Contemporary digital imaging practice has largely adopted the visual characteristics of its closest mediatic relative, the analogue photograph, In this regard, new media theorist Lev Manovich observes that "Computer software does not produce such images by default. The paradox of digital visual culture is that although all imaging is becoming computer-based, the dominance of photographic and cinematic imagery is becoming even stronger. But rather than being a direct, "natural" result of photo and film technology, these images are constructed on computers" (Manovich 2001: 179), Manovich articulates the disjuncture between the technical processes involved in the digital image creation process and the visual characteristics of the final digital image with its replication of the visual qualities of the analogue photograph. This research addresses this notion further by exploring the following. What are the defining technical features of these computer-based imaging processes? Could these technical features be used as a basis in developing an alternative aesthetic for the digital image? Why is there a reticence to visually acknowledge these technical features in contemporary digital imaging practice? Are there historic mediated precedents where the inherent technical features of the medium are visually acknowledged in the production of imagery? If these defining technical features of the digital imaging process were visually acknowledged in this image creation process, what would be the outcome? The studio practice component of the research served as a foundation for the author's artistic and aesthetic development where the intent was to investigate and highlight four technical qualities of the digital image identified through the case studies of three digital artists, and other secondary sources, These technical qualities include: the composite RGB colour system of the digital image as it appears on screen; the pixellated microstructure of the digital image; the luminosity of the digital image as it appears on a computer monitor, and the underlying numeric and (ASCII based) alphanumeric codes of the image file which enables that most defining feature of the image file, that of programmability, Based on research in the visualization of these numeric and alphanumeric codes, digital images of bacteria produced through the use of the scanning electron microscope, were chosen as image content for an experimental body of work to draw the conceptual link between these numeric and alphanumeric codes of the image file and the coded genetic sequence of an individual bacterial entity.

This is a practice-led research project that seeks to explore the cross-cultural aesthetics and conceptual ideas of an art project. I position myself as an art practitioner who intends to apply the Western modes of technological advancement of digital imaging and ink jet technologies to the substrates used by traditional Chinese artists for ink painting and calligraphy, usually called Xuan Zhi [宣紙]. Through this process, the aesthetics and conceptual ideas of both cultures will be explored, examined, analysed and interrogated for the potential development of a new aesthetics in the context of digital art. There are three major components in this research project; a creative document in the form of a collection of artwork, an exegesis and a collection of documentation. The creative document will be a body of visual image-based artwork that includes a series of collateral works from the ongoing research and practice of the project. It is the negotiated output of a potentially new aesthetics in digital art, specifically in the context of digital still imaging and digital printmaking. The exegesis is an analytical and critical commentary that places the creative document in relevant theoretical, philosophical, cultural and historical contexts. The documentation is a collection of the ongoing empirical practice of ink jet technology on Xuan Zhi. The visual physical form of both the exegesis and the documentation are also included as part of the creative document. These three components together form a unity and are presented as artefacts to represent the main focus of the research - the Poetics of Making.

