifically, experts exhibited similarity percentages above 75%, while non-experts did not exceed 50%. However, in Task 3, the differences between experts and non-experts diminished, with neither group exceeding 70% similarity (see Fig. 4 a). In other words, the results suggest that while artistic expertise was consistently associated with accuracy in size during drawing tasks, this relationship was not observed in the engraving task.

( a ) Similarity index between the model and the figures represented in Tasks 1, 2, and 3. ( b ) Size of the figures relative to the media.

In analyzing the use of media in Tasks 1, 2 and 3, experts used a significant portion of the available surface area in Task 1, W = 229, p < 0.001, Task 2, t (31) = 5.44, p < 0.001, and Task 3, t (31) = 4.63, p < 0.001. As shown in the boxplots (see Fig. 4 b), experts used a substantial portion of the available surface area for the drawing from memory tasks, occasionally leading to incomplete figures, whereas non-experts used only a fraction of the available media to frame the motif depicted.

The presence/absence of relevant anatomical details in the drawn/engraved figures differed between experts and non-experts in Tasks 2 and 3, but not in Task 1, a task primarily measuring visual long-term memory. Specifically, the CFA discriminated the details represented in the figures, such as the presence of cervical-dorsal curvature, anatomical details, and treatment of perspective, assessing the quality of the generated image compared to the original model. On the one hand, experts were associated with the correct perspective of the front and hind legs, as well as with the extension of the line of the abdomen in both the front and hind legs. On the other hand, non-experts were associated with straight biangular and oblique biangular perspectives of the front and hind legs (see Figure S4 in Supplementary Information). Therefore, our results demonstrate significant differences in the accuracy of the reproduction of the generated image of Paleolithic motifs based on artistic expertise (see Fig. 5 ).

Examples of the horse representations made in Tasks 1, 2 and 3 by expert and non-expert participants. The difference between Task 1 (drawing of a horse from memory) and Task 2 (copy of the Les Trois-Frères model) can be observed, as well as the differences between experts and non-experts in the control of certain aspects of the representation such as the perspective in all the tasks.

Technical analysis of the engraving of Paleolithic motifs

The "technical quality index" was calculated according to the presence/absence of errors in the engraving task (Task 3). As noted above, this index assessed the ability to engrave without executing involuntary accidents resulting from a lack of knowledge of the interaction between the burin and the media, as well as imbalances in the forces exerted 45 . In our sample, there were no significant differences between experts and non-experts, with values between -5 and -8 (values could range from −10 to + 10). Common errors included tool slipping and sliding, difficulty in deepening a single groove, and snagging of curved strokes (see Fig. 6 ).

Examples of engravings made in Task 3 by expert and non-expert participants, showing common errors such as the difficulty in deepening a single groove (ID2, 24, 25, 32), snagging in curved strokes (ID4, 24, 32), and lack of incisions depth (ID15, 7, 14).

These findings revealed the high level of inexperience of our sample in Task 3, an engraving task specific to Paleolithic art. This is consistent with the analyses of the biomechanics of gesture that indicated fewer or no differences between experts and non-experts. Both the technical quality index and the gestures suggest that the specific learning required for Paleolithic engraving techniques may result in differences in engraving between experts and non-experts.

General discussion

This research explores the cognitive abilities and motor skills involved in the creation of Paleolithic art motifs and engravings by comparing visual art experts and non-experts. In Study 1, we used psychometric tests to analyze spatial ability, assessing spatial visualization, mental rotation and perceptual speed, as well as memory capacity, assessing short-term memory and working memory using verbal and visuospatial information. In Study 2, drawing/engraving tasks involving Paleolithic techniques were used that assess participants' visual analysis and skilled motor execution. The results revealed differences between experts and non-experts across several tasks, highlighting the abilities associated with artistic expertise in visual art.

Firstly, our findings from Study 1, derived through psychometric approaches, showed significant differences in spatial abilities between experts and non-experts in visual arts. Specifically, experts outperformed non-experts in spatial visualization and mental rotation abilities. These findings align with the limited previous research suggesting that artists possess enhanced capacities to manipulate and process visual information efficiently e.g., 23 , 31 , 35 , as well as research concluding that the ability to generate and transform mental images is important for the visual arts 18 .

However, not all data consistently point to differences in cognitive abilities between experts and non-experts. Specifically, no significant differences were observed in perceptual speed or memory, neither for working memory nor short-term memory, regardless of whether the memory involved verbal or spatial information. Although previous research suggested that perceptual speed is a component of spatial ability 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , in Study 1, perceptual speed did not differentiate between visual arts experts and non-experts, unlike spatial visualization and mental rotation. However, these findings align with more recent proposals by other authors like for example, Schneider and McGrew 80 , who argued that it is important to distinguish between speed-related abilities, like “speed of perception”, and level-based abilities, like “visual-spatial abilities”. In this case, a simple test such as the perceptual speed task can be easily solved by most participants, making it impossible to observe differences between our expert and non-expert groups.

