Theoretical Background
2024 a manifesto
for Fournos Lab
The text does not present the classical form of manifestos. It is not denunciatory,
it is not aggressive; it is not demanding.
When most human and physical systems are in entropy a positive strong proposition is enough.
Our unique species, who separated themselves from the animal kingdom, who succeeded in making their own nature within nature
[as it suited them], who developed a transcendental function within their brain
and formed a language that could describe the most peculiar state or thought,
this unique species, reaches the end of this
phase of civilization and must necessarily be carried on to the next.
Everyone will be held accountable for this and will act accordingly:
They will destroy (it is happening intensely at this time), they will withdraw, they will create.
We are almost forced to propose a new structure that will have to heal
the Anthropocene and find more creative and humanistic roles
for the Great Acceleration.
Claiming your reasonable rights in the classic / usual ways is not enough.
However, the gravity of the situation on the planet -and
the cloud around it- allows ways for everyone to participate in the solution.
To utilize all the elements and mechanisms that, for the first time in history
of humanity, are given to everyone and to work out in word-actions
the key questions to claim or, above all, to propose a new structure of life -
- through these mechanisms - is the right way.
There are important manifestos or declarations that have changed the world.
The first ones were about land, its ownership, the treasures it hides. Colonization
on new continents and human mechanized labor.
The industrial revolution created another state of human expansion
in the environment and another mechanism of enrichment and inequality.
The digital revolution created the next colonies and mechanisms of enrichment /profit.
Wealth is accumulating in new centers. The enthusiasm of artists and activists
for a new free cyberspace ended ingloriously.
A key characteristic of the era - apart from the decadence - is the high speed
of all processes and the bottomless storage of intangible digital goods.
It reduces labor, industriousness and sensitivity, as most tasks
and enrichment /profit are created with the digital system being the central protagonist.
The land, the earth, has shrunk, reserves are dwindling, and wealth extraction is developing
through digital applications that readjust existing situations,
, such as (e)commerce or Air, Bed and Breakfast [Airbnb]
---
Before this situation comes to an end, in its total degeneration, a completely new era
appears with particularly unprecedented characteristics that brings confusion.
We are moving from the Artificial World to Artificial Intelligence.
From the movements, the expeditions and the new intangible colony where everyone and everything is there, civilization
is moving to a next stage, to a next space that has many interesting hidden opportunities.
Those who will discover them will be the ones who will not fear the new situation
and, above all, will resist it through the very elements of its ontology.
The struggle for the new, for justice and happiness is carried over from the material realm
the earth, the battle, the blood to the new space of writing. Writing has always played an important role.
Sacred books, texts on granite and stone gave the commandments to the faithful while papyrus scrolls,
parchment and books passed on the knowledge of handling many subjects
- engineering, history, philosophy - from the oldest to the youngest generation.
Digital writing gives life to the text. It does not guard it like a protective ark,
unchanged, like a book. The digital text takes orders from the human being
and does the tasks (he or she or it) they want.
The texts and symbols, the images, the sounds and animations, the special symbols that computers
that computers understand, the cloud that is all within it.The speed of action and the large storage spaces
created by humans, place the human being in another space or non-space .
Following the holy scriptures that guided believers and the science books that illustrated
the laws of the earth we tread upon, humanity is joining into a cloud of complexity that will coordinate life.
By what elements exactly will it be organized, how will its governance be, what borders will be considered,
those of the states? And most importantly, what will the education
of the new inhabitants, the children who will take over, be?
Art throughout the course of man has played an important role. It had to bring the gods to earth
and into the consciousness of the faithful. Paradoxical as it may seem, they were the first avatars.
In the industrial revolution, in the detachment of all relations and objects
with the basic equivalence of money, Art gained its independence.
Artists expressed their dissent and claims in many ways. It is the only profession
which has submitted to society a plethora of manifestos.
In a way, the new structure of the form of the image they were creating and especially the breaking of the form
articulated corresponding social associations.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the mechanism that brings the new age was presented to the general public
primarily through Art and especially the image. It trapped everyone and everything by offering them
an easy way to create striking images,
whereas what is dramatically lacking in this era is content.
It also ensnared the very artists whose ancestors
brought the gods to earth or created transcendence.
It is too soon to know what Art will actually be present in the new situation.
You, try to test, essentially, this complex of mechanisms, that has impressed everyone,
to create the “impossible” for the benefit of people.
And yet you can achieve it! ...to pull the sword out of the rock, like knight Arthur.
The above comes from a small core, the Fournos Multidisciplinary Communication Network, which brings together artists, scientists, and intellectuals,
aiming to research Digital Culture. Founded in 1984, the first official announcement was made in 1987 by Santorineos
on "The Artist's Laboratory in the Digital Age". Today, the Laboratory operates as Fournos Lab.