The starting point of my dissertation is the question: What would be needed of a device to culturally reconfigure the way that we see? The question has been addressed through a theoretical examination of spatial theories in modern times and a creative exploration of new spatialities in new media technologies, both visual and aural. Central to my thesis are three claims: 1. the paradigmatic mathematical theory of single-point perspective is fundamental to the imagining and construction of space in modern times; 2. perspective is a seductive space because its virtualisations seem more authentic than phenomenological experience; 3. the structure of perspective space prefigures the computer screen, hence any attempt to reconfigure the spatial imaginary through the devices of new media technologies must first confront the historical ubiquity of perspective. The specific focus of my written research is a comparative study of Filippo Brunelleschi's perspective device and the virtual reality work of Char Davies. This comparative study focuses on the ingredients of both devices as well as the similarities between the environments in which they were demonstrated. Brunelleschi's Peephole device, according to his biographer Manetti, first demonstrated perspective theory in the early fifteenth century. Brunelleschi's device, with its three main components, the mirror, the burnished silver and the painted panel, are examined in regards to the environment it was demonstrated in. The dissertation explores these elements as the essential conceptual ingredients for the reconfiguration of space in modern times. Aspects of Brunelleschi's device are also examined creatively in my practical work. Today emergent technologies are being used to explore the potential of a new spatial world order. However, these new technologies are generally based on an Old World order perspective. Even the cubist reconfiguration of space did not change, in any fundamental way, the dominant perspectival model of perception because it did not have the same ideological and psychological power as perspective, which seduced the viewer into believing that the gap (or loss) between the technology and reality had been compensated. Arguably, the same claims can be made for virtual reality devices. Hence, important to the dissertation is a comparative study of Brunelleschi's perspective device and the virtual reality work of Char Davies. The creative work investigates the effects and work of perspectival spatiality by examining (through digital video, photographically and sonically) residual spaces in the environment. To me these residual spaces provide potential resistances to the perspectival space from which they evolved, and thus show new ways of exploring the virtual reality of cyberspace that, while acknowledging the pervasive presence of perspective systems, also deconstruct or even map new post-perspective spatialities.

Ce travail se positionne dans le domaine de l'interactivité sensorielle, de la 3D temps réel et des arts visuels. Cette étude artistique et technique s’inscrit directement dans une recherche entamée depuis des années, sur la question de la représentation sublimée de la mort, qui se retrouve pleinement transfiguré dans l’emblème de la Vanité et sur la recherche de nouvelles façons d’entretenir un dialogue en rétroaction avec l’œuvre. Sur le point artistique, la recherche analyse le processus de création, qui a mené de la représentation sublimée de la mort en vidéo, à la réalisation et l’expérimentation de Vanité au sein de tableaux virtuels interactifs et immersifs. Cette analyse apporte des réponses aux questionnements envers la signification des intentions liées à la création et l’utilisation de Vanité en 3D dans des installations conversationnelles. Elle met en lumière les enjeux de ce procédé innovant par rapport à l’histoire de la Vanité depuis son apparition. Elle en approfondit le contenu en développant une démarche significative, sur la relation entre l’œuvre et le spectateur, par l’utilisation d’interface sensorielle comme support de dialogue. Sur le plan technique, l’étude porte sur l’utilisation d’une interface BCI (Brain computer interface) afin d’apporter une nouvelle façon d’appréhender et de dialoguer avec l’œuvre, dans le cadre d’un processus de rétroaction. Il en émane une interactivité où se mêlent la concentration et la méditation. Par le contrôle des ondes cérébrales et des contractions musculaires, le corps et l’esprit doivent se rejoindre, pour accéder à la maîtrise de l’interface BCI. / This work is about sensory interactivity, real-time 3D and visual arts. This artistic and technical study falls within a long-term research, introducing the notion of an enhanced representation of Death, embodied by the Vanitas and exploring new ways of inducing feedback about a work of art.From an artistic point of view, this research analyses the creation process which led us from the enhanced representation of Death on video, to the experience of the Vanitas through a total immersion into virtual pictures. This analysis brings out the motives for the creation and the use of 3D Vanitases in interactive installations. It highlights the issues raised by this innovative process regarding the History of the Vanitas since its outbreak. It goes further, by developing an original approach, to the communication between the audience and the work of art, introducing the use of a sensorial interface as a medium.At the technical level, the study revolves around the use of a Brain Computer Interface (BCI), inducing a new way of discovering and interacting with a work of art, as part of a feedback process. It creates a sense of interactivity, between concentration and meditation. The control of the brainwaves and muscular contractions brings the Body and the Mind together to achieve the mastery of the BCI

