Limiting control: vocabularies and strategies of unpredictability in contemporary art

ABSTRACT

Contemporary artists utilise a variety of methods which allow unpredictable forces, such as randomness, chance, chaos, the subconscious, participation, and others, to influence their creative process. These sources of unpredictability are situated against the artist’s control in the creative process. We developed a system of control-limiting strategies that enable the simultaneous study of different methods with similar sources of unpredictability. Through examples – including works by other artists and works by one of the authors – we introduce Internal, External, Relational/Interactive and Mechanical strategies. We analyse the way control is limited in the creative process and draw conclusions on how this affects the artwork.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Art
• control
• chance
• randomness
• creative process

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas Apostolou

Thomas Apostolou is an artist, researcher, and author from Greece, currently living and working in Spain. In 2021, he received a doctorate degree with ‘Cum Laude’ from the University of Vigo; he also holds a Master in Fine Art from the University of the Arts London and a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts and Art Sciences from University of Ioannina.

Juan Carlos Meana

Juan Carlos Meana is artist and professor in the Department of Painting at the University of Vigo. He graduated in Fine Arts in 1993 from the University of País Vasco after studying at the ENSBA in Paris (1987–1989) with C. Boltanski. Having carried out more than twenty solo exhibitions and plenty of collective ones, his early activity revolved around the practice of painting. Soon, however, he widened to other disciplines in contemporary art, primarily sculpture and installation. He thinks of his work as a reflection on contemporary art practice and the teaching of Art and has published two monographic books and many articles. He has also directed several doctoral theses and has been part of different research groups. His artwork and research deal with different themes such as the Myth of Narcissus and the multifarious plastic resources of mirror images, the negation of images as a creative strategy or the tensions between individuals and the social groups they belong to, bringing to light that tension through images, objects and symbols.

Fernando José Pereira

Fernando José Pereira is an artist and professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, Integrated Researcher in i2ADS – Research Institute of Art, Design and Society as well as a founding member and co-director of VIROSE, an interdisciplinary Association dedicated to media and the study of the relationship between art and technology. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto and holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Vigo with the thesis: ‘Contemporary Art, the Utopian Existence of an Exile’.