STRAIGHT TALK
with Philip Galanter
Philip Galanter is an artist
working in the fields of
generative art, complexity
science, physical computing,
light, and sound. Galanter is
also a reseracher, writing on a
variety of subjects including
computational art, complexity,
art and science, and aesthetics.
Additionally, Galanter is a
curator, playing a major role
in the exhibtions ArtBot and
COMPLEXITY.
By Pamela Segura
Contributor
As an undergraduate in college I went from
majoring in physics to philosophy. I was attracted to fundamental disciplines. I made the jump
when I realized that science only addresses a
subset of human concerns. But I was still taking clocks apart in a sense. I spent a lot of time
making electronic music and programming
computers. What fascinated me was the way I
PG: I honestly feel that there is a continucould create systems that, in some small way,
ous thread that can be traced from my current
activity all the way back to my childhood. I was had autonomy. They could surprise me even
the kind of kid who wanted to know how things though I had created them in the first place.
work. I would take apart mechanical alarm
From there it was a short jump to generative
clocks and then try to put them back together
art. The commonality tying together generative
again—that kind of thing.
art, physical computing, complexity science,
and even art theory is a systems-oriented point
But at the same time I was an argumentative
of view. Again, tinkering with clocks. But I also
sort. It wasn’t that I felt any particular antagospent some considerable time pursuing, punk
nism towards people. But I always wanted to
know why this or that rule or value or belief was rock, harsh electronic and industrial music,
justifiable. “How do you know? Prove it!” I was and other Dionysian forms. Sometimes simply
smashing the clock and seeing what spills out
this little pain-in-the-neck kid epistemologist.
can be rewarding.
This was also a form of wanting to know how
PS: The ways in which we define aesthetics, crethings work. I didn’t want to just read the face
ativity, and the advancement of computational
of the clock of received wisdom. I wanted to
intelligence seems to drive much of your art. How do
understand the springs and gears of right and
you find work through these often-challenging, everwrong, truth and conjecture, knowledge and
changing concepts in your artwork?
faith.
PS: Your art and teaching encompasses a great deal
of interests, including generative art, physical computing, complexity science, art theory, sound art, and artificial intelligence. What initially sparked your curiosity in these subjects, and how has your art helped you
express yourself in relation to these subjects?
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SciArt in America December 2014