Ghosts in the MachinicAuthor(s): Robert W.

Sweeny
Source: Visual Arts Research , Vol. 43, No. 1 (Summer 2017), pp. 50-56
Published by: University of Illinois Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/visuartsrese.43.1.0050

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 50 Visual Arts Research Volume 43, Number 1 Summer 2017

Ghosts in the Machinic Robert W. Sweeny

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Supplementary material for this article can be found online at http://www.press.uil-

linois.edu/journals/var/media/43.1/sweeny/index.html.

This paper outlines a number of ways in which contemporary life is influenced by net-
worked digital technologies. The author specifically looks to examples from video games
and social media to inquire about aspects of contemporary art educational practices
that might benefit from further analysis in these areas. The notion of the machinic will
be used to expand beyond literal and determinist descriptions of digital technologies in
art educational practices, drawing upon the work of Deleuze and Guattari.

Much of contemporary life is lived in and through machinic networks. Depending

upon where, how, and to whom one is born, individuals in varying degrees grow
up in, mature through, and pass away while being connected to digital devices and
processes. In this paper I will discuss the implications for an art education that in-
vokes the complexities of machinic life, as well as death. And if we are to use this
teleological framework, we might also inquire as to the advantages made possible
through the summoning of a digital afterlife.
Born Digital. The phrase evokes numerous interpretations. It has been writ-
ten about in relationship to the notion of the “digital native” (Palfrey & Gasser,
2010). Additionally, it also can refer to the creative process, describing the “birth”
of an artistic expression or production. I will explore the implications of both of
these interpretations as they relate to contemporary art educational practices. In
particular, I will extend this line of thinking to inquire about the full digital life

© 2017 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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 Robert W. Sweeny Ghosts in the Machinic 51

cycle. If one is “born digital,” then it follows that one must “die digital.” What
happens when one dies within networks that are ephemeral as well as tangible?
And what of the creative process? When a work of art is born digital, might this
represent the death of tradition? When information lives on longer than physical
materials, then what happens to the digital work of art?
Art educators might be most concerned with the changes that accompany
the use of digital media in the classroom, the studio, and the marketplace. Previ-
ously I have written about three fundamental shifts that involve the digital, and
which should concern art educators who are involved in discussions of digital
media, originality, and creativity (Sweeny, 2004). In writing about an “aesthetics
of cloning,” I invoked shifts in these three concepts, in order to explore pos-
sibilities for art educational practices that recognize the unique characteristics
of digital media and the cloned image. When these examples are discussed, it
is crucial to acknowledge the rhetorical application of the term “death.” For
example, Roland Barthes (1964) is not talking about the cessation of life in the
biological sense. He is using the term to refer to the shift that had occurred in
the “new literature” movement, which broke from previous traditions of autho-
rial guidance. Similarly, Walter Benjamin (1969) is describing those changes that
resulted from the mechanical reproduction—the destruction of aura—and not
the death of art.
The phrase “born digital” should be thought of in a similar way, as a rhetori-
cal flourish and not a literal reference. Although, if one were to interpret it literal-
ly, we might then address the fact that 1.6% of all babies born in the United States
are born digital, as a result of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) (http://
www.cdc.gov/art/artdata/index.html). When one further reflects upon the use of
digital technologies in the process of childbirth—from fertility tracking to embryo
scans, not to mention in vitro Doppler sound scanning devices and Baby Einstein
sound systems—it is clear that many are born digital in a direct manner.
Contemporary life in the 21st century is influenced, inflected, and, some
might argue, infected by the digital. Sociologist Manuel Castells suggests that we
live in a “Network Society” that crosses cultures and continents, binding us to-
gether as it enables some and constrains others (Castells, 1996). Digital networks
have influenced fields such as international commerce (Dibbell, 2007), banking
(Wallace, 2011), and law (Benkler, 2005), along with basic communication, which
includes artistic production and distribution.
It also follows that if one is born digital and lives digital, then one must “die
digital.” It is estimated that as of 2012, over 30 million Facebook pages have been
maintained to memorialize the user who has passed (Kaleem, 2012). It is also stan-
dard procedure to include specific instructions for your digital life once you have
passed on. A “digital will” outlines who can have access to your files and social

