Ambiguationist

Names

• Ambiguationist

Origin

• Coined by artist Kai (Kari) Altmann in 2015 via an essay collaboration with art historian Cadence Kinsey Link.

• Kai uses Ambiguation in place of Abstraction, as a new kind of "Meta Abstraction" in relation to the "Meta" evolution of culture, technology and more since the 2010s. It ties into her other writings about "Meta Images" and "Metta Images". She also relates it to "Post-Algorithmic", "Algopunk" or "Algorithmically Infused" understandings, with sensitivities toward encryption, codes and genres, as well as a momentum toward meta-algorithms and AI.

• Kai also describes this essay and the term in an interview by Harry Burke for Rhizome in 2015, Link, and in an essay for the book, Representing and Interpreting Abstraction Today, Link.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann uses the term for some of her own works and parts of her practice, as well as some of her surrounding peers.

Definitions and Descriptions

• Creative practices or works which have a kind of meta awareness of codes, cultures, identities, platforms, genres and templates at play both in the creation of the work and in its online/audience distribution. These practices and projects can take an almost algorithmic or pseudo-algorithimc approach, in a way that may hack the systems of cultural production and their algorithmic, post-internet dissemination while also embracing them. They may also act as a kind of parody, meme or hybrid of certain genres and tropes, revealing the boundaries around groups of content, aesthetic languages or areas of knowledge.

• Creative practices or works which function beyond a single image or a single work, usually operating in networks of content which are simultaneously dispersed across various kinds of hosts. Hosts include social media, publishing platforms, galleries and other spaces. The artist can be involved in this process as well, using and playing with dissemination as part of the work. Each appearance of the work on a screen or in a space can be altered and evolve, creating a cloud of different impressions over time.

• Kai sometimes uses Ambiguationist interchangeably with Meta Abstraction, Algopunk and Post-Algorithmic.

• In some of her own projects Kai "performs as a type of algorithm" or a "type of AI", or in a way that is against different types of imposed algorithmic logic.

• Kai views this term as an offshoot from Post-Internet and part of it. She also views it as a pre-cursor or separate to her term, New World, which encompasses all of these and more in a wider umbrella more focused on cultural networks. It relates to her other writing around what she calls "Meta Images", where algorithms, genres, platforms and things like branding and cultural identity are all intertwined.

• This also relates to James Bridle's New Aesthetic, Hito Steyerl's Circulationism, Nicolas Bourriad's Post Production and Relational Aesthetics, Artie Vierkant's Image Object and others.

• This can apply to many artists using social media platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and personal websites. It can also apply to artists with a high familiarity with hashtags, tropes and memes.

Artists & Creators

• Kai (Kari) Altmann aka Hitashya
• Iain Ball
• Lauren DeVine
• Dis Magazine
• Matteo Giordano aka X2MX
• Emily Jones
• Nick Newlin aka YenTech
• Sebastian Moyano aka Dateismo
• Katja Novitskova
• Hito Steyerl
• Brad Troemel
• Harm Van den Dorpel

Exhibitions

2012

• Motion, Seventeen Gallery, London, 17 May-23 June, 2012. Works by Kai (Kari) Altmann, Merce Cunningham, Harm van den Dorpel, Michael Guidetti, Oliver Laric, Mark Leckey, Sean Raspet, Emanuel Rossetti, Hito Steyerl, Artie Vierkant. Curated by Ceci Moss and Tim Steer. "The object that exists in motion spans different points, relations and existences but always remains the same thing. Like the digital file, the bootlegged copy, the icon, or Capital it reproduces, travels and accelerates, constantly negotiating the different supports that enable its movement."

2015

• Inflected Objects #1: Abstraction - Rising Automated Reasoning, Istituto Svizzero, Milan, 15 May-13 Jun 2015. Works by Philippe Decrauzat, Harm van den Dorpel, Katharina Fengler, Femke Herregraven, Lars Holdhus, Pierre Lumineau, Jenna Sutela and Sophie Jung. Curated by Melanie Bühler and Valerio Mannucci.

Discussions

• Blame it on the Algorithm, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, 4 April 2015. Speakers: Kai (Kari) Altmann, David Wightman, Dr. Bettina Speckman. Curated by Kai (Kari) Altmann, Rijksakademie and Melanie Bühler. Moderated by Melanie Bühler.

Essays, Articles, Book Chapters

• Harry Burke, Kai (Kari) Altmann, "Artist Profile: Kari Altmann", Rhizome at the New Museum, New York, 25 Mar 2015.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann, "Ambiguationist Bullets Preface", 2020.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann, Cadence Kinsey, "The Meta Image: Ambiguationist Bullets, Visual Culture in a Post-Western, Post-Production, Pan-Optic World", [2015] 2020.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann, "Ambiguations and Meta Abstractions of The New World (An Abstract!)", essay for Representing and Understanding Abstraction Today, Magutt Publishing, [2023] 2024. Edited by Alessandro Ferraro.

See Also

Meta, Meta Art, Meta Abstraction, Algorithmic Abstraction, Emergence, Post-Conceptual, Post-Platform, Algorithmic, Algorithms, Pseudo-Algorithmic, Post-Algorithmic, Abstraction, Post-Internet Art, Post-Internet Music, Post-Production, New Aesthetic, Circulationism, New Materialisms, New World, Meta Images, Pan-Optic, Hashtags, Troping, Memes, Tropes, Microcultural, Transcultural, Intercultural