Furthermore, previous literature suggests a relationship between working memory, spatial abilities, and processing speed e.g., 81 . Therefore, it was essential for us to confirm that there were no significant differences in memory performance between our sample of experts and non-experts in visual arts, as such differences could confound our understanding of the results related to spatial ability. Since there were no differences between experts and non-experts in visual arts in working memory and short-term memory, both for verbal and spatial information, we can confidently conclude that there are cognitive processes associated with the creation of visual art, emphasizing the importance of spatial cognition as the basis of expert knowledge in artistic expertise in visual arts.

Secondly, in Study 2, a new methodology was presented to evaluate the visual accuracy of copied images based on quantitative dichotomous and criteria. This methodology allows us to objectify the notion of accuracy in copying, as understood in previous works 20 , 82 , 83 . Likewise, using the Rokoko Smartgloves to measure dominant hand movement enabled the objective measurement of motor coordination.

The results showed that experts in visual arts accurately represented anatomical details and perspective in their drawings, unlike the more rudimentary productions of the non-experts. In other words, experts were closer to the real model in terms of the similarity index. This was evident in the analyses of the figures from the experimental tasks: drawing a realistic horse from memory (Task 1) and drawing and engraving a horse figure depicted in Paleolithic art from memory (Tasks 2 and 3, respectively). Additionally, experts utilized more surface area in all three tasks, reflecting their strategic approach to artistic expression and superior control over the media. These findings highlight the precision and strategic space use required for artistic expertise in visual art. As Gustavsen 84 noted, novice artists often do not consider the distribution of space, focusing primarily on the most representative aspects of the figure. Finally, we observed that experts displayed greater visual memory, accurately reproducing aspects of the original model, such as perspective or animation, while non-experts showed difficulties with these elements. This aligns with previous research indicating that artists have a higher capacity for local processing of visual details 22 , 82 , 85 and better encoding and depiction of key object features 20 , 25 , 35 , 37 , 86 , 87 . Chamberlain et al. 88 also found a significant correlation between visual memory and drawing ability, implying the involvement of visual memory in the drawing process.

Despite the differences found between experts and non-experts in the figures depicted in the experimental tasks, no differences were found between the groups regarding the biomechanics of gesture in any of the tasks. This suggests similar motor skills between experts and non-experts in visual arts, as has been also revealed by previous studies 89 . These findings support Cohen and Bennet's 90 conclusion that differences in visual accuracy between expert and non-expert artists are due to non-artist's misperception of the object, rather than differences in motor skills. In our Study 2, the absence of differences in motor skills in the drawing tasks (Tasks 1 and 2) could be explained by the familiarity with the drawing technique, which lacks specific biomechanical characteristics and is commonly learned in Western societies from childhood 90 . Regarding the engraving of a figure depicted in Paleolithic art (Task 3), the lack of differences in motor skills between groups may be due to neither group being familiar with this specific Upper Paleolithic technique. This aligns with previous studies 45 , indicating that specific training in Paleolithic engraving technique is needed, regardless of drawing talent or formal art education. This is supported by the low technical index evidenced by the works on slabs from both groups. This low technical index is also present in the archaeological material, specifically in those works exhibiting the same technical stigmas that reveal difficulties in handling the tool. The convergence of the experimental protocols with the archaeological evidence reinforces the hypothesis of an artistic apprenticeship in the Paleolithic 44 , 47 .

Taken together, this research found that artistic expertise in visual art is associated with better performance in some spatial abilities, with experts showing higher mental rotation and spatial visualization than non-experts (Study 1). Additionally, artistic expertise is associated with a specific pattern in drawing from memory, with greater accuracy in the size and formal details of the drawn figures in experts than non-experts and better utilization of the media size in all tasks (Study 2). These results support the idea of a consistent relationship between drawing from memory and cognitive abilities in the context of artistic expertise. Kozbelt 20 conducted one of the most extensive analyses of the differences between artists and non-artists, finding that artists scored higher than non-artists in both mental rotation and drawing tasks, among others. Additionally, these tasks were highly correlated. Goldsmith et al. 91 , later confirmed these findings using drawing, mental rotation, and spatial visualization tests, showing that participants with low spatial ability also scored significantly lower in drawing tasks. They argued that participants with high spatial ability could represent what they saw more accurately. Thus, previous literature, in line with our findings, highlighted that artists exhibit unique abilities shaped by their experience and expertise in visual cognition.

In summary, the results of the two studies provide compelling evidence that motor skills and spatial cognitive abilities are intrinsically associated with artistic expertise. By analyzing the cognitive and motor processes underpinning artistic expertise, our research contributes to a deeper understanding of the processes involved in Paleolithic artistic production. However, this study also highlighted that Paleolithic art requires a specific technical apprenticeship related to motor skills, corroborating previous findings 44 , 45 . Thus, this research lays the groundwork for future research to determine which specific motor and cognitive abilities are linked to Paleolithic art and how they differ from those attributed to artists in general, beyond the role of innate talent 39 .

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to sensitive personal data being involved. Still, they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their comments and appreciations that have contributed to improve the quality of the work.