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 52 Visual Arts Research Summer 2017

media sites, and what you wish to have happen to these ever-increasing presences
(Desmarais, 2014). Not even death is free from the influence of the digital.
The field of art education has surely been impacted by this influence. Much
has been written on the potential for incorporating digital media into art educa-
tional practices, from hypertext (Keifer-Boyd, 1997) to video games (Parks, 2008),
to computer coding (Knochel & Patton, 2015). Inevitably, when new media is
introduced, there is a shift in what had previously been typical or traditional. This
has also been discussed, though perhaps to a lesser degree, in regard to media areas
such as drawing and painting (Shin, 2010) and art forms such as self-portraiture
(Amaris, 2010). As new technologies are invented and introduced, the traditional
boundaries of art education are blurred further and further.
These small-scale shifts that accumulate over time result in an art education
that is transformed, which some might see as a cycle of death and rebirth. For
example, during the U.S. Industrial Revolution, the teaching of art in the public
schools was dramatically augmented by the use of color lithography, most clearly
seen in the textbooks of Louis Prang (Stankiewicz, 2001). This was a technological
shift that allowed full-color reproductions to be distributed on a scale previously
unimaginable, and at a price that made the shift quite profitable. This process of
reproduction was later accompanied, and eventually replaced, by the large-scale
prints made available by companies such as Crystal and Prismac. Now, a vast
number of art educators have full color reproductions accessible at the touch of a
button, made available through the Internet, and displayed through digital projec-
tors and computer screens, tablets, and phones. What is not yet understood is how
this shift has influenced the teaching of art, beyond the obvious direct savings to
be found in the art budget. When a centralized model of reproduction, tied to
limited forms of representation and cultural bias (Desai, 2000) leads to a distrib-
uted model where much is accessible by many, what is the result?
In general, these shifts toward the digital relate less to specific media pro-
cesses and technologies, and more to what I have referred to as “digital visual cul-
ture” (Sweeny, 2004). I have used this term to talk about possibilities for culturally
relevant and socially responsible diagrams for educational practices in a digital age.
I have also employed this term in order to describe complex ways in which digital
media influences visuality at many levels and scales. Contemporary digital media
as related to digital visual culture offers art educators the opportunity to rethink
traditions within the field, develop new strategies of production and critique, and
to make fruitful connections with other fields. At a moment when public educa-
tion is coming under fire, it is relevant to look to technological models that are
collaborative, dynamic, and socially engaged. This process will inevitably push
art education further from the traditional center that many find comfortable.
As I have argued, this decentering can be productive; in the creative and critical

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 Robert W. Sweeny Ghosts in the Machinic 53

acknowledgment of digital visual culture, art educators can face the haunting pres-
ence of the unacknowledged, the unnamed, and the traces of previous technolo-
gies that influence and inhabit the field. In looking to the flickering phantasmic
remnants of past practices, art educators might find opportunities to rethink retro-
grade practices and restrictive ontologies, through a digital visual hauntology.

