Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: Kinetic Sculpture and the Crisis of Western Technocentrism

Abstract

Beginning with the chariot as an ancient and pan-cultural example of the way in which art has humanized technology, this essay explores the limited role which modern art has thus far played in dealing with the current crisis of technocentrism. It does so by bringing to bear on the subject a newly-promulgated theory of the development of modern art which focuses on the absence therein of an evolved kinetic sculpture.