有无:当代艺术的跨媒介方式与本质

Something or Nothing:Methods and Nature of Transmedia in Contemporary Art

约翰•凯奇在1952年创作的《剧场片段1号》(被称为第一件“偶发艺术”作品)和《4分33秒》,代表了当代艺术“跨媒介”的两种创作方式:一是多种艺术媒介并置的、纷繁喧闹的“有的艺术”;二是完全取消传统艺术媒介的、“沉默”的“无的艺术”。通过回溯20世纪40年代至60年代欧美文化思潮(萨特、巴特、阿多诺、桑塔格)和同时代艺术现场(凯奇、劳申伯格、坎宁安、卡普罗)的互动,本文从三个层次剖析当代艺术的“跨媒介”本质:从艺术形式看,当代艺术的“跨媒介”是对现代形式主义的超越;从出发点看,是对“劣势”文化身份的超越;从落脚点看,是尝试跳出现实非此即彼的两难选择,探索重回自然本性的“第三条道路”。

John Cage’s two artworks in 1952,Theatre Piece No.1(the first artwork of Happenings)and 4'33",provide us with two typical methods of transmedia in contemporary art,in which the first is the so-called art of“something”through loudly juxtaposing multiple artistic mediums,and the second is the so-called“silence”art of“nothing”through eliminating all the traditional art mediums.This article also traces back the interaction between Western cultural thoughts during the 1940s to the 1960s(including theorists like Jean-Paul Sartre,Roland Barthes,Theodor Adorno and Susan Sontag)and contemporary art world(including artists such as John Cage,Robert Rauschenberg,Merce Cunningham and Allan Kaprow),and finally separates three aspects of the nature of transmedia in contemporary art as:(1)the form of transmedia in contemporary art is to transcend modernist formalism;(2)the motive of transmedia in contemporary art is to turn around disadvantaged cultural identity;(3)the purpose of transmedia in contemporary art is to escape the dilemma in reality by exploring a“third way”to return to nature.