This research investigates how shifts in perception might be brought about through the development of visual imagery created by the use of virtual environment technology. Through a discussion of historical uses of immersion in art, this thesis will explore how immersion functions and why immersion has been a goal for artists throughout history. It begins with a discussion of ancient cave drawings and the relevance of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Next it examines the biological origins of “making special.” The research will discuss how this concept, combined with the ideas of “action” and “reaction,” has reinforced the view that art is fundamentally experiential rather than static. The research emphasizes how present-day virtual environment art, in providing a space that engages visitors in computer graphics, expands on previous immersive artistic practices. The thesis examines the technical context in which the research occurs by briefly describing the use of computer science technologies, the fundamentals of visual arts practices, and the importance of aesthetics in new media and provides a description of my artistic practice. The aim is to investigate how combining these approaches can enhance virtual environments as artworks. The computer science of virtual environments includes both hardware and software programming. The resultant virtual environment experiences are technologically dependent on the types of visual displays being used, including screens and monitors, and their subsequent viewing affordances. Virtual environments fill the field of view and can be experienced with a head mounted display (HMD) or a large screen display. The sense of immersion gained through the experience depends on how tracking devices and related peripheral devices are used to facilitate interaction. The thesis discusses visual arts practices with a focus on how illusions shift our cognition and perception in the visual modalities. This discussion includes how perceptual thinking is the foundation of art experiences, how analogies are the foundation of cognitive experiences and how the two intertwine in art experiences for virtual environments. An examination of the aesthetic strategies used by artists and new media critics are presented to discuss new media art. This thesis investigates the visual elements used in virtual environments and prescribes strategies for creating art for virtual environments. Methods constituting a unique virtual environment practice that focuses on visual analogies are discussed. The artistic practice that is discussed as the basis for this research also concentrates on experiential moments and shifts in perception and cognition and references Douglas Hofstadter, Rudolf Arnheim and John Dewey. iv Virtual environments provide for experiences in which the imagery generated updates in real time. Following an analysis of existing artwork and critical writing relative to the field, the process of inquiry has required the creation of artworks that involve tracking systems, projection displays, sound work, and an understanding of the importance of the visitor. In practice, the research has shown that the visitor should be seen as an interlocutor, interacting from a first-person perspective with virtual environment events, where avatars or other instrumental intermediaries, such as guns, vehicles, or menu systems, do not to occlude the view. The aesthetic outcomes of this research are the result of combining visual analogies, real time interactive animation, and operatic performance in immersive space. The environments designed in this research were informed initially by paintings created with imagery generated in a hypnopompic state or during the moments of transitioning from sleeping to waking. The drawings often emphasize emotional moments as caricatures and/or elements of the face as seen from a number of perspectives simultaneously, in the way of some cartoons, primitive artwork or Cubist imagery. In the imagery, the faces indicate situations, emotions and confrontations which can offer moments of humour and reflective exploration. At times, the faces usurp the space and stand in representation as both face and figure. The power of the placement of the caricatures in the paintings become apparent as the imagery stages the expressive moment. The placement of faces sets the scene, establishes relationships and promotes the honesty and emotions that develop over time as the paintings are scrutinized. The development process of creating virtual environment imagery starts with hand drawn sketches of characters, develops further as paintings on “digital canvas”, are built as animated, three-dimensional models and finally incorporated into a virtual environment. The imagery is generated while drawing, typically with paper and pencil, in a stream of consciousness during the hypnopompic state. This method became an aesthetic strategy for producing a snappy straightforward sketch. The sketches are explored further as they are worked up as paintings. During the painting process, the figures become fleshed out and their placement on the page, in essence brings them to life. These characters inhabit a world that I explore even further by building them into three dimensional models and placing them in computer generated virtual environments. The methodology of developing and placing the faces/figures became an operational strategy for building virtual environments. In order to open up the range of art virtual environments, and develop operational strategies for visitors’ experience, the characters and their facial features are used as navigational strategies, signposts and methods of wayfinding in order to sustain a stream of consciousness type of navigation. Faces and characters were designed to represent those intimate moments of self-reflection and confrontation that occur daily within ourselves and with others. They sought to reflect moments of wonderment, hurt, curiosity and humour that could subsequently be relinquished for more practical or purposeful endeavours. They were intended to create conditions in which visitors might reflect upon their emotional state, v enabling their understanding and trust of their personal space, in which decisions are made and the nature of world is determined. In order to extend the split-second, frozen moment of recognition that a painting affords, the caricatures and their scenes are given new dimensions as they become characters in a performative virtual reality. Emotables, distinct from avatars, are characters confronting visitors in the virtual environment to engage them in an interactive, stream of consciousness, non-linear dialogue. Visitors are also situated with a role in a virtual world, where they were required to adapt to the language of the environment in order to progress through the dynamics of a drama. The research showed that imagery created in a context of whimsy and fantasy could bring ontological meaning and aesthetic experience into the interactive environment, such that emotables or facially expressive computer graphic characters could be seen as another brushstroke in painting a world of virtual reality.

This thesis analyzes the emergence, presence, and use of digital reproductions in the scholarship of art history and how these reproductions impact individual encounters with art. It will address matters related to the authenticity of reproductions, the development of modern technologies, and the rise of new media, reflecting on issues related to integrating technology into the discipline and proposing how to deal with the digital reproductions in the study of art history.

