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This thesis explores the application of digital technologies in the creation of visionary or transformative artwork. The installation emphasizes number, color, symmetry, and the human form to create symbolic compositions patterned after ancient archetypes. Background research was done to inform the work through studies of the principles of visionary and transformative artwork as practiced by Ernst Fuchs, De Es Schwertberger, and Alex Grey. Connections between art and spirituality as explained by Kandinsky were studied to augment these principles. The sequence of artwork within the installation is comprised of both digital paintings and interactive triptych panels. To convey a sense of the mystical or sacred, the Rothko Chapel was used to inform the installation and serve as an artistic precedent. As the interactive work is created using realistically-modeled, computer generated characters, special consideration was given to understanding the "uncanny valley" and its potential effect in the interpretation of the installation. Interactivity is achieved through the use of ultrasonic sensors and Arduino prototyping boards.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis represents an historical account of the reception and criticism of computer art from its emergence in 1963 to its crisis in 1989, when aesthetic and ideological differences polarise and eventually fragment the art form. Throughout its history, static-pictorial computer art has been extensively maligned. In fact, no other twentieth-century art form has elicited such a negative and often hostile response. In locating the destabilising forces that affect and shape computer art, this thesis identifies a complex interplay of ideological and discursive forces that influence the way computer art has been and is received by the mainstream artworld and the cultural community at large. One of the central factors that contributed to computer art’s marginality was its emergence in that precarious zone between science and art, at a time when the perceived division between the humanistic and scientific cultures was reaching its apogee. The polarising force inherent in the “two cultures” debate framed much of the prejudice towards early computer art. For many of its critics, computer art was the product of the same discursive assumptions, methodologies and vocabulary as science. Moreover, it invested heavily in the metaphors and mythologies of science, especially logic and mathematics. This close relationship with science continued as computer art looked to scientific disciplines and emergent techno-science paradigms for inspiration and insight. While recourse to science was a major impediment to computer art’s acceptance by the artworld orthodoxy, it was the sustained hostility towards the computer that persistently wore away at the computer art enterprise. The anticomputer response came from several sources, both humanist and anti-humanist. The first originated with mainstream critics whose strong humanist tendencies led them to reproach computerised art for its mechanical sterility. A comparison with aesthetically and theoretically similar art forms of the era reveals that the criticism of computer art is motivated by the romantic fear that a computerised surrogate had replaced the artist. Such usurpation undermined some of the keystones of modern Western art, such as notions of artistic “genius” and “creativity”. Any attempt to rationalise the human creative faculty, as many of the scientists and technologists were claiming to do, would for the humanist critics have transgressed what they considered the primordial mystique of art. Criticism of computer art also came from other quarters. Dystopianism gained popularity in the 1970s within the reactive counter-culture and avant-garde movements. Influenced by the pessimistic and cynical sentiment of anti-humanist writings, many within the arts viewed the computer as an emblem of rationalisation, a powerful instrument in the overall subordination of the individual to the emerging technocracy

My art has become rooted in a process of layering. I layer materials to explore technique and to express the concept of inside versus outside. The evidence of multiple layers of materials is symbolically connected to what is happening within my own life. I want the viewer to see an indication of deeper layers of process and materials rather than just the polished surface of an artwork. This layering process can also be seen as a metaphor for human nature, what we see on the outside is not always what is on the inside.

Synaisthe is an intermedia dance performance that premiered in March 2011 at the University Co-op Presents the Cohen New Works Festival, at the University of Texas at Austin. The context of Synaisthe is two-fold. In one aspect, the work lives in the world of theatrical design, emerging technologies, storytelling practices, and performance theory. In its subject matter, Synaisthe is in conversation with cognitive science, neurology, human perception, and the exploration of individual experience. This event, driven by a technology centered devising process, included; dance, a live band, an infra-red motion tracking floor projection system, manipulation of media through midi-instrument control, a walkman converted into a wearable sonic-fabric costume reading device, and an audience inclusive dance party. The creation of Synaisthe came about as a result of three major aims. A design and technology centered devising process, immersive interaction, and exploration of non-traditional collaborative structures. I endeavor to create a performance as means of researching the influence of media on performance practice. / text

Thesis (M.A. (Hons)) -- University of Western Sydney, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-26).

Thesis (D.C.A.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 104-113.

InterDraw is an art program that facilitates the artistic collaboration of multiple users. The goal of this collaboration is the creation of one unique computer image that represents a combination of the ideas and images provided by each of the users. InterDraw extends the already collaborative nature of the World Wide Web through the use of the Java programming language, which provides InterDraw with its cross-platform capabilities. Previously, collaborative art-like programs have been developed for specific operating systems or environments. This limitation prohibits any collaboration with users from other operating systems or environments. InterDraw breaks this limitation by using the power of Java to provide program access from any computer with an Internet connection and a Java enabled browser. The InterDraw clients collaborate by transforming objects drawn by a user into compressed binary strings that are then transported over the Internet to a server application. This server maintains a database of artist contributions and updates all other InterDraw clients collaborating on the same image. These binary strings provide a reliable transmission format that allows the drawn objects to be recreated by the InterDraw clients. Through user testing, InterDraw has been shown to provide an effective and entertaining forum for the creation of collaborative, dynamic images.

This thesis consists of the production of an inter-active computer-based artwork, an analysis of its research outcomes, and an exploration of the theoretical issues that influenced the artistic practice. The artwork, Postcard from Tunis, is an Integrationist exploration of writing and its transformation at the human-computer interface. It is set in a personal portrait of Tunis, a city with a rich history of writing. The thesis starts with the theory of writing. The conventional view of real writing as representation of speech is shown to have serious limitations.Postcard from Tunis offers users who are not Arabic-literate the perception that there are actually no fixed boundaries between writing and pictures, as both are based on spatial configurations. User interaction with Postcard from Tunis, particularly rollover activity, creates a variety of dynamic signs that cannot be theorised by a bipartate theory of signs and that transcend a distinction between the verbal and the non-verbal altogether. Postcard from Tunis both extends Integrationist theory into writing and human-computer interaction and also uniquely articulates this integration of activities in a way that is impossible with written words on paper. The research asserts the validity of the Integrationist theory of writing, language and human communication and of uncoupling these from spoken words. A framework is outlined for future Integrationist research into icons and human-computer interaction. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Seven Valleys is an interactive 3D installation based artwork inspired by mystical writings of the Bahá'í Faith. Created as a modification of the firstperson shooter Unreal Tournament 2003 (Epic, 2003) it subverts the original paradigm of the game to create an experience of the numinous, which in spirit, is diametrically opposed to the original intent of the gameplay design. This artwork presents an exploration of, and allusion to, the often subtle and illusive concepts found in the sacred treatise The Seven Valleys (Bahá'u'lláh, 1991) in which the user engages in an experiential journey through the work. The user is faced with conditions and situations that provide motivation to question, explore and attempt to fathom the abstract sense of the numinous. Each of The Seven Valleys contains its own individual mysteries while at the same time contributing its part to the telling of a collective story. / Master of Arts