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Weizenbaum's Cabled Madness An Introduction Statement Art Clay Digital Art Weeks 2007 The Digital Art Weeks 07 invited performing Artists to submit proposals in connection with wearable technology and the arts. This resulted in a series of performances during three evenings organized in partnership with the Cabaret Voltaire under the theme of “Cabled Madness”. Works were chosen particularly from performance artists, who use technology (old or new) to empower themselves in an explosion of the boundaries of the body and in order to link the audience into the virtual of technologically-animated space. The immersive character of the works -or the DIY attitude of “here it is and in your face” known from non-nerd hacker-artists - hopes to trigger a critical observation in the mind of the audience-participant. In this regard, we at the Digital Art Weeks are not only programming and making works of art with a technological long lever, but we are hopefully making impact with these works on an aesthetic and social level too.” The term “Cabled Madness” itself not only refers to the program in the Cabaret Voltaire but it makes an appropriate reference to Joseph Weizenbaum”s criticism in regard to computing. This states that society basically went mad when it started to put consideration and trust into machines in matters which demand human compassion. The fad use of Weizenbaum”s Eliza program and such concepts as Ronald Reagan”s Star Wars System of defense come to mind here. So, like Weizenbaum”s plea for sanity in computer application, many of the works to be experienced in the Cabaret Voltaire during the Digital Art Weeks do trigger critical observation and do so in the hope to counteract the most logical form of evolution in the 21st century enabled by technology: Intelligence without morals. In Weizenbaum”s latest book “Wo Sind Sie, die Inseln der Vernunft in Cyberstrom””, which roughly translated as “The Island of Reason in Cyberspace, Where are They”” one not only reads about computer technology itself, but one reads about it framed in a social and cultural context.” Weizenbaum often talks about the how film is important to him and gives and several examples from which films he has learned something. “ For example, the film “Key Largo” is mentioned. This film revolves around a hotel that is occupied by gangsters. The counterparts are played by Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson.” Reference is made to the scene in which Bogart asks the gangster boss, what he actually wanted or wants. Robinson contemplates the question briefly and answers with a single word: “More.” Weizenbaum then states that this word “more” characterizes our society in that not only gangsters just want “more” but so do most people. He also states that between the making of the film and today, things have changed a bit: Today, people don”t want more, they are busy trying to keep what they have. There is a big difference here. The “more” of yesterday was an expression of optimism. The “more” of today refers not to wanting to have “more”, but to the want for security. Politically, we are losing. The American propaganda that states “We are a rich country: We can afford to drive around in 400 PS Luxury wagons” is becoming “more” and “more” a provocation and one that leads to only having “less” and not “more”. If this is true, we should find such discontent in more recent media. Sung out by the rebellious punk group Agitpop in a section of the song “Loaded with Blanks” we hear: “Every day is more like a fight: I”m a twisit”n and a turn”n till I think I right. I am so sick and tired of more, more, more.” And a few chords further we hear a few bars of sanity and we have our proof: “I”m not happy with what I got but it is all I”ve got. So I”ll just have to learn to live with that”. This sounds reasonable, at least more reasonable than driving around the narrow streets of Zurich in a Humby at the environment”s cost. Back to the book,” Weizenbaum speaks of “Islands of Reason”, but Island are island and they remain so, separated and isolated from one another. Perhaps just a metaphor for the situation of having a small amount of reason within a society gone mad, or a needed provocation to take action to build “bridges”, or create meaningful bonds between people whose goal is, to do something “good” through an act of human compassion. Further, he expresses in the book a hope that “more” and “more” islands of reason join so that at one point in time a “continent of reason” forms in a sea of madness. So, in metaphor and in celebration of art and science and what may form when such a bridge as the Digital Art Weeks is spanned to unite their shores, we can look forward to a unique program consisting of Symposium and Festival having common themes taken from art and science. To conclude, we can clearly see that computer technology not only has become an important part of our general culture, but stands as living proof that art can be coded and that this code is a compassionate undertaking that spans bridges not only between artists to form a group, but also spans science and art to form a cultural movement in which differences between the two are ever diminishing. Art Clay # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org