Holt, Nicolas "The Radiant Unknown: Juan Downey's Aesthetics of Energy." , McGill University, 2022
Keywords/Fields of Study : Juan Downey, electromagnetism, media art, ecology, energy humanities
Abstract: This thesis argues for a new interpretation of the work of Chilean multimedia artist Juan Downey (1940-1993) under the banner of an aesthetics of energy. The aesthetics of energy positions Downey’s interest in the artistic potentials of energy—and electromagnetism specifically—as a guiding frame through which to understand his practice. This means attending to how, and towards what ends, Downey harnessed different energy forms in the making of his sculptures, installations, performances, videos, and even drawings. In privileging Downey’s career-long investment in the aesthetics of energy, this dissertation seeks to contribute to the extant literature on the artist. Until now, scholars have largely focused on Downey’s references to cybernetic theories of feedback and information, as well as his interrogations of subjectivity and the challenges its poses to representation. These two themes approximately map onto Downey’s early and late career, respectively, with scholars noting a clear shift during the mid-1970s from one phase to the other. This dissertation articulates the persistence and transformability of Downey’s aesthetics of energy across his practice, and suggests it can provide a novel throughline within an otherwise medially diverse and conceptually wide-ranging body of work. To narrate the developments of Downey’s aesthetics of energy, I pay careful material-specific attention to the different forms of energy he deployed in his art (whether they be electromagnetic, sonic, or metabolic), the technical infrastructures that make their harnessing possible (such as the proliferation of portable video in the late-1960s), and the theoretical discourses in which they are figured (as with the focus on energy flows in the development of ecosystem ecology). In these ways, Downey helps us critically sharpen the concept of energy within contemporary art history, grounding it within specific historical moments and tracing its various manifestations. All of this culminates in a new view of Downey’s practice, one that asserts not just his significance for postwar media art, but also his relevance for twenty-first century debates concerning the energy humanities, elemental media, and decolonial critiques of extractivism.
Department: Art History and Communication Studies
, McGill University
Advisor(s): Christine Ross