This work has been funded by the research project "Creation and perception in Anatomically Modern Humans: analysis of the biological, cognitive and social skills linked to the production of Palaeolithic art (ArtMindHuman) Project PID2021-125166OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ and by FEDER A way of making Europe, PI: O. Rivero.

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OR, MSB, AA-M, MS, MG-B wrote the main manuscript text, the rest of the authors reviewed the manuscript. MSB, AA-M, MS, JE conceived and designed the Study 1. OR, MG-B, AMM-P, X-EC conceived and designed the Study 2. MSB, AA-M, MS, JE collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data analysis in Study 1. OR, MG-B, AMM-P, X-EC collected, analyzed, and interpreted the data analysis in Study 2.

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Rivero, O., Beato, M.S., Alvarez-Martinez, A. et al. Experimental insights into cognition, motor skills, and artistic expertise in Paleolithic art. Sci Rep 14 , 18029 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-68861-2

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300-500 rub. Price of official taxi "Aeroservis" to the center - 400 rub (has the desk in airport building ).

// Do you can recommend a taxi app which works in rostov?

Yandex-taxi works in Rostov for sure, do not know about others. For security reasons and to avoid rip-off I recommend use Yandex-taxi or official desk of "Aeroservis". Also public transport (bus and trolley) is available, airport is located near the city.

As always make sure you bank knows you will be in Russia - especially if it is not a european bank

>Also public transport (bus and trolley) is available, airport is located near the city.

That's gonna change soon, the new Platov Airport is constantly bemoaned for how inconveniently it's placed, if we're speaking of Rostov-on-Don, of cource, not Rostov the Great.

thank you for the informations! You have helped me a lot!

I suppose Yandex-taxi in rostov on don is working 24 hours? I have found something in Azov, I guess with Yandex-taxi it should be not a problem with transportation, 24 hours?

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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Experimental / Jazz

August 11, 2024

On May 8, 1965, a group of musicians gathered at a house on the South Side of Chicago. They’d been summoned there, via postcards mailed out by four local peers, to discuss the founding of a new collective, devoted to generating fresh opportunities for artists engaged in what they called, simply, “creative music.”

At one point during the meeting, a saxophonist named Gene Easton summed up the frustrations shared by many in attendance. “We’re locked up in a system,” he said, “and if you don’t express in the system that is known, you’re ostracized.”

“But,” he added, “there are far better systems.”

By this time, some prominent musicians had famously bucked mainstream jazz conventions, pursuing revolutions either subtle or splashy (see Miles Davis ’ Kind of Blue and Ornette Coleman ’s The Shape of Jazz to Come , respectively). But change in jazz still came with controversy: John Coltrane , for example, was alienating some critics and peers with an increasingly abstract style. For an average working jazz musician, especially outside the hotbed of New York, who wanted to keep gigging while also aspiring to engage with vanguard sounds—let alone one, who like some present at that 1965 South Side meeting, was wary of pledging allegiance to jazz, or any other style—it’s easy to see why open expression still felt risky.

When Easton spoke of feeling “locked up,” he was talking in musical terms. But his desire to transcend creative restriction signified a higher purpose for the nascent Chicago collective, one that would open up new avenues for Black musicians seeking to thrive beyond category or genre. The group, which would soon dub itself the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or AACM, would go on to have an immeasurable impact on the course of jazz, experimental music, contemporary classical, and other proudly unclassifiable styles, from the mid-’60s up through the present.

A short list of the major artists to emerge from the AACM includes two Pulitzer Prize honorees (2016 winner Henry Threadgill and 2013 finalist Wadada Leo Smith ), various NEA Jazz Masters (including Muhal Richard Abrams, the group’s co-founder and longtime musical and intellectual anchor, as well as Anthony Braxton , Amina Claudine Myers and Threadgill) and younger luminaries such as Nicole Mitchell , guitarist Jeff Parker , and cellist Tomeka Reid . But of all the musicians ever to carry the flag for the organization’s better system, perhaps none embodied its core principles of limitless aesthetics, self-determination, and solidarity among individuals more aptly than Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Malachi Favors, and Lester Bowie, early members who eventually joined forces as the Art Ensemble of Chicago .

If the AACM is a galaxy, worthy of a lifetime of study—and to anyone looking for a star map, A Power Stronger Than Itself , trombonist-composer and longtime member George Lewis’s 2008 critical history, the source for the meeting excerpt quoted above, is essential—the Art Ensemble are at least a planet, or more accurately a solar system, given their wealth of satellite projects. Their discography, spanning over 40 albums for more than 15 labels across 50-plus years, can be tough to penetrate.

Early recordings from before the group settled on its collective identity—such as Sound , a stunningly assured 1966 album released under Mitchell’s name—are key, as are the wealth of LPs the band made in France after temporarily relocating there in 1969. Another high point: Fanfare for the Warriors , a 1973 Atlantic set that reunited the members with their mentor Abrams. But the Art Ensemble reached an apex during their roughly six-year initial association with ECM, the German label whose pristine sonics and diverse roster helped to define the sound of ’70s jazz, which kicked off with an album that’s both staunchly uncompromising and about as inviting as avant-garde music gets, bearing the unassuming title Nice Guys .

