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In Technocrats of the Imagination John Beck and Ryan Bishop explore the collaborations between the American avant-garde art world and the military-industrial complex during the 1960s, in which artists worked with scientists and engineers in universities, private labs, and museums. For artists, designers, and educators working with the likes of Bell Labs, the RAND Corporation, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, experiments in art and technology presaged not only a new aesthetic but a new utopian social order based on collective experimentation. In examining these projects' promises and pitfalls and how they have inspired a new generation of collaborative labs populated by artists, engineers, and scientists, Beck and Bishop reveal the connections between the contemporary art world and the militarized lab model of research that has dominated the sciences since the 1950s.
About the author
John Beck is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Westminster and author of
Dirty Wars: Landscape, Power, and Waste in Western American Literature.
Ryan Bishop is Professor of Global Arts and Politics at the University of Southampton and author of
Comedy and Cultural Critique in American Film.
Summary
John Beck and Ryan Bishop explore the 1960s interdisciplinary art and technology collaborations between American avant-garde artists and the military-industrial complex that took place in universities, private labs, and museums.
