Timothy Binkley

Timothy Binkley (born Timothy Glenn Binkley on September 14, 1943 in Baltimore, MD), is an American philosopher, artist, and teacher, known for his radical writings about conceptual art and aesthetics, as well as several essays that help define computer art. He is also known for his interactive art installations.

Timothy Binkley studied mathematics at University of Colorado at Boulder, earning a B.A. (1965) and an M.A. (1966). His PhD in philosophy, from University of Texas at Austin (1970), explored Ludwig Wittgenstein's use of language.

Binkley has lectured and taught at several colleges and universities in the United States, most notably at School of Visual Arts where he initiated the MFA Computer Art program, the first of its kind in the country. In 1992, he founded the New York Digital Salon, an international exhibition of computer art.

He has exhibited his interactive art in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia.

Binkley postulates that twentieth-century art is a strongly self-critical discipline, which creates ideas free of traditional piece-specifying conventions including aesthetic parameters and qualities. The artwork is a piece, and a piece isn't necessarily an aesthetic object—or an object at all. Binkley states that anything that can be thought about or referred to can be labeled an artwork by an artist.

Binkley argues that the computer is neither a medium nor a tool, since both media and tools have inherent characteristics that can be explored through an artist's gestures or physical events for mark-making. Instead, the computer is a chameleon-like or even promiscuous assistant, whose services can be applied to any number of tasks and whose capabilities can be defined endlessly from application to application. Binkley refers to the computer as a non-specific technology and an incorporeal metamedium. Yet the computer contains phenomena not found in other media: namely, a conceptual space where symbolic content can be modified using mathematical abstractions. The notion of an “original” and its consequent value are considered irrelevant, obsolete, or inapplicable to computer art.

Binkley's philosophy extends beyond art and aesthetics to culture itself, whose foundations he believes we are overhauling through our involvement with computers.

• Rest Rooms, interactive telecommunications installation with video-conferenced computers, exhibited at SIGGRAPH ’94 in Orlando, FL., Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH (April 1–30, 1995), Schloss Agathenberg in Germany (September 24 – November 26, 1995), Schloß Arolsen in Germany (February 24 – April 14, 1996).
• Books of Change, interactive computer installation exhibited in "Tomorrow's Realities", SIGGRAPH 1994. Included in the "Multimedia Playground" at the Exploratorium in San Francisco (February 12 – March 13, 1994).Exhibited at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Hong Kong (June 26–29, 1994), the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing (July 4–8, 1994), and Camera Obscura in Tel Aviv (October 16–20, 1994).
• Watch Yourself, interactive computer installation. Included in "Tomorrow's Realities" exhibit at SIGGRAPH '91 in Las Vegas (July 29 – August 2, 1991). Exhibited at the National Conference on Computing and Values, New Haven (August 12–16, 1991). Accepted for Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria (1992).Exhibited at Videobrasil International Videofestival in São Paulo (September 21–27, 1992). Exhibited at Digital Jambalaya in New York City (November 16 – December 1, 1992) in conjunction with the international TRIP '92 event.Demonstration tape included on Computer Graphics Access '89-'92 videodisks (Bunkensha: Tokyo, 1992); Electronic Dictionary videodisks (G.R.A.M.: Montréal, 1993).Exhibited at Images du Futur in Montréal (May 13 – September 19, 1993).Exhibited at Vidéoformes in France (April 6–23, 1994).Shown at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City (June 2, 1994).Included in "Art for the End of the Century: Art and Technology" at the Reading Public Museum (July 23, 1995 – January 1, 1996).Exhibited at ciberfestival 96 in Lisbon, Portugal (February 9 – March 17, 1996).Permanent installation at Tempozan Contemporary Museum in Osaka, Japan (opened in September 1996).

Binkley is married to artist and author Sonya Shannon and has a daughter Shelley Binkley, M.D., from a previous marriage to Sue Binkley Tatem.