Computer Art and Actor­-Network Theory: Actants and Intersubjective Associations in Scene

The paper is a result of a PhD thesis, which establishes associations between the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Computer Art. ANT originated from researches investigating the dynamics of knowledge production within laboratory with the use of technological artifacts where humans and non-humans, called actants, were analyzed with the same level of importance. Computer Art finds its roots in Information Theory and in the signs systems that are proposed as objects from the perspective of Informational Aesthetics, as stated by Abraham Moles and Max Bense.

The research articulated concepts known as actant, association, translation and inscription, from ANT, based on definitions presented by Bruno Latour, with the terms repertoire of elements, message, object and aesthetic states, from Informational Aesthetics.

Developing the analysis of interactive installations, of my own creation, most of them being applied in theatrical staging, the work investigated how ANT contributes to the innovation of aesthetic states in artistic production and built a theoretical framework that collaborates to the creative process in terms of Computer Art. Expanding Informational Aesthetics with ANT, the research proposes an Aesthetic of Associations, which takes a different view focusing on the connections established between the actants participating in the art object.