Through the progression of society and industry the relationship between artist and audience is no longer one that focuses on the art object, or in Jack Burnham’s terms: work that is “formalist”. Rather, with a world that continues to technologically expand at a rate which disallows for piecemeal development and has become increasingly system oriented, the dialogue between artist, work, and audience has also become intertwined in this system-oriented culture.
In “Systems Esthetics” Burnham speaks on this evolution of this post-formalist esthetics or as coined by him “systems esthetic” and how modern work exists now as a system of communication, dialogue, and experience. The art world has transitioned to become entirely process based as opposed to product based. Burnham goes on to mention many artists working within this landscape, much of whom are making work which is either kinetic, interactive, or both
Similarly, in “Revisiting the Foundations of Network Analysis” Carter T. Butts writes on the continued development of technology, systems, and how we gather and are able to display and quantify data. He tells of the new and more complex structures that have been developed in order to represent more complex systems of data. He however makes the counter point that this excess in alternative data structures can lead to misrepresentation due to the use of the incorrect structure, ultimately leading to faulty or incorrect data.
Butts’ counter point is an interesting one when considering its application to the art world. Burnham fails to recognize in his writing that this expansion of system-oriented and processed based art can also lead to more possibilities of failure to communicate intended dialogue. While the modern artist has many more ways to express these systems and relationships, they must have the ability to understand the nuances and implications of these complex systems.