ABSTRACT
Suppose we have before us, as consumers, an artifact — either an art-work or a tech-work — and we know nothing about how this artifact came into being. All we have is the artifact itself and the information embedded in it. How can we know this artifact? That is, how can we make sense of it? How can we know what the artifact is? This problem is the centerpiece of this chapter. And several issues surfaced in querying the problem. The most salient of these are:
One. To make sense of an artifact one must extract the process of its construction from its form. At the very least this entails extracting the artifact's epistemic complexity underlying its surface systemic complexity. I have called this the first bridge between art and technology.
Two. For a consumer or observer to know an artifact entails making sense of what the artificer intended to create. That is, the consumer must strive to identify with the artificer even if the latter's identity is unknown. We call this a creative encounter between artificer and consumer, whether the artificer is an artist or a technologist, whether the consumer is a lay consumer or a peer consumer. We may think of this as the second bridge connecting art and technology.
Three. Utilitarian art is the practice of making art-works that serve to describe and communicate tech-works. Utilitarian art is our third bridge between art and technology.
