Our History
Starting out as a plan to get cheap T-shirts, IORI was a placeholder name for any sort of creative output. The term comes from a combination of the words apriori and aposteriori, two Latin words that mean knowledge from self and knowledge from experience. Common to both are the letters ‘iori’ which can be read as ‘I (the self) or eye (sense experience)’, summarising the difference between the two words. The dichotomy of these terms is found in the mind-body problem as well as the nature vs nurture debate but is not limited to them; as we approach the singularity a code of ethics for artificial intelligence may become a real concern of ours.
However, it doesn’t have to be that deep. The question of whether artistic expression is something common to all humans or dependent on individual experience is an interesting one in the modern global music scene. As Grime and UK drill spread to America, Brazil, and Sudan, it’s clear that both are true; art forms can be channelled in different ways to suit different contexts and as long as they are genuine, they are all equally valid. Techno as a form of protest music, moving from Chicago to Berlin to Crimea, shows that art is something that can link humans together, regardless of their specific circumstances. Hence, the IORI World was born.
Running through this, the role of technology as a topic of art, an auxiliary for the communication of art, or as an auxiliary of art as a communicative endeavour in itself, is an interesting one in the modern world.
The 30s saw pulp science fiction react to the rise of the atomic, shifting between utopian and dystopian predictions depending on optimism or pessimism. Before that, romanticism rebelled against the ideals of industrialisation with an emphasis on nature and agrarian lifestyles.
Now we have the internet and social media. If technology is a means to an end, what is the end we’re aiming for? The internet has given artists an unprecedented ability to share their art with the world but it has also given governments an unprecedented ability to censor, frame, and control the information available through it.
Is online communication authentic? Are we heading towards an internet utopia? Have we already entered the twilight zone? Find out next week on: IORI World
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