Essa pesquisa visa compreender o espaço no qual a arte digital, entendida como sistema complexo, ou seja, arte-ciência-tecnologia, é produzida, circula, é consumida e preservada no Brasil, entre o sistema da arte contemporânea e a cultura digital. A partir de uma metodologia qualitativa que une levantamento bibliográfico, pesquisa de campo e entrevistas, encontrei uma rede interoperante, convergente, móvel, pervasiva e instável que atualiza as noções de sistema da arte. Nesse espaço fluído e flexível que tenho defendido como o sistema da arte digital, rastreio o movimento de conceitos, agentes, processos, teorias e práticas. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam um sistema da arte digital em conexão com outros sistemas, bem como (re) configurações originadas pela economia e cultura digital. / This research aims to understand the space in which digital art, understood as a complex system, that is, art-science-technology, is produced, circulates, is consumed and preserved in Brazil, between the system of contemporary art and digital culture. From a qualitative methodology that combines bibliographic research, field research and interviews, I found an interoperating network, convergent, mobile, pervasive and unstable that updates the art system notions. In this fluid and flexible space that I have defended as the system of digital art, I trace the movement of concepts, agents, processes, theories and practices. The research results indicate a digital art system in connection with other systems, and (re) configurations caused by the economy and digital culture.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This Master Thesis goals the comprehension of the enlargement that digital images add to the art field, specially the immersion feeling. It is thought that the feeling that the observer is inside the images is intensified by artistic experiences with digital technology, in this way it seems to be important to discuss such subject in a contemporary context, searching for some differences of the idea of immersion into images before and after digital technologies. To understand this transition from analog to digital image, that could be talks to as the production of image, considering the difference of being in front of, amid or in the image, besides explaining about the passage from observation to interaction between the art work and the interactor. Being within an ambient or not depends primarily on the comprehension of reality, so it is presented in this study discussions on reality, some questions on virtual and virtual reality Some devices are approached, so their contribution to the thinking of the feeling of immersion in artistic images relating it with current trend and getting in digital devices aside from showing some immersion levels suggested by researchers. For some detailed forthcoming the following art works will be analyzed: Osmose (2005) by Chair Davies and VRAquarium (2005) by Diana Domingues and Artecno team. Images that fullfil 360 grades from the observer sight can be found among all the Art History; some of them were made in order to cause in the spectator an immersion feeling in the presented scene. Therefore the attempt to comprehend the possible modifications that digital imaging provide to the Arts, especially the feeling of immersion, demonstrates itself as pertinent to understand how images can be presented at contemporary times. / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo compreender o redimensionamento que as imagens digitais dão ao campo da arte, sobretudo a sensação de imersão. Acredita-se que a sensação do observador estar na imagem intensifica-se a partir das experimentações artísticas com tecnologias digitais, de modo que é importante discutir este tema no contexto contemporâneo, buscando identificar algumas diferenças da ideia de imersão nas imagens antes e depois das tecnologias digitais. Para entender esta passagem da imagem analógica à digital discorre-se como ocorre a produção da imagem, ponderando sobre a diferença de estar diante, em meio ou na imagem, além de explanar sobre a passagem da observação à interatividade entre obra e interator. Estar ou não imerso em outro ambiente depende primeiramente da compreensão que se tem da realidade, assim também se apresentam neste estudo uma discussão acerca da realidade, algumas questões sobre o virtual e a realidade virtual. Abordam-se alguns dispositivos que contribuem para pensar a sensação de imersão em imagens artísticas, relacionando-os com propostas atuais, chegando até os dispositivos digitais, além de apresentar alguns níveis de imersão propostos por diferentes pesquisadores. Para uma aproximação mais aprofundada, analisa-se as obras Osmose (1995) de Char Davies e VRAquarium (2005), de Diana Domingues e Grupo Artecno. Imagens que compreendem 360 graus da visão do observador podem ser encontradas durante toda história da arte, de modo que, algumas vezes elas são realizadas com o intuito de causar a sensação de imersão na cena apresentada. Assim, tentar compreender as possíveis modificações que a imagem digital proporciona ao campo da arte, sobretudo a sensação de imersão, mostra-se pertinente para entender como as imagens podem ser apresentadas na contemporaneidade.

