This thesis presents an investigation into the process of new forms of installation art; an exploration of the shifting of artistic activities from conventional studios and fine artist practices to installation art practices. A combined approach was taken whilst undertaking research by studying literature within the field, engaging with other practicing artists and conducting practical analysis. There is also a discussion of new technology in the field of abstract expressionist painting and a dialogue on the differences between traditional and digital abstract painting with regard to their processes. The reflective and issue finding processes undertaken by the researcher in this investigation are discussed in relation to the changes in his practice. The artist’s experimentation with materials and processes and the implications of this as regards the relationship between the artwork and the viewer are also discussed. The thesis is divided into seven chapters of text and images with an accompanying DVD including the main abstract new media installation. The first chapter includes an introduction to the research with the methodology applied. The second chapter involves using the computer to produce abstract painting. The third chapter then focuses on the differences between digital and traditional abstract painting. Moving on from this the fourth chapter covers multimedia installation and its associated processes. The fifth chapter deals with the reflections on the practice element of this investigation. The sixth chapter engages with the evaluation of and feedback from the field trip and with notes from artists with regard to practical production. The final chapter draws conclusions from this research with suggestions for further studies. This thesis will make the following contributions to knowledge: developing the process of animation from 2D abstract painting to a 3D environment with the inclusion of animation; using new technology as a creative tool to enable artists to gain new insights into creative art practices which provide audiences with new experiences of new and multimedia installation; advancing the creative process of new and multimedia artworks taking account of new techniques relating to the manipulation of viewpoints, picture planes and pigment surface as related to traditional methods of image creation and recording and their new media counterparts.

Contemporary interactive computer-based artworks are examined, with particular reference to the problems and opportunities presented by their relationship to their audience in conventional gallery settings. From an anecdotal starting point, the research uses a series of observational case studies of exhibited works, the production of an interactive artwork, and the curation of an exhibition of interactive artworks, to explore pragmatic questions of the artwork/audience relationship in real-world situations. A range of existing taxonomies for kinds and levels of interactivity within art 'are examined, and a `common-language' taxonomy based on the metaphor of `conversation' is developed and applied. -The case studies reveal patterns of use of interactive artworks including the relation of use-time to gender, aspects of intimidation, and social interaction. In particular, a high frequency of collective use of artworks, even when the artworks are designed to be used by one person, is discovered. This aspect of collective versus individual use, and interaction between audience members is further explored by several strands of research: The development of an interactive artwork specifically intended to be enhanced by collective usage and interaction between users; the application of a metaphor of 'conversation/host' to the making of the artwork; further, more specific, case studies of such artworks; and the further development of the taxonomy into a graphic form to illustrate differences in artwork-audience, and audience-audience relationships. The strands of research work together to uncover data which would be of use to artists and curators working with computer-basedin teractive artworks, and explores and develops tools which may be useful for the analysis of a wide range of artworks and art production

This practicum paper looks at the work of contemporary artists: Char Davies, Jen Southern, Wolfgang Laib, Pierre Huyghe and Max Neuhaus. From examining the artists ideas on perception many links and ideas are drawn out. From this examination the author plays with the idea of perception and the training of the senses. Sound becomes an important element. In the end the author designs a strike walk. The strike walk is focused on the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. / October 2008

This practicum paper looks at the work of contemporary artists: Char Davies, Jen Southern, Wolfgang Laib, Pierre Huyghe and Max Neuhaus. From examining the artists ideas on perception many links and ideas are drawn out. From this examination the author plays with the idea of perception and the training of the senses. Sound becomes an important element. In the end the author designs a strike walk. The strike walk is focused on the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

This practicum paper looks at the work of contemporary artists: Char Davies, Jen Southern, Wolfgang Laib, Pierre Huyghe and Max Neuhaus. From examining the artists ideas on perception many links and ideas are drawn out. From this examination the author plays with the idea of perception and the training of the senses. Sound becomes an important element. In the end the author designs a strike walk. The strike walk is focused on the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