Kelly Michael Donovan is an M.F.A. Candidate in Transmedia in the Department of Art and Art History. Kelly Donovan creates artwork that examines our relationship to digital culture and technology, particularly the Internet. Following the global security disclosures in June 2013, Kelly Donovan created a series of work utilizing webcams, Internet search engines and a list of keywords used for monitoring social media to curate information and images relating to surveillance, privacy and national security. / text

This media studies thesis is a series of digitally-made composites/collages visually inspired by popular text posts from Tumblr. The text posts -- and the images inspired by them -- reflect the ironic and sarcastic humor teens and 20-somethings use to cope with mental health issues.

Over the course of the past decade the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) stations in Taiwan have become open air art galleries: with more prominent and frequent display of various artistic creations in stations, including interactive artworks. However, unlike the audiences in more meticulously choreographed exhibition contexts, those in stations are usually involuntary. New criteria for the creation and evaluation of artworks in these context are necessary to enhance the connection between the audience and the artwork, and to elicit meaningful experience via interactivity. This research aims to uncover the critical factors that can turn an indifferent passenger into an explorative participant, subsequently leading them to obtain meaningful experiences through interaction with computer-based interactive artwork. This research focuses on artworks that are permanently installed in the stations, with three case studies conducted in MRT stations forming the backbone of the research. Field observation was the first step in each case study, conducted in order to understand the fundamentals of the interactivity between the passengers and the artworks. This was followed by in-depth interviews with the passengers and three professional interview groups. A critical Analytical Framework was formed throughout the course of the research, identifying five engaging characteristics: Incentive, Transfer, Accessibility, Play, and Challenge. These five characteristics were eventually reapplied to re-examine the case studies and the content of the interviews with the professionals. The findings of this research articulate how the Analytical Framework can be adopted in future research intended to create the conditions for more meaningful art-interactions. This Analytical Framework will assist artists, designers and researchers in their pre-planning and follow up evaluations of the degree of engagement generated by computer-based interactive artworks displayed in transport hubs. The interest that the outcomes of this research has attracted in the field suggests that the framework could be extended to the examination of various computer-based interactive artworks in similar public contexts. In this context, the framework would play a valuable role in uncovering a more dynamic paradigm used to illustrate how meaningful experiences can evolve in similar public spaces.

This thesis explores the evolution of my work in graduate school. Upon entering into this course of study my artistic expression was polarized into realms of 2 and 3-Dimensional tactile works and experiments in 4-Dimensions (time) in the form of animations and short films. The content and context of these works have interwoven but their presentations remained polarized. In my masterʼs studies I have attempted to synergize the mediums of my artworks in order to achieve more realized and formal presentations. Following this course, I hope for my work to further evolve.

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.

Este trabalho trata da relação entre arte e tecnologia e das possibilidades de representação utilizadas nas digigrafias da artista plástica Maria Bonomi, nascida na Itália, mas radicada em São Paulo desde a infância, e que atua como gravadora, pintora, professora, muralista, figurinista, cenógrafa etc., com reconhecido destaque por suas gravuras e pelas obras de grande porte em espaços públicos e que apresenta novas interfaces estéticas com o uso das tecnologias digitais e eletrônicas, potencializando a imaginação e as mediações simbólicas. Esta tese utilizou-se da pesquisa bibliográfica e da coleta de depoimentos da artista para sustentar as discussões sobre os novos caminhos da arte através da utilização dos meios digitais, buscando compreender em que medida o computador contribui na ampliação da potencialidade das técnicas tradicionais de criação artística possibilitando articulações e mediações entre a tecnologia e a arte. / This work deals with the relationship between art and technology and the possibilities of representation used in the digigraphies of the plastic artist Maria Bonomi, born in Italy, but based in São Paulo since childhood, and who acts as a recording company, a painter, a teacher, a muralist, scenographer, etc., recognized by his engravings and large works in public spaces, which presents new aesthetic interfaces with the use of digital and electronic technologies, enhancing imagination and symbolic mediations. This thesis was based on the bibliographical research and the collection of testimonies of the artist to support the discussions about the new paths of art through the use of digital media, trying to understand to what extent the computer contributes to the amplification of the potential of traditional techniques of artistic creation enabling articulations and mediations between technology and art.

Esse estudo se dedica a fazer uma reflexão sobre a arte transmidiática através da apropriação das tecnologias digitais criadas a partir do advento do computador e da internet. Apesar de não ser novo o uso de múltiplas plataformas, a conexão entre as pessoas e o grande fluxo de informação trocada pela internet possibilita um novo ambiente criativo e uma nova relação entre público e arte. O trabalho tem seu início analisando a perspectiva histórica dessas novas tecnologias, que se tornaram ubíquas, e disserta sobre sua hibridação com o universo artístico, levando em conta a interatividade com o público e a cocriação. Para compreensão deste cenário tecnossocial, a pesquisa discorre sobre a penetração das novas tecnologias no cotidiano e seu impacto na sociedade. Finalmente, o estudo apresenta e descreve uma seleção de obras que podem ser definidas ou foram criadas como transmidiáticas, e examina sua produção e circulação na sociedade. / This study reflects on transmedia art through the use of the digital technologies that emerged with the advent of the computer and the internet. Even though the use of multiple platforms isnt new, the interpersonal links and the significant flux of data and information exchanged through the internet enables a new creative environment and a new relationship between art and its public. Observing these new and ubiquitous technologies from a historic viewpoint, this work examines its hybridization with the art world, its interaction with the public and collaborative co-creation. To comprehend this techno-social scenario, the research explains the advance of new technologies in everyday life and its impact on society. Finally, the study presents and describes a selection of artworks that could be defined or were created as transmedia art, its production process and the way society reaches and absorbs it.