The Quantum Revolution: Art, Technology, Culture

by Arthur Kroker, David Cook

Overview

We are currently riders of the information storm. AI fascinates us, images mesmerize us, data defines us, algorithms remember us, news bombards us, devices connect us, isolation saddens us. Deeply embedded in digital technology, we are the very first inhabitants of life in the quantum zone. The Quantum Revolution is about life today – its entanglements, creativity, politics, and artistic vision.

Arthur Kroker and David Cook explore a new way of thinking drawn directly from the quantum imaginary itself. They explain the quantum revolution as everyday life, where technology moves fast, and where, under cover of the digital devices that connect us, the most sophisticated concepts of technology and science originating in mathematics, astrophysics, and biogenetics have swiftly flooded human consciousness, shaped social behavior, and crafted individual identity. The book discusses the concept of the quantum zone as a new way of understanding digital culture, and presents stories about art, technology, and society, as well as a series of reflections on art as a gateway to understanding the quantum imaginary. Richly illustrated with sixty images of critically engaged photos and artwork, The Quantum Revolution privileges a new way of understanding and seeing politics, society, and culture through the lens of the duality that is the essence of the quantum imaginary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487556570
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/20/2023
Series:	Digital Futures
Pages:	334
Sales rank:	842,847
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Arthur Kroker is an emeritus professor and adjunct professor of political science at the University of Victoria.
David Cook is a professor in the Department of Political Science and a fellow at Victoria College at the University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

1.The Quantum Revolution
Riders of the Information Storm
Theses on the Quantum Revolution
Art as Quantum Gateway
Rebecca Belmore and the Art of Duality
Quantum Vision. Energetic Art
Particle Poetics
Wave Aesthetics

2. Particle Poetics: Street Scenes from the Quantum Revolution
A. Art of the Fourth Dimension
B. Blasts of Graffiti for Life on the Run
C. Cutaways to Street Memories of the Future
D. Dark Matter/Dark Energy
E. “The Last Human Being”
F. Forensic Architecture and the Empire of Crime
G. Gateways to Blue Stragglers
H. Hybrid Bodies
I. Interference Patterns
J. Jet Streams of Gravity Waves
K. Kinetics of Atrocity
L. Lonesome Cowboys to the Stars: Perseverance Has Landed on Mars
M. Macrobursts and Sun Dogs in the Gathering Sky of Global Politics
N. Nostalgia for Nostalgia: The Eclipse of Right-Wing Populism
O. Open-Source Speed Runners
P. Primordial Black Holes
Q. Quantum Bodies: From Louise Bourgeois and Abject Bodies to Siren lll
R. Scorpio Rising
S. Streaming SuperStream
T. Trouble in the Global Village
U. Undone by Screen Addiction
V. Vector Zero Vector
W. Baby Algorithms at Warp Speed
X. X-Raying Scavenger Culture
Y. Yesteryear Futurism
Z. Zoom Kids

3. Wave Aesthetics:
Art of Resurgence
Vectors of Extinction in the Quantum Revolution

Fold 1: Ecological Death
Ecological Death and Fairy Creek

Fold 2: Violent Event Horizons
The Pacific Wall of Kienholz/Lyotard

Counter-Gradient: Autopsy of the Future: Nadia Myre’s Indian Act & The Scar Project

Fold 3: From the Slaughterhouse
From the Slaughterhouses to the Butchers to the Tate: Deleuze/Bacon

Counter-Gradient: Wolf Girl: Kiki Smith and the Butchered Self

Fold 4: The Quantum Citizen
TRANS/formers: More than Meets the Eye Duchamp/Lyotard

Fold 5: The Vortex of Immaterial Bodies
Alberto Giacometti and The Quantum Void

Fold 6: Art with the Density of a Black Hole
The Gates of Hell: Rodin and the Promised Land

Counter-Gradient: The World Screen of the Twenty-First Century:
“In the future, everything will be fine”
Datamoshing
Intimacy and Memory for a Time of Lonesome
Remix Identity
Time Tunnelling
Spinning, Dying Neutron Stars from Deep Space
AI Goes Psychic
Harvesting the Brain
4D Organs Looping in the Fifth Dimensional Plane
Hoping for the Best but Mourning for the Rest
From Kathy Acker
Neon Dreams
When Drones Rain Murder from the Sky
Cold War Redux/Drive-Thru Insurgency

Fold 7: Cold Blue with Skies the Color of Melancholy
Quantum Assassin: Jacques Monory

4. Epilogue: I Stepped into The Future and It Was Now
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jackson Leween

“This book bravely takes us through the liquid reality of the technological vortex that is life today in the quantum zone — where the spectrality of our primordial ghost wave/particles collides with the hyper-frequencies of a society already consumed by its own algorithmic data storm — then plots a series of (creative) escape vectors in these electrified times.”

Ricardo Dominguez

“The Quantum Revolution captures the cultural phase transitions from particle capitalism(s) to the hyper-waves of careening entanglements of our post-contemporary emergency states and unexpected e-mergences. The Quantum Revolution book is the 62-qubit quantum critical processor we need to dive between hyper-phasing power and superstring bodies co-creating in the hinges of extreme transition.”

Timothy Murray

“The Quantum Revolution is a brilliantly argued book that offers a recipe of insurgent hopefulness for our cataclysmic age of socio/techno/ecological emergency. From ecological decline and digital divide to capital excess and material waste, the quantum zone is theorized by Kroker and Cook as the stultifying condition of the twenty-first century. Readers of this spellbinding critical tale will be enraptured by the authors' quantum revolution that reclaims the public sphere through the verve of artistic imagination.

Editorial Reviews

“This book bravely takes us through the liquid reality of the technological vortex that is life today in the quantum zone – where the spectrality of our primordial ghost wave/particles collides with the hyper-frequencies of a society already consumed by its own algorithmic data storm – then plots a series of (creative) escape vectors in these electrified times.”—Jackson Leween, 2bears, Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology and Associate Professor of Art, University of Lethbridge
“The Quantum Revolution is a brilliantly argued book that offers a recipe of insurgent hopefulness for our cataclysmic age of socio/techno/ecological emergency. From ecological decline and digital divide to capital excess and material waste, the quantum zone is theorized by Kroker and Cook as the stultifying condition of the twenty-first century. Readers of this spellbinding critical tale will be enraptured by the authors’ quantum revolution that reclaims the public sphere through the verve of artistic imagination.—Timothy Murray, author of Technics Improvised: Activating Touch in Global Media Art
“The Quantum Revolution captures the cultural phase transitions from particle capitalism(s) to the hyper-waves of careening entanglements of our post-contemporary emergency states and unexpected e-mergences. The Quantum Revolution book is the 62-qubit quantum critical processor we need to dive between hyper-phasing power and superstring bodies co-creating in the hinges of extreme transition.”—Ricardo Dominguez, Professor of Visual Arts, University of California San Diego, and co-founder of Electronic Disturbance Theater 3.0

From the Publisher