From Connected Digital Art to Cybernetic Ecologies

Includes images and video materials as a separate attachment. These materials are also available from https://www.seanclark.me.uk/phd/This thesis is concerned with the development of art systems, and in particular digital art systems. That is, digital artworks that are able to interact with each other, as well as their human viewers or participants. The communication may be over distance via the internet, or in a shared space via sound, light and movement. The concept of the connected digital artwork is defined, together with a framework for analysing the connections between artworks and viewers in a connected art exhibition. Three full practice-based research cycles of Theory-Create-Exhibit-Reflect are described (together with an analysis of foundation work), over which the core concept was developed and refined. At each cycle knowledge was generated through the creation and exhibition of new digital artworks followed by a process of reflection. The core contribution of this work is the Framework for Connected Digital Artworks for use in the production and analysis of collections of interacting digital artworks – something that is further referred to as a cybernetic ecology. The connected digital artwork and cybernetic ecology concepts, together with the supporting framework, the new digital artworks and the underlying technical infrastructure, are a contribution to knowledge that will be of benefit to artists wishing to create similar connected artworks and for participants and theorists wishing to understand and contextualise such work. In the concluding discussion, proposals for further cycles of Theory-Create-Exhibit-Reflect are discussed

Media play: new (and old) pedagogies with young chldren

Modern technologies mean that the principles of quality arts education are the same (as they ever were) and different. Discussion in this paper is based on a small research project that used art as pedagogy, art as research method and, for the young children participants, celebrated art for art's sake. The project was designed with two aims. Firstly, the authors were interested in how young children engage with media as a strand of the arts. This also informed some of their thinking around the debates over Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a process for the production of a media text. Secondly, they were interested in the extent to which digital media could enable young children to make their learning visible

Experimental and Creative Approaches to Collecting and Distributing New Media Art within Regional Arts Organisations

This article is an overview of preliminary research undertaken for the creation of a framework for collecting and distributing new media art within regional art galleries in the U.K. From the 1960s, artists have experimented using computers and software as production tools to create artworks ranging from static, algorithmic drawings on paper to installations with complex, interactive and process-oriented behaviours. The art-form has evolved into multiple strands of production, presentation and distribution. But are we, as collectors, researchers, artists and enthusiasts facing an uncertain future concerning the integration of new media art into institutional cultural organisations? Recently, concerns have been raised by curators regarding the importance of learning how to collect new media art if there is to be any hope of preserving the artworks as well as their histories. Traditional collections management approaches must evolve to take into account the variable characteristics of new media artworks. As I will discuss in this article, although regarded as a barrier to collecting new media artworks, artists and curators at individual institutions have recently taken steps to tackle curatorial and collections management activities concerning the often unpredictable and unstable behaviours of new media artworks by collaboration and experimentation. This method has proved successful with some mainstream, university and municipal galleries prior to acquiring or commissioning new artworks into their collections. This paper purports that by collaboration, experimentation and the sharing of knowledge and resources, these concerns may be conquered to preserve and make new media art accessible for future generations to enjoy and not to lament over its disappearance

Visuality and the haptic qualities of the line in generative art

The line has an important and particular relationship with the generative artwork distinct from other elements such as the ‘pixel’, ‘voxel’ or the ‘points’ that make up point clouds. The line has a dual nature as both continuous and discrete which makes it perhaps uniquely placed to straddle the analog and digital worlds. It has a haptic or felt quality as well as an inherent ambiguity that promotes a relatively active interpretive role for the audience. There is an extensive history of the line in generative systems and artworks, taking both analog and digital forms. That it continues to play an important role, alongside other more photographically inspired ‘perceptual schemas’, may be a testament to its enduring usefulness and unique character. This paper considers the particular affordances and the ‘visuality’ of the line in relation to generative artworks. This includes asking how we might account for the felt quality of lines and the socially and culturally constructed aspects that shape our relationship with them. It asks whether, in what has been described as a ‘post digital’ or even ‘post post digital’ world, the line may offer a way to re-emphasise a more human scale and a materiality that can push back, gently, against other more dominant perceptual schemas. It also asks what generative art can learn from drawing theory, many of the concerns of which parallel and intersect with those of generative art

The Visual Effects Research Lab : Herding Cats to Infinity

In the paper I outline the current findings of the research undertaken at the VERL. The three-year project links the worlds of film, art, technology and computer science. In sharing methodologies and promoting cross, trans and inter disciplinary understanding the project challenges established notions of visual thought and creates new synergies between scientists, artists, and film-makers. In 1985 painter David Hockney was invited by Quantel to experience its TV computer graphics system Paintbox. Hockney worked for 8 hours nonstop creating artworks with the ‘tablet’ and ‘pen’ set up. He described the system as like ‘painting with light’. In the spirit of Quantel’s project VERL and Creative Scotland invited artists to propose fantastical moving image projects un-realizable with incumbent technology. VERL worked with the four selected artists to shoot high resolution (up to 4K) and post-produce in Nuke and Maya a series of innovative film projects for cinematic exhibition. The projects pushed the lab’s facilities and team to its limits creating impossible ornithological stunts, buildings rising from burning embers, real and imagined robots and visceral fantasy worlds. This project has had a great deal of publicity in the National and International media, and has been widely acknowledged to be of great significance to the European research community in film media. The UK Film Council, Broadcast Magazine, OFCOM Scotland, The European Union RDF, Nordmedia Germany and Film Fyn Denmark have all quoted findings from the project. It was awarded “Best Practice in Media / Science” at the Creative City Challenge Awards 2011 in Bremen Germany.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Comparison of engagement and emotional responses of older and younger adults interacting with 3D cultural heritage artefacts on personal devices

The availability of advanced software and less expensive hardware allows museums to preserve and share artefacts digitally. As a result, museums are frequently making their collections accessible online as interactive, 3D models. This could lead to the unique situation of viewing the digital artefact before the physical artefact. Experiencing artefacts digitally outside of the museum on personal devices may affect the user's ability to emotionally connect to the artefacts. This study examines how two target populations of young adults (18–21 years) and the elderly (65 years and older) responded to seeing cultural heritage artefacts in three different modalities: augmented reality on a tablet, 3D models on a laptop, and then physical artefacts. Specifically, the time spent, enjoyment, and emotional responses were analysed. Results revealed that regardless of age, the digital modalities were enjoyable and encouraged emotional responses. Seeing the physical artefacts after the digital ones did not lessen their enjoyment or emotions felt. These findings aim to provide an insight into the effectiveness of 3D artefacts viewed on personal devices and artefacts shown outside of the museum for encouraging emotional responses from older and younger people

Fact, Fiction and Virtual Worlds

This paper considers the medium of videogames from a goodmanian standpoint. After some preliminary clarifications and definitions, I examine the ontological status of videogames. Against several existing accounts, I hold that what grounds their identity qua work types is code. The rest of the paper is dedicated to the epistemology of videogaming. Drawing on Nelson Goodman and Catherine Elgin's works, I suggest that the best model to defend videogame cognitivism appeals to the notion of understanding