Cette thèse porte sur l’implication du remix dans la création plastique à l’ère de la dématérialisation numérique. Beaucoup d’éléments comme la technicité du médium, la malléabilité des contenus, la banalisation de la transgression du droit d’auteur ou la mise à disposition sans précédent de matériaux, impactent directement la création. Tout ceci donne lieu à de multiples stratégies de création par, pour, avec ou hors Internet. Les œuvres sont ouvertes, processuelles, interactives. L’art numérique est foisonnant et le remix y occupe une place de choix. C’est donc dans la longue histoire du remix artistique et dans celle inédite de la création numérique que j’ai choisi d’inscrire une recherche création. Artiste depuis plus de dix ans, j’ai eu à articuler une « recherche > création » (« sur l’art » et sur mes œuvres passées) et une « création > recherche » (sur mes œuvres en train de se faire). Lors de la « recherche > création », l’hypothèse de la filiation de mon travail avec le remix numérique m’a conduit à saisir, d’un point de vue théorique, les termes de la rencontre fructueuse du remix avec l’art numérique, puis à faire une analyse de sept de mes œuvres passées. Elle a souligné la portée critique et la diversité de mes remix et de leurs dominantes : la mise en jeu du droit d’auteur ; le rapport au temps et à l’interactivité ; la critique de l’abondance informationnelle ; et la collection, intention et principe de création. Cette « recherche > création » n’a pris tout son sens qu’avec la création de trois nouvelles œuvres lors de la « création > recherche ». La poursuite de mon hypothèse m’a invité à mettre en jeu la définition couramment admise du remix réflexif, notamment sa portée référentielle. Mes dernières œuvres sont nées de cette rupture et d’une intention non plus critique, mais expérimentale. Elles m’ont permis de distinguer un « remix distancié » qui va plus loin que le remix réflexif dans le sens d’une complète dissolution de l’original qui lui a donné vie. / The focus in this thesis is on the implications of remix in the art field within the digital dematerialisation era. Many elements like the technicality of the medium, the malleability of the contents, the banalisation of copyright infringement or the unprecedented availability of materials impact creation directly. All this has given birth to multiple creation strategies by, for, with or out of the Internet. Artworks are open, processual, interactive. Digital art is a flourishing movement and remix occupies a key place within. It is thus in the long history of artistic remix and the new emerging history of digital creation that I chose to enrol in a research creation. As an artist for more than ten years, I have had to articulate a ‘research > creation’ (‘on art’ and my past artworks) and a ‘creation > research’ (on my artworks in progress). During the period of ‘research > creation’, the assumption of the filiation of my work to digital remix led me to examine, from a theoretical point of view, the terms of the fruitful encounter between remix and digital art and then to apply the analysis to seven of my previous artworks. This brought to light the critical range and the diversity of my own remix and their dominance: the liability of the copyright; the relationship to time and interactivity; the criticism of informational abundance; and the collection as an intention and a principle of creation. This ‘research > creation’ has been ‘rendered real’ with the creation of three new artworks during the ‘creation > research’. The exploration of my hypothesis led me to jeopardise the generally accepted definition of reflexive remix, in particular its referential range. My latest artworks were born from this disruption and of an intention which was no longer critical, but experimental. These artworks enabled me to distinguish a ‘outpaced remix’ which goes beyond reflexive remix in the direction of a complete dissolution of the original from which each one derived.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:19:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-11-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The art produced with digital mean, known as digital art, involves complex questions related to the specificity of the digital media which question the ways of production, exhibition, distribution, aesthetic appreciation, authorship, that encloses the quarrels of copyright, industrial patent, free and commercial software. This study also tackles a variety of issues concerning digital production, from the poetical possibilities explored, to the quarrel of problems such as domain and access of digital language. The present research investigates artistic proposals that use digital environment, the relation between the poetical richness and the technological and technical knowledge, which depends on the access to digital means. Reflecting on the story of artists who explore the digital media, as well as texts of theoreticians and art critics, the adopted methodology was the bibliographical research and interviews with the artists: members of the SCIArts group, Tania Fraga and Malu Fragoso. The criteria for the selection of these artists was based as their contribution to the field of Brazilian digital art through exhibitions an participation in events which discuss art and technology. The study examines the poetical process of the digital production present in artworks, such, interactive installations and artistic proposals of the digital medias, as the Poetical Atrator , Gravity Fluxions: pulsations and the Tracajá Project . Were clearly articulated in speeches of the interviewed artists and in the importance of the quarrel on the technique and technology and about questions of the access and domain implied at the digital art research. The artists alert for the necessity of support to the creation of groups to research free software, for development of appropriate means of evaluations in brief that are not specific for research in digital ways, to the increase of public funding that would finance equipment and programs of high cost, and discussion on the property right of these equipment and programs. They also point out the precariousness of the critical and the exhibition spaces without the necessary structure to slow this kind of artworks in Brazil. The research Digital Echoes - poetical proposals considers that the poetical proposals in digital ways - low or high tech - creates a space of fertile artistic and critical exploration / A arte produzida com meios digitais, nomeada de arte digital, envolve questões complexas suscitadas pela especificidade dos meios digitais que questionam os modos de produção, de exibição, de distribuição, de apreciação estética, de autoria, que abrange as discussões do direito autoral, patente industrial, software proprietário e livre. Enfim, são questões que vão desde as possibilidades poéticas exploradas até o domínio e acesso da linguagem digital. A presente pesquisa busca perceber nas propostas artísticas que se utilizam do digital, a relação entre a riqueza poética e o conhecimento técnico e tecnológico, o qual depende do acesso aos meios digitais. Refletindo sobre o relato de artistas que exploram os suportes digitais, assim como de textos de teóricos e críticos de arte, a metodologia adotada foi a pesquisa bibliográfica com entrevistas semi-estruturadas e presenciais com os artistas do SCIArts, Tania Fraga e Malu Fragoso. A escolha destes artistas deu-se pelo caráter de serem artistas brasileiros pesquisadores em meios digitais, com exposições e participações em eventos atuais que discutem arte e tecnologia. O estudo aponta o processo poético dos meios digitais presente nas instalações interativas e propostas artísticas das mídias digitais como o Atrator Poético, Gravity Fluxions: pulsations e o Projeto Tracajá, que ficou mais esclarecido nas falas dos artistas entrevistados e na pertinência da discussão sobre a técnica e tecnologia e sobre questões de acesso e domínio implicadas nas pesquisas em arte digital. Os artistas alertam para a necessidade do incentivo à criação de grupos de pesquisa, que investiguem software livres, para a adequação das avaliações nos editais que não são específicos para pesquisas em meios digitais, para o aumento de editais de fomento que consigam financiar equipamentos e programas de custo mais elevado, e para a discussão sobre o direito de propriedade desses equipamentos e programas, além de salientarem a precariedade da crítica e dos espaços de exposição sem a estrutura necessária. A pesquisa Ecos digitais - propostas poéticas considera que as propostas poéticas em meios digitais sejam low ou hight tech criam um espaço de exploração fértil

Essa pesquisa visa compreender o espaço no qual a arte digital, entendida como sistema complexo, ou seja, arte-ciência-tecnologia, é produzida, circula, é consumida e preservada no Brasil, entre o sistema da arte contemporânea e a cultura digital. A partir de uma metodologia qualitativa que une levantamento bibliográfico, pesquisa de campo e entrevistas, encontrei uma rede interoperante, convergente, móvel, pervasiva e instável que atualiza as noções de sistema da arte. Nesse espaço fluído e flexível que tenho defendido como o sistema da arte digital, rastreio o movimento de conceitos, agentes, processos, teorias e práticas. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam um sistema da arte digital em conexão com outros sistemas, bem como (re) configurações originadas pela economia e cultura digital. / This research aims to understand the space in which digital art, understood as a complex system, that is, art-science-technology, is produced, circulates, is consumed and preserved in Brazil, between the system of contemporary art and digital culture. From a qualitative methodology that combines bibliographic research, field research and interviews, I found an interoperating network, convergent, mobile, pervasive and unstable that updates the art system notions. In this fluid and flexible space that I have defended as the system of digital art, I trace the movement of concepts, agents, processes, theories and practices. The research results indicate a digital art system in connection with other systems, and (re) configurations caused by the economy and digital culture.

