Artworks; People and Materials. A Phenomenological and Systemic Analysis of Contemporary Art

This paper analyses the phenomenological and inter-relational linkages between technology, people and contemporary art. Maurice Merleau-Ponty posits that there is no hierarchical relationship between physical subject and material object. Objects are the field where the subject operates and that enable the being of the body. Starting from these approximately 80-year-old theses, some argue that new technologies and people are also related through matter. The opposition between inside and outside, real and virtual, is diluted when the logic of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology is applied. Matter and body are part of the framework that gives order and meaning to the world, a framework present in the relationships between technology, people and culture.

Within current mainstream culture, contemporary art includes a wide variety of materials and discourses within its borders. It makes contact with various fields such as politics, science, technology and even cuisine. Science, technology and art established diverse relationships over the last century. To understand these relationships, we must take into account the field of production and the new generated spaces and contacts. However, the study of reception is essential to understand the reach of digital art from a phenomenological, comprehensive and systemic perspective. It is also necessary to consider the various brands of mediation that objects, knowledge and agents print on objects, subjects and their relationships. A complete analysis of contemporary art needs to consider the materials, the body, the inter-relationships, ie, the material conditions of culture.