In some ways, the record feels like a manifesto, setting forth the cornerstones of the group’s musical and conceptual agenda. The back cover features a photo of the quintet set up in Ludwigsburg, Germany’s Tonstudio Bauer, facing one another, with their gear sprawling across the room. We see each musician with his primary instrument—saxophones for Mitchell and Jarman, trumpet for Bowie, bass for Favors and drums for Don Moye, who had joined as a full-time member in 1970—but also visible are mallet keyboards in the center of the room, and, next to Favors, a table full of what the group called “little instruments,” gongs, tambourines, shakers and assorted horns that each member wielded at various times. In the bottom right are two key bits of text, spelling out both the group’s proud hometown affiliation—“The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an AACM group”—and its mission statement: “Great Black Music—Ancient to the Future.”

That regal phrase, coined by Bowie and Favors in the late ’60s as a motto for the AACM as a whole and later augmented by Favors, contained multitudes. First, it was a gesture of self-worth. “We want to avoid the stigma of jazz,” Bowie said of the term in an interview quoted in Paul Steinbeck’s valuable 2017 Art Ensemble biography Message to Our Folks . “When you say ‘jazz,’ it means, ‘uh-oh’: You’re the lowest paid guys on the concert, you have the worst hotel, you’re the least respected. The name ‘Great Black Music’ generates more respect.”

Second, it was a statement on aesthetics. The group’s members had all come up through a rich array of musical traditions: Favors and Mitchell in their family’s churches and at clubs around Bronzeville, the vibrant South Side neighborhood that served as the center of Black cultural life in Chicago during the Great Migration; Jarman soaking up gospel and jazz at home and studying at Chicago’s DuSable High with legendary music educator Captain Walter Dyett; and Bowie learning from his father, a renowned band director, growing up in St. Louis. They embraced the current jazz vanguard, especially the work of Ornette Coleman, but for them an engagement with the new didn’t entail a rejection of what came before, or what they still heard around them. Their 1969 album Message to Our Folks featured interpretations of the gospel staple “Old Time Religion” and the Charlie Parker bebop standard “Dexterity” as well as the overtly James Brown -esque “Rock Out.” During the same era, the group also collaborated on an avant-garde funk tune with Fontella Bass, the hit-making R&B singer behind “Rescue Me” and Bowie’s then-wife.

“Rhythm & blues; rock and roll; spirituals; swing; Dixie; reggae; bebop; funk—all these things are available to us as practitioners of Great Black Music,” Jarman later said in an interview with the writer Martin Johnson.

Moreover, the musicians found the rapidly crystallizing aesthetics of East Coast free jazz, which often favored a roiling intensity, to be limiting. Released in a period where John Coltrane and his New York disciples like Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders were pushing toward fiery, ecstatic maximalism, Mitchell’s Sound LP provided a subtle yet firm counterpoint, making potent use of negative space and contrasting austere improvising with a playful, almost vaudevillian spirit .

“Chicago developed a school that was totally different from the New York school,” Mitchell said in an interview with George Lewis. “The main difference was that we would stop,” Bowie answered when Lewis asked him about this distinction. “We had rests. We had whole notes. We were dealing with some melodies.”

The Art Ensemble also had its own striking visual identity, on full display across Nice Guys . On the inside sleeve, we see each of the musicians preparing for a performance, which for some of the members involved, as Moye once put it, “colorful, African, Third World type of projections,” manifesting in face paint and eye-catching outfits. In the drummer’s words, these visual elements activated a stage-ready mindset, helping him to “evolve up to a high enough level to deal with the music.” (Likewise, in the mid-‘70s, Moye adopted the name Famoudou from a Guinean drummer he admired, while Favors took the surname Maghostus in tribute to both an Egyptian deity and a pharaoh.) But on the front, these five world-renowned musical iconoclasts are simply chilling out with some coffee, conversation, and a newspaper. From the ceremonial to the casual, all modes were welcome at the Art Ensemble’s table.

Musically, the album’s 44 beautifully eclectic minutes sent a similarly inclusive message. On Bowie-penned opener “Ja” the group demonstrates with enchanting ease how comfortable they were swirling together their many influences and strategies. Starting with a restless blur of sound, the musicians settle into a pensive theme that could almost be a Nino Rota soundtrack excerpt. Whimsical whistles and touches of sound-effect percussion add an aura of playful surreality. Then, around two and a half minutes in, the scene changes dramatically as a quick Moye fill leads the band into a loping reggae groove. Joseph Jarman enters on lead vocal, adopting a Jamaican accent as he sings the “story of a man I know, coming from St. Louis,” who—as Bowie had actually done for around a year in the mid-’70s—settles in rural Portland Parish, Jamaica, but has to leave to follow his path as a global ambassador of Great Black Music. Favors and Moye dig deep into the song’s swaying rhythm, as Jarman and Mitchell’s saxophones form a rich backdrop, and Bowie alternates between big brassy blasts and softer variations on the melody. There’s virtuosity at work here, sure, but the overall effect here is like attending an easygoing beach party.

