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Leonardo, Vol. 17, No.2, pp. 69-70, 1984. Printed in Great Britain. EDITORIAL 0024-094X184 $3.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd. INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ARTIST: A PROPOSAL I. INTRODUCTION: THE ABSENCE OF ARTISTS AT THE FRONTIER OF CULTURE Scientific and technological research continuously pushes our cultural frontiers outward. This research shapes everything from our view ofthe world to our household gadgets. Artists traditionally have stimulated the cultural expansion. But as science and technology increasingly dominate the frontier, artists are failing in their historical function; they are not developing viable ways to join this research effort. 'Artist' has many meanings. In the popular mind an artist-a painter or sculptor, perhaps-manipulates materials to produce beautiful or interesting images and objects. My definition of artist looks beyond this surface manipulation to more fundamental qualities. The artist function ideally includes asking unaskable questions, pushing at conceptual limitations, illuminating new holistic perspectives on the commonplace, prophesying, and keeping alive the sense of wonder and play in even the most rigorous quests. This kind of artist can make critical contributions. In keeping with Leonardo's mission of testing cultural frontiers, I analyze here some aspects of the problem that results from artist absenteeism. And I propose that the Industrial Research Artist, a new player, should help find solutions. I address these questions: What does culture gain from artist involvement in technological and scientific research processes? What obstacles keep artists from being involved? How can these obstacles be overcome? II. ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM: THE ISOLATION OF ARTISTS FROM INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D) Many artists, on principle, have avoided the world ofcommerce. They have gloried in their status of 'outsider'. By staying clear of grimy, mundane activity, they think that they have kept their hands clean, their sensibilities unfettered, and their spirits free. They frown upon their colleagues who, they believe, have compromised their artistic purity by working with industry. The contemporary linkage of scientific and technological research to commerce thus adds to the obstacles preventing artist involvement. The marriage ofindustry and technological research has in some ways been fruitful. It has generated unanticipated concepts and applications that are profoundly reshaping the world. Industries are breaking through barriers-in concerns such as image making and sensory exploration-that were once formidable strongholds of artistic investigation. By retreating from the action, where the fires of cultural creativity burn white hot, artists are losing their place in the cultural vanguard. The technological industries' trade shows outclass contemporary art events in illuminating the cultural future. In the past, artists have tried to be in the forefront of culture-probing, exploring its meanings, exposing its unseen connections, and redirecting it. Industrial R&D is now culture's advance guard, and artists are dangerously distant from this essential development. The culture needs artists at the core ofindustrial research and development, not just to play parasitically with its gadgets and paraphernalia. The price of artist disinvolvement is increasing across the board. Artists need this involvement to keep their work from being anachronistic and irrelevant. Industry needs this involvement to enrich its development of ideas and products. The culture needs this involvement to ensure that maximum resources will contribute to innovation. III. THE DIFFICULTY OF INVOLVING ARTISTS IN INDUSTRIAL R&D To involve artists in technological research will not be easy. On the one hand, artists need to get over their fears of technology and commerce. On the other, industrial R&D has to expand its concepts of problem solving so that it is able to absorb the artist contributions. Financial viability is the decisive factor in commercial ventures. Yet analyzing each action for its effect on profits is an obstacle to artist involvement. What profit can there be in this involvement? How can industry, which won't even support basic scientific research without the guarantee of a short-term payback on investment, be expected to support art research? 69 70 Editorial Traditionally, industry, because of its 'responsibility' to the community, is urged to give money to art. At best, this motive usually results in mere token support. Industry either supplies funds for traditional and entrenched art institutions, such as museums and symphonies, or it purchases inoffensive decoration to beautify corporate headquarters. These approaches do nothing to reduce the isolation...

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