Symposium ‘The Systemized World’

Whilst the exhibition tackled the leitmotif based on visual evidence, the Symposium curated and moderated by Eno Henze set the stage for a more theoretical touch down with the topic of abstraction.

In mathematics abstraction is conceived as a construct for generalisation that can be applied to a set of different elements. Yet, it can be embodied in a medium representing this abstraction. Taking a medium like money for instance, apples become comparable to pears, and these even to immaterial goods like work or moral integrity. Apparently the world can be represented by money comprehensively. Thereby the world obtains a formerly unknown relation, the presence of which effectively transforms it.

However the system of money reaches far beyond the valuation of everything. Money is becoming a commodity of it’s own, one can bet on developments of the market, bet on bets, and even valuate and sell these bets again. A hierarchical system of abstraction emerges, in which the lower abstraction represents the concretisation of a respective higher abstraction. In this hierarchy abstraction is both material and instrument.

 
 

The complexity of abstraction systems surrounding us today – economy, science, internet, medicine, transport easily over-challenge the human mind. For both their creation and application we need technical auxiliaries. As a mediator of abstraction the computer has proven capable of representing the most diverse systems, effectively becoming a universal machine of abstraction. By means of the computer abstract systems may be constructed and manipulated, residing outside the realm of human perception yet affecting the fate of humanity to a great extent.

Looking at the power and effect of these systems of abstraction, important questions are emerging: Can we still speak of a primacy of man before machine, or have we become agents of a self-fulfilling regime?

Complementing the exhibition, November 20th has been a full day of lectures where artists and scientists of various disciplines discussed systems of abstractions and their social relevance. The subsequent symposium allowed the curious audience to participate in a discussion with the speakers.

 

About the curator

Eno Henze

Berlin/Frankfurt, Germany

Eno Henze is an artist, scenographer and designer based in Berlin and Frankfurt. His works examine how machines transform aesthetic reasoning and notions of the human. Combining theory with technology and computation, Henze creates images and spaces that oscillate between great complexity and clarity, between human and machine origin.