Extropic Art Manifesto
of
Transhumanist Arts
____________________
Extropic Art Manifesto
of
Transhumanist Arts
____________________
We are transhumans.
Our art integrates the
most eminent progression
of creativity and sensibility
merged by discovery.
I am the architect of my existence. My art reflects my vision
and represents my values.
It conveys the very essence of my being—coalescing imagination and insight,
challenging all limits.
We are exploring how current and future technologies affect
our senses, our cognition and our lives.
Our attention to these relationships become fields of art as we
participate in the most immediate and
vital issues for transhumanity—extending life, augmenting intelligence
and creativity, exploring the universe.
Artists, as communicators, bring together the passions, the
dreams and the hopes of transhumanity and
express these emotions in ways that touch us deeply.
Transhumanist Arts reflects an extropic appreciation of aesthetics in a
technologically enhanced world.
We are voices of transhumanity. Our voices are a synthesis, rhythm and exploration of imagination.
The Transhumanist Arts movement and its genres regard art as
more than an artifact.
Art influences social and cultural change: how we live and who we are.
It creates a sense of self, art as being, autonomous yet connected to
culture’s
continuum. How we accomplish our intentions is a matter of selective individual
choice—
whether abstract or representational, whether artifact or conceptual.
Our criteria for art remain open and we welcome cross-disciplinary innovations.
As we move into the 21st Century,
Transhumanist Arts and Extropic Art will suffuse the universe around us.
Our unique ingenuity will spread far out into the capillaries of our culture.
We are active participants in our own evolution from human to posthuman.
We are shaping the image—the design and the essence—of what we are becoming.
Natasha
Vita-More
Authored January 1, 1997 ©
2003 ©
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The Transhumanist Art Manifesto is onboard the Cassini Huygens
spacecraft on its mission to Saturn. You can view the location of the
manifesto here:
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transhuman n. an evolution from being human to becoming posthuman
1. FAQ What is
Transhumanist Arts?
Transhumanist Arts is an art period reflecting creative works of
transhumanity. Just as Modern Art represents much of the arts of the 20th
Century, Transhumanist Arts covers the late 20th Century into the 21st Century.
The Transhumanist Arts period coalesces arts, sciences and technologies in
reflecting the efforts of transhumans in enhancing and augmenting our minds and
bodies as we strive for superlongevity and ultimately indefinite lifespans. The
ideas generated by those whose work is transhumanist in scope, exemplifies the
content of the transhumanist culture and is generated through many modes, from
painting to New Media, and modes yet to be discovered. Transhumanist Arts
include creative works by scientists, engineers, technicians, philosophers,
athletes, educators, mathematicians, etc., who may not be artists in the
traditional sense, but whose vision and creativity are integral to
transhumanity.
The Transhumanist
Arts Statement was authored by Natasha
Vita-More (formerly Nancie Clark) in 1982. This is the first time the
written words "We are transhumans" has left our Planet on its way
through our Solar System. Hundreds of people around the world have signed the
Manifesto.
The first Transhumanist Arts piece was made into a high 8 mm film. Performance
Art " Breaking Away" which storyline themes human evolution in
breaking away from our biological restraints and breaking away from earth's
gravity as we head into space. The performance art piece was written and
performed by Natasha Vita-More at Red Rocks Amphitheater and sponsored by the
University of Colorado Film Department. Don Yannacito, Director of Film Studies
Program for independent filmmakers, filmed the performance.
Later Transhumanist Arts works include a painting exhibition at EZTV Los Angles,
video "2 Women in B&W" which received special recognition at Women
In Video, 1985, "T - and Counting" (in deference to FM-2030, Marvin
Minsky, Carl Sagan, Harold Choen, Anais Nin, Susan Sontag and other transhumans,
futurists and great thinkers) which was exhibited at the United States Film
Festival, 1992. There have been many digital art pieces and net.art pieces
covering the 1990s.
2. FAQ What were early
influences on Transhumanist Arts?
