Manifesto for a Theory of the ‘New Aesthetic’ makes a case for attending to the aesthetic experiences machines make available to us when images are a product of their systems or processes. The author, Curt Cloninger, argues his case through an appraisal of the ‘New Aesthetic’ meme — a previously undertheorized aesthetic constellation whose principal vehicle for the dissemination of related ideas and imagery is James Bridle’s ‘The New Aesthetic’ tumblr blog. Cloninger takes ‘New Aesthetics’ seriously, but finds it lacks theoretical grit. His manifesto is a rallying cry for such substance as he begins to outline the necessary theoretical basis for a critical ‘New Aesthetics’.
For Cloninger, the New Aesthetic is technology accumulated to such a degree that it becomes an image. And, the New Aesthetic image is a subset of images generated through systems and processes. They are a “special kind of image” at once both bodily and affectively “sussable by humans”. He reckons that the New Aesthetic image can be felt before it is understood (and that you may never even come to understand it). Cloninger’s position is precarious. He must strike a balance between the necessary force of argument and theoretical heft required to have his project taken seriously, while talking about a phenomenon that is, in part, defined by its immediacy and non-linguistic, non-theoretical force. He must be both close to and distant from his subject. Cloninger needs to critique Bridle and his cohorts for their lack of theoretical rigor while also endorsing the view that New Aesthetic images don’t need theory to be felt or “sussed”.
As I read his manifesto I empathized with Cloninger’s predicament of proximity to his subject. I, too, believe that New Aesthetic images have “sussable” qualities that can be felt and apprehended immediately, but in my view these feelings are partially conditioned through exposure. I offer Cloninger a gentle critique based on situating these images, and the subjects who suss them, in specific historical and cultural circumstances. To adapt his own words, context matters in understanding matter. This historical and cultural specificity serve to fuel the Freudian Uncanny, not undermine it. Like Cloninger, I am compelled to endorse critically.
Visitors to the site that offers my analysis (this) are greeted by two large machine-made images. These images are generated from body scanners used for security purposes in airports around the United States and elsewhere. Within this visual field, I offer the user two buttons. One is labeled “Entangled in a network” and the other is “Show an entanglement.”
When the user selects “Entangled in a network” the scanner images fade and the analysis of Cloninger’s manifesto is displayed in 50 pixel Helvetica Black Condensed set over a blue sky. As the user scrolls down to read the text the landscape is revealed to be a texture from Google Maps—another iconic ‘New Aesthetic’ system. Once the text has been read, it can be dismissed to return to the body scanner images.
“Show an entanglement” launches a reference to an artist or a philosopher or a cultural or technological condition from Cloninger’s text as well as posts from the New Aesthetic tumblr. These references are mapped through the visual rhetoric of the pop-up window. Each is positioned just above the body scan images. The randomly (one must resist teleology after all) loaded references are curated by me to highlight the academic and cultural capital Cloninger traffics in. I wanted to call attention to the intellectual history and context that the manifesto circulates in while at the same time repeating Cloninger’s predicament of proximity that I was sympathetic to. In other words I recreate, in order to expose, the division between sussing the things and the intellectual context surrounding them. I make this separation deliberately rather than linking directly from the keywords of the text in the ‘textual’ moment. Through the sequence of interactions and visual composition, I tried to reveal the critical dilemma he faced as well as the rhetorical logic at work in his text.