CATSeries*

-Culture, Art, And Technology Series-

In the 1960s, Canadian journalist Marshall McLuhan said, “I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.” In a time of rapid social and technological change, art is the voice of our culture, a voice that we are afraid will be lost to concrete jungles, robots, AI and digital technology that is becoming more and more a part of our every day lives.

Our concern with technology emanates throughout society, and this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered technological protest. As early as in the 1800s, the Luddite movement was one of the first greatest organized movements against technology. The working class felt threatened by machines that were seen to be replacing them in the Industrial Revolution, and the Luddites protested against low wages and long hours.

Today, there exists another argument, that technology erodes human character to the extent that we become artificial, and to the extent that we behave just like machines.

This concern is at the forefront of innovation. Artists and technologists alike debate the issue, from debates on social media to exhibits at major international festivals such as Sundance New Frontiers, SXSW and Sonar +D that showcase works of art and tech that demonstrate aspects of the human condition and connectivity that technology affects in an ever globalizing world.

This series on culture, art and technology explores how culture is expressed and influenced by new technologies in a series of discussions with artists who work in new mediums.

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By @scifiannemarie

*C-A-T-S are the voice of the internet after all.

CATSeries inspired by Marshall McLuhan: ““I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.”

Are we building or destroying culture with technology?

Note cover image: A reference to Chaos Theory. If we look at the world as a whole, it appears to be chaotic, however, if we look at the parts and patterns, we find that the whole is made up of a number of smaller rule systems that co-exist to create the entire ecosystem. Finding patterns in the world is our way of making sense of the complicated activity that is happening on a day to day basis. It’s in our hands to guide these movements.