Early artists who were interested in Transhumanist Arts that I either
collaborated with or exhibited with in the art world were Timothy
Leary, John Dorr (famous for starting
EZTV which is now internationally recognized Video art performance space), Eric
Orr (who has exhibited his sculpture throughout the World), Robert Thrumbull
(Kinetic artist and architect), Howard Cohen first artist to work with robotics,
Bill Viola (video maverick), Francis Ford
Coppola was an early collaborator and inspiration when I was at his
studio Zoetrope in Hollywood and we worked on the first High Definition Film
which I was in. Another truly incredible artist is Richard Lowenberg who set up
the first Internet community and who I collaborated with on the 1979 project
"Arts & Sciences '79" in which 30 well known artists and 30 well
known scientists met for a week of brain storming. Other remarkable artist is
Pam Lifton-Zoline (established a foundation and school for creativity in
Telluride, Colo), Vito
Acconci Italian performance artist and probably the recognized
performance artists in the world and who was an early influence and collaborator
in the 1980s when I met him in San Francisco. Also, an early colleague and
inspiration in the area of video was and is Bill
Voila who is an internationally famous video artist. I love his work
and am honored that we met early on. Marian Gray was also an early fabulous
inspiration and collaborator. As a photographer of performance art,
Marian's photographic collection is superlative. Today may collaborate on
a mountain muscle Internet piece, and Marque
Cornblatt's with a transhumanist exhibition. Other Transhumanist
Artists include Marvin
Minsky, Fiorella Terenze , Karl
Sims , Stelarc, Ebon
Fisher , Charles Ostrum, and David Bowie.
3. FAQ What is the Extropic Art genre?
Extropic Art is a genre of Transhumanist Arts. The genre was founded by Natasha Vita-More in 1997, Los Angeles.
If you would like names of movements, genres and periods as well
as individuals who inspired Transhumanist Arts period and the Extropic Art
genre, then it would be all art periods and movements and all creative
individuals. Specifically, however, Abstract Art, Performance Art, Kinetic Art,
Cubism, Techno Art, science fiction and Communications Art. In these specific
genres are numerous artists whose work has influenced Transhumanist Arts and
Extropic Art and continues to influence. Today, however, Transhumanist Arts is
more influenced by the work done in the sciences, especially biotechnology and
molecular engineering, which will have great impact on the art of our future.
Soon artists will be designing new bodies and new types of senses.
I have a later list from 1997 onward, hundreds of artists have written to me and
sent their names to be added to the Extropic Art
Manifesto.
Also, a great influence and colleague is ASCI
which we are delighted to be affiliated with. ASCI puts on excellent conferences
in New York and is at the center of arts and sciences.
3. FAQ What is the
Transhumanist Culture?
In my self-published short book Create/Recreate:
the 3rd Millennial Culture, I explain the beginnings of transhumanist
ideas as presented by FM-2030 at UCLA in the 1980s, and at the New School
earlier on. I also cover the extropic influence on transhumanism as well
as the influences of science and technology on our emerging culture.
Art works were produced and exhibited at the well known LA Digital Gallery EZTV,
at Electronic Café International, at the University of Colorado, UCLA, San
Francisco Art Center, and videos were exhibited in "Women In Video",
US Film Festival. The art world is an important culture (and a multimillion
dollar industry) and has a lot of influence on society. Thus, I would add
Transhumanist Arts as an important cultural event in the early 1980s. On
television, the first transhumanist show was produced in 1985 called "Transcentury
Update" which I produced and hosted with the advice of FM-2030.
4. FAQ Why Art in a World of Science
and Technology?
The question of why we want to live longer, healthier and grow more intelligent,
live indefinitely and develop an enhanced intelligence, creativity and
transhumanist compassion. The art of life.
'We have responsibilities and concerns and the wisdom to deal with them. How we
use technology and science, and what type of content we lend to our arts is not
a flimsy affair. We must be conscientious and sensible, as well as daring and
innovative. We must consider who we are in a world where the machine is becoming
smarter and smarter, where the impossible is now quite possible."
("Culture In The Making" from Create/Recreate)
When we think of the arts, it is necessary to stretch our imaginations to a time
when humanity will steer evolution. We are at the precipice of navigating this
course now.
There are many concerns and theories about the future of the arts, but if the
focus overemphasizes theory, content is neglected. Theory is necessary to assess
content, but content must arise out of culture. Content is the pulse. It can
reflect culture as a cultural portrait or it can steer culture by presenting a
vision. How we engage in new technologies will reflect this.
5. FAQ How do we
achieve/maintain direction as Transhumanist Artists?
By checking and rechecking the barometer of society and planning for the long
range. If the pioneering technologies are focusing on extreme life extension and
the innovative biotechnologies that will augment our brains and bodies are in
the forefront, this is a cue. To learn more about the international art
movement, please refer to the Transhumanist Arts Center located at Transhumanist.biz.
Here you will find the Transhumanist
Arts Statement.
Create!
Natasha Vita-More
Copyright © 2003. All Rights Reserved.