Thinking Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design

When examining our historical situation, one is struck by the turn towards the computational in many aspects of life. There have been numerous claims to epochal shifts from the post-industrial society, the technotronic society and the knowledge-based society, to name just three. Equally, with the introduction of softwarized technical systems, it is sometimes claimed that we live in an information society (for a discussion see Berry 2008). While numerous definitions exist, we now appreciate that around us algorithms running on digital computers mediate our lives by creating and re-presenting a world that appears more comfortable, safer, faster and convenient — although this may paradoxically result in our feeling more stressed, depressed or drained of meaning.