Desde os primeiros filmes realizados em jogos digitais nos anos 1990, a noção de machinima vem sendo associada às convenções do cinema clássico. Com isso, ela falha em abranger a diversidade das obras audiovisuais produzidas em ambientes virtuais interativos em tempo real. Assim, o presente estudo busca contribuir com uma melhor compreensão dessa noção, através da análise interpretativa dos seus filmes experimentais e da bibliografia específica. Ele também pretende colaborar com a sua expansão como meio de comunicação e expressão artística. Em um primeiro momento, busca-se evidenciar a associação da noção de machinima com o cinema clássico, através da apresentação dos filmes relevantes durante a sua história e também de uma análise interpretativa das primeiras publicações teóricas. A partir dessa constatação, são apresentadas práticas audiovisuais precedentes e filmes experimentais realizados nos seus anos iniciais. Em seguida, pretende-se demonstrar que o afastamento da narrativa representado pelas obras experimentais de machinima abre espaço para a identificação de outros elementos que possam colaborar com um entendimento mais aprofundado da sua noção. Dessa forma, as seguintes características são apresentadas e analisadas em relação a essa ideia: a performance, a intervenção e o registro. Essa aproximação é prosseguida pela análise interpretativa dos filmes Formation (Difference and Repetition), de Baden Pailthorpe, 30 Seconds or More One Animation a Day, de Victor Morales e Abstract Livecoded Machinima (Missile Command), de David Griffiths. Ao enfatizar as obras experimentais de machinima, a proposta deste estudo é evidenciar que há uma diversidade de caminhos, entre a narrativa e a experimentação, a serem percorridos pelos artistas com machinima e que a sua noção deve abranger a pluralidade dessas produções audiovisuais. / Since the first films accomplished in digital games in the 1990s, the concept of machinima has been associated to the conventions of classical cinema. Therewith, it fails to embrace the diversity of audiovisual works produced in real-time interactive virtual environments. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to a deepen comprehension of this concept through an interpretative analysis of its experimental films and also of the specific bibliography. It also intends to collaborate with its expansion as a communication and an artistic expression medium. First, it is aimed to evince the association of the idea of machinima with the classical cinema, through the presentation of the relevant films of its history and also through an interpretative analysis of the first theoretical publications. From this verification, the previous audiovisual practices and experimental movies accomplished in its first years are presented. Then, it is intended to demonstrate that the distance from narrative represented by the experimental works in machinima makes room for the identification of other features that may collaborate to a deepening understanding of its concept. Thus, the following features are presented and analyzed in relation to this idea: the performance, the intervention, and the record. This approximation is followed by the interpretative analysis of the films Formation (Difference and Repetition), by Baden Pailthorpe, 30 Seconds or More One Animation a Day, by Victor Morales, and Abstract Livecoded Machinima (Missile Command), by David Griffiths. By emphasizing the experimental works in machinima, the proposal of this study is to evince that there is a diversity of paths, between the narrative and the experimentation, to go through by the artists with machinima. Thus, its concept must include the plurality of these audiovisual productions.