If “Ja” showcases the Art Ensemble’s reverent but slyly radical approach to genre, “Folkus,” a lengthy piece by Moye, demonstrates how adept they were at dealing with pure sound. It builds slowly from a spare invocation to a kind of aural traffic jam, where Bowie’s trumpet and various horns converse in overlapping cries and honks. Then comes an eerie percussion interlude centered around vibes, gongs, chimes, mallet-struck drums and eventually what sounds like distorted, amplified voice. Near the end, the group shifts gears, becoming a tightly orchestrated drum choir, playing an interlocking rhythmic pattern. Despite its abstract, intuitive structure, the work feels entirely intentional, a document of five musicians working together to conjure a series of distinct moods. The vividness of the recording—by Martin Wieland, who also engineered dozens of other ECM classics, from Pat Metheny ’s Bright Size Life to Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell’s El Corazón —brings you closer to the heart of the group’s world than on any other prior Art Ensemble document: You feel like you’re seated in the musicians’ midst as they enact a spellbinding sonic rite.

Mitchell’s “Cyp” is another masterful abstract piece, where bursts of trumpet and daubs of saxophone ring out against stark silences. Jarman’s “597 - 59,” by contrast, is the album’s edgiest selection, moving from a tightly arranged multi-part theme to a vigorous, churning improv workout, the closest the record comes to the so-called New York school of free jazz. Mitchell’s title track too is something entirely different, a swinging, lushly arranged miniature, not worlds apart from early ’50s cool jazz, bookended by a melodica drone, chattering horns, and a lighthearted spoken proclamation: “They’rrre soooo niiiice.”

On closer “Dreaming of the Master,” a simple bluesy riff penned by Jarman, we hear the group in classicist mode, offering up Great Black Music in the mode of their forebears, with Bowie’s trumpet solo—played partly with a mute and partly without—strongly evoking the Miles Davis of around 20 years prior. Jarman’s tenor leads the band through one more hurtling freeform sprint before they close with a sublimely chill recapitulation of the theme, emphasizing once more that the Art Ensemble could inhabit any of its chosen musical zones, from the most reverent to the most radical, with total authority.

More than four decades on from Nice Guys , following the deaths of Bowie, Favors, and Jarman, the Art Ensemble still persists , as Mitchell and Moye have enlisted various younger artists, including the prominent poet and cross-genre experimentalist Moor Mother, as well as AACM members Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid and bassist Junius Paul . Still, its lineage can be hard to trace. In recent years, as the music and aesthetics of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders have been widely feted and emulated in a new wave of spiritual jazz, clear descendants of the Art Ensemble are far less common. (A few who have built on aspects of their legacy include the Moor Mother -fronted Irreversible Entanglements , who favor a broad stylistic range, ritualistic performance style and strong historical grounding; Reid, Nicole Mitchell and drummer Mike Reed’s collective Artifacts Trio, a band explicitly dedicated to celebrating the past and present of AACM; and the late jaimie branch , known for her challenging yet celebratory brand of avant-gardism.)

Taken as a whole, Nice Guys clearly shows that there was indeed a better system to be found, one that could allow its members to liberate themselves from constrictive forms, embracing both experimentation and, yes, tradition on their own terms. Great Black Music was serious, the album argued, a ritual you had to equip yourself for, but it could also be one hell of a good time. Pull up a chair at our table, the combination of music and image seemed to say. After all, we’rrre soooo niiiice.

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Isaac Psalm Escoto finds the intersection between L.A.’s art galleries and graffiti

Graffiti artist Sickid prepares to open his first show at Jeffrey Deitch Studio.

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“My car got impounded again. I am so sorry I’m late,” said Isaac Psalm Escoto, practically running into Jeffrey Deitch , a contemporary art gallery on Santa Monica Boulevard, energy drink in hand.

It was the second night in a row that his 2006 Scion xA got towed. Escoto, also known by the graffiti alias Sickid , is on a tight deadline to finish the final installment in his first solo exhibition, “ Gas Station Dinner. ” From the crevice of his ear to the shoelaces on his Converse sneakers, he’s covered entirely in unintentional paint splatters.

The unfinished piece is a 20- by 60-foot canvas wall that mimics a billboard — a size the graffiti artist is well acquainted with. The painting depicts a cityscape that brings together imagery from Escoto’s artistic world of dysfunction. A massive woman is sprawled across the horizon. Her body is framed by warped skyscrapers branded with Cup Noodles, the Playboy Bunny, Western Exterminators’ mascot, Mr. Little, and a blimp reading, “Ice Cube’s a Pimp.” Below the woman, the chaos of the city ensues, including depictions of a car accident, a police chase, a wounded skater, a strip of discount stores and a piano-playing duo. The spray-painted mural is complete with the religious imagery of a crucifix and several battling angels and devils wreaking havoc. All of Escoto’s work is set in this florescent realm of mischief and humor.

A man stands in front of one of his artworks.

Inspired by his diet of 7-Eleven hot dogs and taquitos, the 25-year-old painter came upon the name “Gas Station Dinner” as both a joke and a tribute to the people in his life who have stuck by him and his art. The show will be on display until Aug. 10. Walking the line between hyper-realism and hyperbole, his ambiguous reality is inhabited by characters with brown skin, pointy eyeballs, rosy cheeks and rug-burned knees.

