Artwork as “Cognizer”: A Case Study of “exonemo: UN-DEAD-LINK Reconnecting with Internet Art”

Abstract

This paper examines the combination of images and objects of exonemo's early internet artworks exhibited in “UN-DEAD-LINK: Reconnecting with Internet Art”, referring to the concepts “Cognizers”, “Nonconscious Cognition”, and “Cognitive Assemblages” by N. Katherine Hayles. Although interactions are features of their internet artworks, exonemo removed them to show them in their exhibition. This state makes their artworks look like “corpses” or “remains”. However, exonemo attempted to construct a new relationship between a new manifestation of their work and the viewer. This new presentation of artwork is like the “Cognizers”. Hayles suggests that computers and all living things, including humans, are “Cognizers” that interpret the world and create meanings through three layers of the cognitive process: “Modes of awareness”, “Nonconscious Cognition”, and “Material Processes”. Adjusting their early internet works to the current internet environment as “Cognitive Assemblages”, exonemo modified their work's software and hardware as the “Nonconscious Cognition” and “Material Processes” layer. And then, they recorded the pixel patterns resulting from processing miscellaneous data as “Modes of awareness”. Consequently, exonemo recreated their early internet artworks as “Cognizers” through this modification process.