Where I Ask the Internet for Help..... then I wrap it all up with a bow.

(online) Dictionary


ar·ti·fi·cial  (ärt-fshl)

adj.

1.

a. Made by humans; produced rather than natural.

b. Brought about or caused by sociopolitical or other human-generated forces or influences: set up artificial barriers against women and minorities; an artificial economic boom.

2. Made in imitation of something natural; simulated: artificial teeth.

3. Not genuine or natural: an artificial smile.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin artificilis, belonging to art, from artificium, craftsmanship; see artifice.]

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arti·fici·ali·ty (-fsh-l-t) n.

arti·ficial·ly adv.

Synonyms: artificial, synthetic, ersatz, simulated
These adjectives refer to what is made by humans rather than natural in origin. Artificial is broadest in meaning and connotation: an artificial sweetener; artificial flowers.
Synthetic often implies the use of a chemical process to produce a substance that will look or function like the original, often with certain advantages: synthetic rubber; a synthetic fabric.
An ersatz product is a transparently inferior imitation: ersatz coffee; ersatz mink.
Simulated often refers to a fabricated substitute or imitation of a costlier substance: simulated diamonds.

ON ARTIFICIALITY

Rafael Capurro

Capurro beings with a brief history in which he describes the concept of nature versus the artificial in terms of the Greek understanding of these things. It's interesting because this is a discussion of creation through nature and creation by humans. Capurro calls  natures ability to create something both spontaneous and purposefull, where as human creation can only be one or the other. This is interesting because of it's focus on creation is 

'In contrast to nature, the artist has to think about the purpose and about how he is going to produce an object in order to achieve this purpose. On the basis of his technical knowledge (techné) he gives to his works some purposeless character or beauty. Bringing together the good or useful (agathós), and the purposeless or beautiful (kalós) engenders the specific Greek sense of artificiality.'

To get to my point in a broken kind of way, understanding the ancient Greek perception of nature and the artificial in regards to  creation and the artist makes the initial reception of photography as 'the pencil of nature' much more understandable. (Maybe only read this sentence.)

Phew.

In his Timaios, Plato describes the creative or techno-poetical activity of the divine artist. The demiourgos produces nature in a similar but much more perfect way than a human artist produces, for instance, a statue. Whereas he has the exemplars of all things, the divine forms, at his disposal, we use only their materialized copies, producing then copies of copies. 

I really like idea of these infinite copies of copies. As a concept. As a reality it's depressing.




The next section is "Towards a Current Interpretation of Artificiality"
and covers 


I Reality as computational artificiality
II existential artificiality
III myths of artificiality

I Reality as computational artificiality

Artificiality traditionally is less real than nature. This is less true in current times as machine/artificiality is so abundant, and is often used to control nature. Besides which we have countless simulations in countless facets of everyday existence. We get to the point where for a large number of people the most wilderness they have seen is through the artificiality of a television screen.

I'm going to leave this here because it isn't the particular brand of artificiality that I'm interested in.


II Existential Artificiality

To exist as a human being means having to construct our own life. Our life is not something already given, it is not just a program to be run by a hardware, but it has to be partly written down by ourselves. 'Partly' means that we come into existence within natural and cultural given conditions (family, gender, country, epoch, language, etc.). Although we mostly rely on them in our everyday life, we also have to make our options within a field of non-fixed possibilities. We are responsible for these decisions. In other words, our life is not just a natural but also an artificial or, as the tradition calls it, an ethical one. Our way of existence is the sense we give to artificiality with regard to ourselves. Our mimetical relation to ethical ideals and values is an artificial one, not only because we can choose them, but also because we can change them, and even create new ones. 

This is more like it!