The Enduring Appeal and Fear of Indexicality and Origins

This talk uses our current exhibition as a springboard to consider some strands of Western philosophical and aesthetic traditions as they pertain to representation, mimesis, the metaphysics of presence, technology, and simulation.

A key thinker about the import of simulation is Jean Baudrillard, a quintessentially Cold War theorist whose work examines analogue and digital technologies to take account of the desire for, rejection of and impossibility of indexical replication. His thought will provide one of many key touchstones for this talk.

Ryan Bishop is Professor of Global Art and Politics at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. His most recent book is Technocrats of the Imagination: Art, Technology and the Military-Industrial Avant-garde (2020, Duke University Press, co-authored with John Beck) and his editorial work includes co-editing the journal Cultural Politics (Duke UP) and two book series ‘A Cultural Politics book’ (Duke) and ‘Technicities’ (Edinburgh UP, with Jussi Parikka).

Host or Publisher Henry Moore Institute