Zwischenräume: The Machine as Voyeur (original) (raw)
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The evolution of media has yielded masses of interfaces and display technologies, which concede and force novel multimodal types of representation. To consider these technologies in the context of contemporary image studies, an updated appreciation of media images needs to be added to the traditional concept of images, which derived from art history. We have to comprehend more than visual representation and visual perception to fully understand the structures of moving images, because they do not only address our vision, they address – modal or a-modal – all of our senses (see Krois 2011: 207; Mitchell 2010: 42). This multimodal or multisensory understanding of images seems to be necessary to comprehend contemporary media technologies of interactive and digital moving images as well as future developments (see Hansen 2004: 10). Within this convergent media- and image-ecosystem, concepts like materiality, embodiment and agency became important in describing and analyzing the global formations and interactions of human and non-human elements, individuals and technological ensembles. Peter K. Haff describes this era of hybrid networks as »technosphere« (see Haff 2014: 127), trying to depict the dynamics of existing media ecologies. Therefore mediality, multimodality, and materiality can be used as fundamental concepts for a media- and image-theory of the »technosphere« – but there is a necessity to explore the sustainability, scope and interconnections of these interdisciplinary concepts.
Inverted Landscapes: Photomedia and the More-than-Representational
2020
The Anthropocene casts a long shadow over this project. Inverted Landscapes: Photomedia and the More-than-Representational is a response to the need, brought on by the climate crisis, to conceptualise nature differently. Composed of equal parts creative work and written exegesis, this practice-led PhD fractures the logic of pictorial and semiotic conventions of photomedia, forming inverted landscapes that contend with the material and political implications of visually representing the Anthropocene. Through undermining the material semblance and representational structures of photomedia depictions of nature, the imaging apparatus is exposed, bringing attention to how humans, non-human nature, and imaging technologies are entangled. The creative outcome comprises three artistic projects: Ambient Pressure, Surfacing, and Echo, which were assembled as an exhibition, Inverted Landscapes. Ambient Pressure critiques how photomedia are used to frame and fix nature into an abstraction. To undermine the seemingly transparent objectification that occurs through photographic practices, artworks were made by physically modifying film and prints, adding occlusions during the film scanning process, and extending these material gestures into moving image. Surfacing enabled more-than-human agencies of natural phenomena and photo-materials to make artworks. To highlight correspondences between the geochemical materials of photomedia and earth processes, photographic film and paper was directly exposed to high-salinity environments and geothermal activities. Echo explored the affordances of photomedia by scanning botanical forms within environmental conditions that were beyond the imaging threshold of the technology. The resulting digital 3D models carry with them aesthetic aberrations that demonstrate data's fragility and instability, ruptures that expose the imaging apparatus. Elaborating on posthumanist and new materialist conceptions of matter and agency, the exegesis analyses the artworks presented in the exhibition Inverted Landscapes. Media theory and ecocritical perspectives provide necessary context through which to understand the intensive correspondences between the Earth and imaging technologies. Using the writing and philosophical positions of Karen Barad, Jussi Parikka, and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, among others, the exegesis forms an argument for a morethan-representational approach to photomedia-based creative practice. This thesis proposes that unsettling representational constructs, enabling more-than-human agencies, and attending to the analogue and digital material of photomedia are generative processes for creative practice. i Consequently, the material, political, and conceptual entanglements of nature and photomedia materialise through the artworks. By haptically manipulating conventional landscape imagery, enmeshing photo-materials with natural phenomena, and harnessing the limitations of digital 3D scans of flora, my research imagines new relationalities between nature, culture, and technology. I argue that the more-than-representational research used throughout this project contributes to a reconfiguring of how nature is conceptualised. The necessary perspective shift in contending with, and responding to, the climate crisis enlivens and shapes this project. There are many people to thank that have helped in a myriad of ways. Firstly, my profound gratitude goes out to my steadfast supervisors, Dr Kiron Robinson and Dr Katve-Kaisa Kontturi. It has been a privilege to work with you. Thank you, Kiron, for the depth of knowledge of contemporary photographic practice and theory that you brought to all of our conversations. Kaisa, I greatly appreciate your direction and help in navigating the intersection of materialist philosophy and creative practice. Together your insights and supervision of this project were invaluable. Thank you both for your support and guidance. Much appreciation goes to my collaborator, Vivian Cooper Smith, for working with me on Interference Pattern. The conceptualising, tests, and discoveries made during our work together moved this PhD project forward. I want to extend my gratitude to the wonderful friends and colleagues whose generous conversations and encouragement kept me afloat through this process. In particular, I would like to thank Pauline
Metaimage: The image beyond visual representation
BCS Learning & Development, 2023
Advances in technologies and digital media give rise to complex apparatuses and systems increasingly implicated in image production processes. In the context of computational and algorithmic revolution, computational systems can produce images and interpret distinct processes related to them. In this sense, we examine the notion of self-reference as a contemporary phenomenon of image and which implications are related to the emergence of new logic and functions of representation. Then, we draw attention to the need to expand the idea of image as a visual representation presenting the notion of metaimage. From a systemic and semiotic perspective to image, we underline metaimage as a cultural phenomenon stretched by the digital culture. The paper discusses inter-transdisciplinary relevant works in the Arts, Design, and Media that feature the metaimage phenomena. It highlights the scope of the technical image's systems, functions, and positions through technological transformations: from a visual representation to process and operation. Metaimage. Self-referentiality. Digital culture. Creation processes.
Lee Carvalhais, Rethinking Media Art in a Time of Pervasive Computation, Vista
Vista, 2024
As its aesthetics, methods, and conceptual focus have, in many respects, merged with those of mainstream contemporary art, the boundaries of media art have become more unclear than when the use of technology in art was more of a rare occurrence. While the term "media art" may be helpful in designating a particular sphere of practice and discourse, its current meaning has shifted as a result of changing contexts surrounding the use of technology in art. From its close association with "new media" such as the digital computer, the internet, screen-based media, and interactive systems in the early days of media art as a field, this term now bears re-evaluation in light of the pervasive use of technology we are familiar with in the post-digital condition. As many of these defining forms of new media have lost their novelty and have also been adopted in mainstream artistic practices, media art may be defined less by its engagement with specific media than by stylistic and referential aspects derived from its historical lineage. This paper draws comparisons between early discussions on media art and recent developments in this area with the aim of developing insights into whether and in what capacity media art remains relevant as a term for addressing technologically engaged contemporary artistic practices. By considering media art in such terms, this investigation reconsiders what may be regarded as defining aspects of the field, enquiring into what potential this reframing may have for practitioners and theorists working with this topic.