Escoto also exhibits a series of canvases featuring characters in acts of misconduct. They are pictured punching the screen of a Taco Bell drive-thru menu, chainsawing an ankle monitor and pointing a gun from behind the counter of a convenience store. No matter how outrageous the characters’ behavior, the artist grounds them in familiar settings such as a messy bedroom, a grocery store and a gas station bathroom.

In the gallery’s back room are a series of smaller-scale works that continue to explore points of view within the context of Escoto’s world. In some paintings, viewers are looking at the world through a microwave door, a fishbowl or a security camera lens.

“I’m inspired a lot by my viewing history of different forms of media. I’ll take something that was super impactful, like ’90s anime that inspired ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Blade Runner.’ Those kinds of things depict cities with a dystopian tone and mix it with culturally rich, diverse and funny imagery,” Escoto said. “I look to Eastern ways of shelling futuristic cities and landscapes and fuse them with my ideas of modern Los Angeles lifestyle.”

The show is a product of Escoto’s first official practice at Tlaloc Studios, where he focused on painting. Before landing a coveted spot at the artist-run studio in South Central L.A., he worked out of a space he created within his mother’s walk-in closet. Over the last three years, Ozzie Juarez , founder of Tlaloc Studios and a fellow artist, has witnessed Escoto transition to bigger-scale works and continuously introduce new techniques.

“When I look at [Escoto’s] paintings, I see an artist that’s enjoying himself while making work,” said Juarez. “The amount of work he puts in tiny sections throughout his paintings is ridiculous. It’s those details that really give you an insight of who Isaac is, what his personality is like and, above all, what it’s like to grow up as Latino in Los Angeles.”

Escoto’s parents emigrated from Mexico and Guatemala. As he reflects on his childhood in East Hollywood, he says the neighborhood helped form his “opinions and viewpoints.”

The works included in “Gas Station Dinner” showcase Escoto’s ability to flesh out his world, where “uncommonality becomes the mundane” and his devious characters are free to run amok.

“It’s a city that’s shaped by other cultures from other countries and by the immigrant lifestyle. That’s kind of how I view my city,” Escoto said. As he says “my city,” he lets out a laugh.

Alongside the inventive cityscape, Escoto’s work is deeply rooted in humor. Making fun of modernity while portraying absurdity is a balance he is well acquainted with. In the painting where a woman aims a gun from behind a convenience store counter, she is surrounded by SpongeBob SquarePants bongs, a wall of sex pills and potato chip bags with rappers’ faces on them.

“It’s not necessarily putting a bow on it or trying to romanticize a delinquency or dysfunction. Instead, I’m just putting out an image saying, ‘This is reality, and it’s not necessarily good or bad,’” said Escoto.

Although this is Escoto’s first major gallery exhibition, Los Angeles is already well acquainted with his work. Before he put his characters on canvases, he spent years painting them all over the city under the guise of Sickid. Instead of tagging his name like other graffiti artists, he is known for creating intricate scenes on billboards, the sides of buildings, bus stops and abandoned storefronts.

From a red devil baby urinating on an obstructed wall in Chinatown to outlandish depictions of luchadores , police officers and angels on an Echo Park billboard, Escoto first found his artistic style as a graffiti-addicted teenager.

He adopted the practice at age 14, spending weeknights sneaking out at all hours to draw his characters around town.

“I was lucky enough to have supportive older siblings who took me to the places that were like gateway drugs to a deeper art experience,” said Escoto.

They first took him to Meltdown Comics, a beloved, now closed comic shop in West Hollywood that specialized in all things comedy and collectibles. Upon entering the storefront, everything changed for him. He equates the experience to entering an art museum for the first time; it was an introduction to a whole new world where he could blend the grit of graffiti with the lively spirit of comics.

“Graffiti is an empowering act because it’s so lawless, and there are consequences to it. So maybe it’s lawful. I don’t know,” Escoto said. “It puts my brain in a place where I put out only images I want to.”

The urgency of graffiti helped him commit to imagery and build confidence as an artist. Saving his “weirder subject matter” for the studio, he found that in the streets he didn’t need to worry about perfection.

“What matters most is what you’re trying to come across in a piece. It’s all about your intention behind it and how are you trying to communicate that,” Escoto adds.

The namesake and owner of the gallery, Jeffrey Deitch, first discovered a Sickid billboard while driving on the 101 Freeway. Allured by the eye-catching imagery, he knew he had to meet the artist.

“Isaac is painting a different kind of L.A. that we all know. It’s those little convenience stores inside gas stations, the rack of products in car washes and the interior of liquor stores,” said Deitch. “He introduces us to that world which we all know but we haven’t seen yet in art. It’s a very interesting thing how he captures this essential aspect of contemporary Los Angeles.”

As Escoto enters his mid-20s, he‘s realized that the true theme of his work is rooted in the struggles that come with adulthood and wanting to return to a childlike place of comfortability.

“A lot of pieces are not biographical but I’m projecting myself into a lot of my subject matter. I live vicariously through my figures, and that’s the basis of the painting,” said Escoto. “I’m depicting the struggles and insecurities of growing up and trying to find yourself through dysfunction.”

Hence the need for gas station dinners.

“As I was sketching the mural with the big extension roller with no ladder, an extreme sense of gratitude came over me, like this is what I would do down the street on a billboard,” Escoto said. “I’m using the same hand, and it’s like I’m looking up at a black billboard, but I’m on the inside of Jeffrey Deitch.”

Betsabeé Romero turns car parts from California junkyards into potent art on immigration

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Downtown L.A.’s graffiti-wrapped skyscrapers become permanent — in a tattoo

June 20, 2024

EL SEGUNDO-CA-OCTOBER 4, 2023: Mark Bradford is photographed in El Segundo on October 4, 2023. DO NOT PUBLISH. FOR THE POWER LIST PROJECT ONLY. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Mark Bradford: Transcendent abstract artist

June 2, 2024

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Cerys Davies is a spring reporting intern in the De Los section of the Los Angeles Times. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she focuses her writing on the Latinx experience within the context of the city. Often looking to art and music as tools and sources of inspiration, she finds her passion for the arts, writing and her community all come together within the context of journalism.

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New hardware device to make artificial intelligence applications more energy efficient

Chip with the letters AI imprinted on it

ECE researchers have demonstrated a new device where data never leaves memory, called computational random-access memory (CRAM). This research comes from Wang and his collaborators’ patented work on Magnetic Tunnel Junctions, key to spintronic devices and used to improve hard drives, sensors, and other systems including Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). The CRAM architecture enables true computation in and by memory, and it breaks down the wall between computation and memory which has been a bottleneck in traditional von Neumann architecture. CRAM performs computations directly within memory cells, utilizing the array structure efficiently, which eliminates the need for slow and energy-intensive data transfers. The state-of-the-art hardware device could reduce energy consumption for artificial intelligence (AI) computing applications by a factor of at least 1,000. The team plans to work with semiconductor industry leaders for large scale demonstrations and production of hardware to advance AI functionality. The team were supported by researchers from the University of Arizona.

The University of Minnesota Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering team included Yang Lv, Distinguished McKnight Professor and Robert F. Hartmann Chair Jian-Ping Wang, Professor Ulya Karpuzcu, researchers Robert Bloom and H üsrev Cılasun , Distinguished McKnight Professor and Robert and Marjorie Henle Chair Sachin Sapatnekar, and former postdoctoral researchers Brandon Zink, Zamshed Chowdhury, and Salonik Resch. The researchers from University of Arizona included Pravin Khanal, Ali Habiboglu, and Professor Weigang Wang.

The research is published in npj Unconventional Computing , a Nature journal under the title, "Experimental demonstration of magnetic tunnel junction-based computational random-access memory." To read the details of the research, visit the npj Unconventional Computing website.

The research was supported by grants from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Cisco Inc. Research including nanodevice patterning was conducted in collaboration with the Minnesota Nano Center and simulation/calculation work was done with the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota.

The College of Science and Engineering first posted this news.

Computer Science > Computation and Language

Title: gemma 2: improving open language models at a practical size.

Abstract: In this work, we introduce Gemma 2, a new addition to the Gemma family of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models, ranging in scale from 2 billion to 27 billion parameters. In this new version, we apply several known technical modifications to the Transformer architecture, such as interleaving local-global attentions (Beltagy et al., 2020a) and group-query attention (Ainslie et al., 2023). We also train the 2B and 9B models with knowledge distillation (Hinton et al., 2015) instead of next token prediction. The resulting models deliver the best performance for their size, and even offer competitive alternatives to models that are 2-3 times bigger. We release all our models to the community.

Subjects:	Computation and Language (cs.CL); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as:	[cs.CL]
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arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