New technologies, such as virtual reality, often draw to itself myths from other fields of interest and discourses. One such myth that has attached itself to virtual reality is the notion that virtual reality can provide a utopia for the mind, or true self, if the body can be cast off. It is this discarding of the body that my thesis aims to investigate in terms of Girardian sacrifice. Girard?s notion of sacrifice is built upon the observation of various cultures throughout history. It stands to reason that in our contemporary, digitally influenced, society, sacrifice, in some form, still persists. I argue that the body, when viewed as disposable, through the use of virtual reality, exhibits the same traits as the selected sacrificial victim. As the myth of a utopia for the mind, or true self, exists prior to the advent of virtual reality, traces of it, as well as the sacrifice I argue it entails, can be found in other texts as well. One such a text is The Chrysalids (Wyndham 1955). This text presents the reader with characters which I argue represent both the mind and body separately. The Chrysalids culminates in the characters representing the mind leaving for a utopian city whilst the character who, I argue, is most strongly associated with the body, Sophie Wender, is killed. It is also argued here in that the notion of abandoning the body is simply a myth since the inability to abandon the body is also discussed in terms of phenomenology, pointing out that the body can ultimately not be completely removed from the making of meaning. This phenomenological acknowledgement of the body, along with a critique The Chrysalids and cyber-utopia?s view of the body, forms the basis of my practical body of work. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Visual Arts / MA / Unrestricted

No description available.

The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen the creation of new forms of subjectivities that represent the integration of digital and information technologies into construction of the self and bodies. I argue that to this point there has not been a satisfactory theoretical framework for the experience of bodies in virtual environments that does not default to problematic binaries of physical and virtual, real and unreal, and meaningful and meaningless. These dualistic constructions render experiences of bodies within virtual settings meaningless. In order to examine how this power differential between physical and virtual came to be, I engage with Katherine Hayles' evaluation of information as a disembodied entity. I argue that Hayles' humanist principles prevents her from fully understanding the experience of bodies within virtual spaces as meaningful and important. I then deconstruct the materialist basis of representation in order to demonstrate how information can be reconceived as an embodied force. I further analyze digital media art installations, specifically dance performances, to examine how digital bodies are currently experienced in relationship to corporeal forms. I finally offer two new theories of <reality> and the networked body in order to dismantle the binary between physical and virtual and to make a space for all embodied experiences to be valued. / Master of Arts

The thesis explores the relationships between knowledge and knowing in contemporary 21st century information society, using the foundation of the Faculty of Media Design &amp; New Media Art at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milano as a research apparatus. This Faculty was established between 2003 and 2012, in Milano, Italy. The starting point of the research was established in the hypothesis that technics have tertiarised memory (Stiegler B., 1994), that knowledge is always founded on an ontological pessimism (Queneau R., 1933, Lyotard F., 1979) and on a perpetual process of the generation of meaning (Gadda C., 1923-29, Foucault M., 1966). Knowledge is always and inevitably linked to the technics with which it is passed on. Pedagogy becomes a questioning of the object of knowledge, which transmutes into a definition of the ways it can be visualised. This research then, setting out from a pessimistic position in relation to knowledge and truth, amplifies them to infinite possible forms and therefore causes a dual shift of philosophy towards art and of pedagogy towards hermeneutics. The methodology consisted of a textual and visual description of a territory in a cartography of meaning, seen as the relation between intuition and the way in which practices as knowledges, arts, form remnants.

My thesis body of work developed from a desire to examine my nonrepresentational artwork in relation to the concept of entropy - the law of thermodynamics that measures the gradual, steady disintegration in a system such as our world. Experimenting with a range of approaches and mediums, I resolved to radically manipulate the inkjet printing of my digital photography files to introduce chance and provoke decay. The resulting prints operate as an orchestrated chaos alluding to environmental decline and collapse, and by extension, potential social degeneration. My art reflects my perceptions of our times as well as adds to the problem. I continue to produce waste through the consumption of materials. I contaminate through inks. I add to landfills with failures. My artwork points out the inevitable end. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection