Esta tese trata a respeito de uma abordagem criativa específica em mídias digitais: o emprego expressivo da autoria procedural (isto é, da criação ou manipulação de algoritmos). Esta abordagem, denominada aqui como expressividade procedural, difere fundamentalmente do emprego do computador unicamente para emular formas e linguagens tradicionais. Nossa investigação inclui estudos práticos realizados no contexto do projeto Playing Beowulf (University College London), no qual trabalhei como parte da equipe de pesquisa e desenvolvimento do MissionMaker, um aplicativo educacional para criação de narrativas e jogos digitais. Esperamos com esta tese contribuir na compreensão sobre o uso expressivo da autoria procedural em mídias digitais, e no seu papel fundamental na realização da expressividade própria deste meio. / This thesis is about a specific creative approach in digital media: the expressive use of procedural authorship (i.e., the creation or manipulation of algorithms). This approach, which we call procedural expressiveness, distinguishes itself in a fundamental manner from the use of computers solely to emulate traditional forms and languages. Our investigation includes practical studies conducted in the context of the Playing Beowulf project (University College London), where I worked as part of the research and development team of MissionMaker, an educational software for creating digital narratives and games. With this thesis we hope to contribute in understanding the expressive use of procedural authorship in digital media, and its fundamental role in achieving the unique expressiveness of this medium.

No campo das Novas Tecnologias da Comunicação (NTC) se destacam determinadas obras que se caracterizam pela manipulação da cor materializada por fontes luminosas que, articulada poeticamente pelo artista, pode potencializar o diálogo entre obra e receptor. Esta dissertação pretende investigar o modo como a cor, proveniente de fonte luminosa, ao ser manipulada pelo artista, por meio de dispositivos tecnológicos das NTC, pode promover em sua obra um ambiente de sinergia e troca de informações com o receptor. Para contribuir com a compreensão do tema de modo eficaz serão abordados não somente os aspectos de ordem fisiológica, física, psíquica e cultural da cor, mas também, os seus aspectos históricos, investigando-se assim um cenário que propiciou o encontro entre a cor e a tecnologia, tornando compreensível a passagem gradual do uso da cor do objeto para a cor, como fonte de luz na arte. Serão abordados também os conceitos de obra aberta e interatividade nas NTC e sua relação com a cor como fonte luminosa. Uma vez clarificados os conceitos de cor, luz e obra aberta, serão realizadas leituras em obras visando identificar as várias formas como a cor proveniente de fonte luminosa pode ser manipulada pelo artista, tendo em vista a função da cor como peça fundamental e ativa no diálogo entre o receptor e obra. Espera-se que, com base em determinados conceitos, seja possível apreender como o artista utilizou poeticamente a cor como fonte de luz em instalações interativas produzidas pelas NTC visando seduzir o receptor para uma relação de troca com a obra. / In the field of New Technologies of Communication (NTC) some artworks stand out because of their characteristic way of handling materialized color by light sources. Such light sources are poetically articulated by the artist, and they can enhance the dialogue between artwork and receiver. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how the light-sourced color manipulated by the artist using NTC technological devices can promote an environment of synergy and exchange of information with the receiver. To understand this issue in an effective way, both the physiological, physical, psychological and cultural aspects of the color and its historical aspects are dealt with, thus investigating a scenery that allowed the meeting between color and technology, which made it understandable the gradual shift from the use of the color in a object to the color as a source of light in art. The concepts of open work and interactivity in the NTC and its relation to color as a light source are also discussed. Once the concepts of color, light and open work are set, some artworks are analyzed in order to identify the several ways color from a light source can be manipulated by the artist, considering its active and fundamental role in the dialogue between receiver and artwork. Based on certain concepts, it is expected to be possible to apprehend how the artist used color poetically as a light source in interactive installations produced by NTC in order to seduce the receiver into an exchange relationship with the artwork.

Avanços tecnológicos recentes inauguraram novas possibilidades estéticas devido ao potencial de integração de diversos meios, códigos e linguagens. Consequentemente, as tradicionais fronteiras entre as áreas artísticas dissolveram-se e estímulos simultâneos a vários sentidos foram introduzidos. A inclusão do corpo e seus aspectos cognitivos em interação direta com códigos computacionais é fato irreversível na arte contemporânea e seus aspectos e consequências ainda não foram completamente compreendidos. Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar, sistematizar e utilizar os conhecimentos sobre sinestesia na arte, destacando o caso das obras artísticas interativas que correlacionam voz e imagem. Em função disto, foram propostas: a) a realização de estudos sobre o fenômeno da sinestesia no contexto da ciência e da arte; b) a busca de uma definição para a voz; c) a pesquisa por referências estéticas que abordaram a questão; e d) a realização de trabalhos experimentais correlacionados ao tema. Os métodos de pesquisa utilizados foram: revisão bibliográfica - a partir de um enfoque multidisciplinar, englobando referências tanto da neurociência quanto de outras áreas -, seleção e análise de trabalhos artísticos interativos contemporâneos que abordaram a questão da sinestesia e da interação entre voz e imagem, e investigação estética a partir da realização de propostas poéticas experimentais. Os principais resultados obtidos foram: a compreensão da trajetória dos estudos sobre sinestesia na ciência e a atualização dos conhecimentos sobre o assunto; apontamentos sobre a contextualização da sinestesia na arte; a definição da voz como corporificada e relacionada a todos os sentidos incluídos na unidade do corpo; e a realização de três trabalhos experimentais, dois coletivos sobre sinestesia e um individual que explora a relação entre voz e visualidade. / Recent technological advances opened new aesthetic possibilities in art, due to its potentiality to integrate several medias, codes and languages. Consequently, the traditional boundaries between artistic areas were dissolved and simultaneous stimuli to various senses were introduced. The occurence of the body and its cognitive aspects in interaction with computer codes is an irreversible fact in contemporary art, and its aspects and consequences have not been fully understood. This work aims to investigate, systematize and use the information about synesthesia in arts, highlighting the case of interactive art works connecting voice and image. Therefore, it was proposed: a) the study of the synesthetic phenomenon and how it is treated in both science and arts; b) the definition of voice; c) the search for aesthetic references in interactive arts addressing this issue; and d) the development of experimental works related to this subject. The adopted methodology consisted of: bibliographical review - with a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing references from neuroscience and other areas - , selection and analysis of contemporary interactive artworks adressesing aspects of synesthesia and the voice-image interaction, and aesthetic research based on experimental artworks. Our main results were: understanding the trajectory of the studies about synesthesia in science and updating the knowledge on the subject; notes on the context of synesthesia in art; the definition of voice as an embodied entity, related to all the senses included in the body unit; and the development of three experimental works of art, two collective works about synesthesia, and an individual one that explores the relationship between voice and visuality.

This thesis combines personal experiences of depression with experimentation of media, and consists of four projects including a set of five postcards, a graduation robe, and a tapestry collection. The final project, and central focus, is a series of 100 digital images that was created to distract the artist from harmful mental breakdowns. The series is aptly named Coping and has become a study on expressions of the mind. The exploration of the subconscious through art has roots in psychology and influences from several art movements. Psychologist Sigmund Freud recognized the power of the unconscious mind, and his psycho-analytical discoveries influenced artists in both the Surrealist Automatic and Abstract Expression movements (Turner, pgs. 373-374). Artists such as Andre Masson, Joan Miro, and Jackson Pollock experimented with subconscious thoughts, images and techniques. Additionally, contemporary artists such as Yayoi Kusama reference psychological states of being in their work by using specific denotative elements such as pattern, shape and color. Even though Coping was not initially created with conscious intention, the work proves that art can be both an insight into the subconscious and a powerful coping mechanism.

Pattern is a familiar concept ever present in our daily lives, existing in many material forms, observable in varied states, and able to be created from a diverse range of processes and events. Natural pattern forms, such as biological and chemical patterns, have been extensively studied, often within the digital environment because of its capacity to process large amounts of data which aids investigation of not only their characteristics but their potentiality. However, human designed physical patterns, while having been investigated extensively in terms of their historical, geographic and cultural significance and their aesthetic and/or mathematical characteristics, have not been fully investigated in terms of their evolutionary potential. This project explores one example of human designed physical patterns, crochet lace patterns ??? which have remained largely stable and consistent throughout various technological transformations such as the industrial revolution ??? in order to explore pattern as a process and investigate the potential for these patterns to become emergent. This exploration translated the patterns into the digital environment where, as data, the patterns become available for manipulation using a generative art practice approach. By translating the patterns into a digital environment and engaging with the pattern forms at their systematic core, where crochet pattern instructions and software programming scripts operate similarly as ???code???, this research provided a deeper understanding of the patterns and allowed exploration of whether a pattern???s developmental path can be altered to create new emergent patterns. This research draws on systems theory and systems aesthetics and their application within contemporary generative art practice and informs visual arts in several areas including showing how aesthetic values shift as work becomes cross-disciplinary and enters the digital environment, and how the introduction and location of innovation affects the relationship between the original and its copy.

