From Body to Machine: Sculpture in Times of Technological Change

Abstract

Sculpture has undergone a major shift in artistic practice and theory since the 1950 and 1960s, bringing together different media, techniques and conceptual approaches. Historically, the theoretic sculpture discourse has been influenced by topoi, such as the myth of Pygmalion or the Paragone, drawing parallels to other art forms. However, in recent discussions, media-specific features like spatiality, plasticity, temporality have been highlighted, using ideas from phenomenological, discourse-analytical, and image-theoretic perspectives. The body—human/non-human—has always been a key subject. In 1968, Jack Burnham’s book “Beyond Modern Sculpture” connected the history of sculpture with technology, thus moving it away from anthropomorphism. According to him, the developmental history of sculpture, whereby sculpture culminates in its productive exchange with technological and scientific achievements of the time, must take into consideration positions beyond the conventional canon: dolls, automatons, kinetics and cybernetic art (“Cyborg Art”). In 1979 Rosalind Krauss published her influential diagram “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” developing a structural understanding of sculpture beyond material-specific questions, thereby opening a post-modernist (post-medium) field of “the sculptural.” Following the narrative of “sculpture in the expanded field,” this paper aims to discuss relevant theories of sculpture within historical and contemporary changes, looking at the interconnection between the body and the machine—including phenomena like digital, virtual, and 3D-printed sculptures.