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The Infinities Commission is for artists whose practice reflects diversity of thought and is at the forefront of cutting-edge contemporary art.
The Artists Who Defined the East Village's Avant-Garde Scene
For a short time in the early '80s, the Manhattan neighborhood was the epicenter of experimental art. Jeff Koons, Peter Halley, Ashley Bickerton, Joan Wallace and Barbara Bloom remember the moment.
Portland's Favorite Experimental, Time Based Art Festival Bounces Back
The schedule for Portland's favorite experimental art festival, TBA, dropped this week. After last year's slow roll out, the fest returns with three weekends of weird music, Black horror, and an ...
Unusually Awesome Art Mediums That Will Astound You
Different art mediums open up a host of possibilities. Beyond classical painting and sculpture, today's avant-garde artists often experiment with unexpected materials and unconventional methods of creating. In fact, across all genres of art, you will find artists who are able to transform ordinary works into pieces that are unbelievably extraordinary. Here, we showcase the unusual mediums used ...
Experimental Art & Technology
Experimental Art & Technology at the University of New Mexico is an interdisciplinary experimental program within the Department of Art. Students are expected to make work that comments on, engages with, and expands our notions of what technology based art can be through courses that explore high tech immersive environments alongside consumer ...
Experimental Photography: A Primer for the Curious
Experimental Photography Since 1945 As time passed, more wild opportunities for creating experimental photography became available or were discovered. For example, X-ray and infrared photography took off massively after World War II, leading to a slew of notable experimental art in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
[INTERVIEW] CYLINDER's unorthodox ascent in Korea's art gallery scene
33-year-old gallerist Ro Doo-yong to present experimental works by Lee Jong-hwan at Frieze Seoul Nestled between a home decor shop and a photo studio, a sleek, white cube with a glass front stands ...
Experimental insights into cognition, motor skills, and artistic
The production of Paleolithic art represents one of the most intricate technical and cognitive endeavors of Homo sapiens, marked by its profound antiquity and vast temporal and spatial framework.
Museum of Don Cossacks
The Museum of history of Don Cossacks ( Russian: Музей истории Донского казачества, Muzyey istorii Donskogo kazachestva) is a museum of art, culture and history of Don Cossacks in Novocherkassk, Rostov oblast, Russia. The oldest museum in Southern Russia, it was founded in 1886. Its collections, of which only 151,000 items is on permanent display, comprise over ...
Rostov College of Arts
The Rostov College of Arts (RCА) was founded in 1900, when the music classes of the Rostov branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society governed by M. L. Presman (fellow student and friend of S. V. Rachmaninov) were transformed by the efforts of M. L. Presman into the Rostov Imperial Music School. In addition to educational activities, the ...
UNDERPASS ART (Rostov-on-Don)
Underpass Art, Rostov-on-Don: See 406 reviews, articles, and 278 photos of Underpass Art, ranked No.1 on Tripadvisor among 568 attractions in Rostov-on-Don.
What Do We Mean by Experimental Art?
The experimental quality of art is more likely to be understood as a matter of degree of innovation, though this approach is rendered problematic when put in a historical context.
ATMs support visa?
Answer 1 of 7: Hello, does visa works in rostov ATMs? Or do I need a mastercard? Is there a ATM at the aiport? Many thanks in advance! Best regards Jim
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Nice Guys Album Review
The Art Ensemble also had its own striking visual identity, on full display across Nice Guys. On the inside sleeve, we see each of the musicians preparing for a performance, which for some of the ...
Isaac Psalm Escoto finds the intersection between L.A.'s art galleries
Under the moniker of Sickid, Escoto has spent years sharing his art on billboards and buildings. "Gas Station Dinner," his first major solo show, brings these characters to the Jeffrey Deitch gallery.
New hardware device to make artificial intelligence applications more
The state-of-the-art hardware device could reduce energy consumption for artificial intelligence (AI) computing applications by a factor of at least 1,000. ... "Experimental demonstration of magnetic tunnel junction-based computational random-access memory." To read the details of the research, visit the npj Unconventional Computing website.
Gemma 2: Improving Open Language Models at a Practical Size
View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: In this work, we introduce Gemma 2, a new addition to the Gemma family of lightweight, state-of-the-art open models, ranging in scale from 2 billion to 27 billion parameters. In this new version, we apply several known technical modifications to the Transformer architecture, such as interleaving local-global attentions (Beltagy et al., 2020a) and group ...

The Dubai Future Museum: A Gateway To Innovation In The UAE

The Seven Greatest Examples of Experimentation in Art

Grauer Tag Painting by George Grosz

The Great Metaphysician by Giorgio Chirico

The School of Athens by Raphael

Der Radionist by Kurt Gunter

Portrait of Madame Isabel Styler-Tas by Salvador Dali

Roy Lichtenstein’s TAKKA TAKKA

The Suicide of Dorothy Hale by Frida Kahlo

Conclusion – Experimentation in Art

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What Do We Mean by Experimental Art?

Index terms

Bibliography

Secondary sources

List of illustrations

Electronic reference

About the author

Full text issues

The Journal

Call for papers

Information

Newsletters

In collaboration with

Experiments in Art and Technology

Activities Leading to E.A.T.

E.A.T. Competition and Some More Beginnings

Communications and Development

9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering

Pepsi Pavilion

Activities, Projects, and Proposals 1969-1979

E.A.T. Founding and Early Activities

Projects Outside Art

Collaborations with Artists in the 1980s-1990s

Documenting E.A.T.

Art Media: What Happens When Artists Experiment with Unusual Materials

Burnt Plastic

Smoke & Soot

Dead Animals

Elephant Dung

Pornographic Magazines

Chewing Gum

Cassette Tapes

Lottery Tickets

Relevant sources to learn more

Modernisms 1900-1980

When Art Intersects With Life

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Experimental Art: How Taking Risks Impacts the Arts and Creators

Artistic Experimentation

The Evolution of Experimentation

The Importance and Power of Experimentation

Benefits of Creative Experimentation

Real-Life Examples

Incorporate Experimentation into Your Practice

Tips for Experimentation in Art

Embracing Experimental Art

What Are the 7 Fundamentals of Art? Unlocking Secrets to Master!

What Are the Basics of Painting? Unlock Creativity and Painting Mastery

Is It Too Late to Learn to Paint? Unleash Your Creativity!