Of Ghosts and Wasps

Hauntology was first theorized by philosopher Jacques Derrida. This concept,

which is a combination of haunting and ontology, provides an opportunity to
think outside of a linear, teleological frame. Kevin Tavin (2003) has argued that
the field of art education is haunted by past practices that at best, lack relevance,
and at worst, are repressive. Tavin suggests that these hauntings might be identi-
fied and critically addressed by approaches based in visual culture studies. I would
like to build upon this notion by suggesting that art educators who are fearful of
the loss that digital media represents might critique the inevitable shifts that ac-
company cultural and social change.
The specters of the past haunt all educational practices. However, it is par-
ticularly relevant to think of change in terms of life and death when discussing
networked digital media, as previous forms of exchange have been made ephem-
eral, invisible, ghostly. These technologies have challenged previously dominant
notions of time and space; the Internet, as a prime example, flattens out time and
makes much of the world’s cultural production available in an instant. To answer
the question that I previously posed: while reproductions of much of the world’s
art may seem available at the touch of a button, this does not mean that every-
thing is available to everyone at any time. There are substantial limitations to be
found in Internet access, as well as unequal allocation of the means of distribu-
tion.
A digital visual hauntology can disrupt the utopian narratives that have ac-
companied the implementation of digital technologies in educational settings.
When one addresses what is absent from digital representation, or what forms of
representation are vaguely present, then art educators can critique the notion that
the digital represents a clean break from the past. However, in thinking of the in-
fluence of the past, this flattening can be challenged. As Fisher (2012) notes, “it is
significant that the discourse of hauntology should have been attached to popular
culture at the moment when cyberspace enjoyed dominion over the reception, dis-
tribution, and consumption of culture” (p. 19).
Digital art media is often thought of as being cold, inert, inactive, and devoid
of life. Fusions of machine and human often play themselves out in popular visual
culture through the sensationalist characterizations of the cyborg and the robot.

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 54 Visual Arts Research Summer 2017

When individuals begin to identify with digital technologies, many respond with
confusion or disdain. In a recent Pew survey conducted with the Girl Scouts, 92% of
girls aged 14–17 said they would give up all social network friends to keep their best
friend (Salamond, 2011). This of course, means that 8% said they would give up their
best friend for social media friends, a figure that I find to be quite substantial.
These mediated linkages are unnatural, antisocial, and inhuman. However,
as Deleuze and Guattari (1983) suggest, contemporary life under capitalism is com-
posed of such intersections, to the point where identifying the unique individual is
a challenge. The model of the wasp/orchid discussed in Anti-Oedipus is particularly
instructive as the union between organisms is biological, social, and visual.
The orchid deterritorializes by forming an image, a tracing of a wasp; but the
wasp reterritorializes on that image. . . . Wasp and orchid form a rhizome (De-
leuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 11).

This ghostly image of the wasp is a reminder that the relationship between organ-
isms is not a simple binary. Just as the wasp couples with the orchid in the search
for food, the orchid relies upon the wasp to propagate. They are tied together in
overlapping networks of exchange. In a similar manner, the relationship between
an individual and a technology is equally mutually dependent. Just as images are
broken apart and transmitted through networks, to be later reassembled, the indi-
vidual in a digital visual culture is fragmented and flickering. Identity is visualized
as a series of interconnected nodes that, while they have hubs that form centers,
refuse to congeal into a centralized network. The schizophrenic to which Deleuze
and Guattari (1983) refer might be seen in the 8% of Facebook teens who say they
would trade a best friend for a network of Facebook friends. It might be seen in
the “addicted” youth in South Korea who have to find an alternate fix for their
Internet addiction after 12 p.m. It might be seen in the gamer who fails to see the
difference between the real and the virtual, or, more precisely, in the nongamer
who sees this as a problem.
In art education, the schizophrenic has been held up as a model for creativ-
ity and artistic genius (Derby, 2011). The distancing between objective reality and
subjective interpretation is furthered in the use of digital technology, which has
generally been resisted as a legitimate medium due to the distance between the
hand of the artist and the product that appears on screen or in printout. This is a
distance that might not exist for young people who are “born digital,” who grow
up swiping the screen of an iPod, who reach the mirror stage through the reflec-
tion found in a laptop. This is a distance that speaks to a technological nostalgia
that haunts the field. It speaks to the ghost in the machinic.
If art educators acknowledge the ghosts in the machinic—the ways in which
nostalgia for a better time and for previous technologies influences all art and its

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 Robert W. Sweeny Ghosts in the Machinic 55

education—then perhaps the hauntings described in this paper can be repurposed,

rethought, and re-imagined. The ghosts of the past will never disappear com-
pletely, but they may be confronted and critiqued. Art educators in a digital visual
culture should come to terms with the incompleteness of art educational practices,
the haunted nature of digital media, and the decentralized nature of knowledge,
teaching, and art making in the 21st century.

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