[Literary critic and intellectual] Nicolás Rosa presented this text for discussion at the Primer Encuentro Nacional del Arte de Vanguardia [First National Encounter of Avant-garde Art] (Rosario, Argentina, 1968). It appeals to the communications theories of Noam Chomsky while analyzing the aesthetic phenomenon through the lenses of semiotics, communications theory and transactional psychology. In his address, there are also references to the mathematical theory of information relating to the problem of the predictability or unpredictability of a message, its probability and value, as well as the originality of the experimental artwork. These references are not merely an erudite display that he applies to an understanding of avant-garde production. Rosa also points out a relationship of mutual repercussions between these theories and avant-garde art. He states that informational theory “has generated an art of communications and, in turn, this new art has lead to the creation of a theory that explains it.”
On the other hand, Rosa believes that a revolutionary political consciousness should produce works that are aesthetically revolutionary (“the support for a revolutionary consciousness, politically speaking, makes the creation of aesthetically revolutionary works even more urgent”). He also questions the function exercised by art criticism with regard to the sanctioning as well as the normalization of experimental art production, in order finally to redefine the place of the critic that, in a certain respect, befits him. Rosa stops to consider the existing link between the creator’s subjective awareness and the “objective instance” of the artwork. He believes “it concerns bringing revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary art together (…) within the “objective instance” of the work so that it may possess a clear revolutionary significance.”
Along this line of reasoning, Rosa emphasizes the possibilities of the use of mass communications in art, referring to the new communications theories. He also describes the communications pathologies referring to corruption, rumor, deliberate distortion and the slander spread through informational media. As he defines the possibilities for artistic endeavor, [Rosa] proposes [the creation of] a transmission channel that would serve as an alternative to the official communications system. These ideas are unmistakably present a few months later in the planning and realization of the Primer Encuentro de “Tucumán Arde,” [“Tucumán is Burning”] whose central objective was to generate an alternative information circuit that would refute the official propaganda.