This research aims to delineate various modes and means of communication in the field of multimedia theatre and to relate this field of practice to contemporary debates in both theatre and media studies. This thesis defines 'multimedia theatre' in two ways: firstly to include performance where media technologies are brought into the theatrical frame as a feature of the mise en scene, and secondly to refer to the area of new media performance, where a live performer may not be present but a high degree of performativity and liveness are achieved. Discourse in the field of digital aesthetics and new media theory is applied to examples and case studies of contemporary multimedia theatre practice to highlight the formal structures and modes of audience engagement operating within such work. Multimedia theatre may be characterised by the qualities of intermediality, immersion, interactivity, and postnarratvity, and these characteristics are used in this thesis as focal points to structure analysis and investigation. The thesis also argues that recent developments in the field of multimedia theatre and performance may be viewed as related to a larger cultural shift predicated on the dissolution of the separation of the real and the virtual. It is further argued that multimedia theatre is acting as a forum for the exploration of the contemporary human experience, an experience shaped by the ubiquity of digital media and the development of a 'posthuman' perspective.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-23).

Vi omges ständigt av ljus i vår vardag, det finns naturligt ljus samt artificiellt. Även under de grå dagarna finns det ljus och dess närvaro är alltid där även om den inte alltid är som klarast. I detta kandidatarbete beskrivs ljuset ur olika synvinklar, men framförallt hur Rembrandt och impressionisterna i sina konstverk använt ljuset i sitt skapande. För att få en bredare syn på vår process tar vi hjälp av de två begreppen “fluid” och “fire” som kommer från aktör-nätverksteori (ANT). Utifrån den teoretiska delen av arbetet skapas en gestaltning i form av digitala illustrationer med budskapet “våga vara dig själv”. Detta görs i form av olika porträtt där ljuset ligger i fokus inte bara i ljussättningen utan även som en helhet. Med hjälp av den teoretiska och praktiska delen av kandidatarbetet har det framgått att frågeställningen “Hur kan man med illusionen av ljus skapa ett porträtt med digitala medier?” kan besvaras på olika vis, då vi illustrerat ljuset med olika uttrycksätt och visuella språk. / We are constantly surrounded by light in our daily lives, there’s natural and artificial light. During cloudy days there is light and it’s presence is always there even if it’s not the clearest. In this bachelor thesis we examine the light from different angles, but above all how Rembrandt and the impressionists in their artwork used the light. To get a broader view of our process, we use the two terms "fluid" and "fire" from actor-network theory (ANT). Based on the theoretical part of our work, we created digital illustrations with the message “Dare to be yourself”. This is done in the form of various portraits, where the light is in focus not only in the lighting but also as a whole. With the help of the theoretical and practical part of the bachelor thesis we are shown that the question "How can one with the illusion of light create a portrait with digital media?" can be answered in different ways, as we illustrate light with different expressions and visual languages.

Digital Craft is a project that explores the interface between three-dimensional (3-D) computer technology and costume technology. I combine seasoned millinery techniques with modern methods of object construction and design to diversify the costume artisan’s toolbox and encourage practical and useful ways of moving between the virtual and physical world. Through a series of theoretical projects the dichotomy of modern artistic process is explored. The task of this thesis project is to explore the impact of 3-D imaging software on design and construction methods by applying them to the sculptural process of hat making. I collaborate with designers and technicians to develop methods of hat making for performance culminating in an exhibition presented at the University Co-op Cohen New Works Festival, April 2011. This research is applied to cultivate new methods of hat making, by exploring new media and expanding creative possibilities. Craft objects are created directly through the hand of the maker; it is thorough technique that the hand informs the craft object (Risatti, 108). Furthermore, the traditional notion of tools and craft objects is that they are conditioned, controlled and limited by the hands. In order to update and improve methods of object construction, this project will expand the traditional concept of craft, combining hands-on methods with machining. I hope to improve efficiency and decrease the cost of realizing authentic and original hat designs by exploring alternative digital spaces that can be used to communicate, develop and actualize ideas. / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture