The Cinematic Aesthetics of Digital Virtualism

This dissertation explores the cinematic ontology of digital virtualism in the context of the current trend to digitalisation. I define digital virtualism as the aesthetics of assemblage and configuration in the age of digital images. This definition implies that digital technology strengthens the complex tension between physical reality and imaginary illusion. Based on computer simulation and synthesis, the digital image intensifies the contradiction between cinematic materiality and immateriality. Digital virtualism is the aesthetics of historical hybridity and aesthetic complexity between the actual and the virtual, the indexical and the symbolic, the material and the immaterial, the real and the imaginary. In this context, this thesis examines the aesthetical relationship of filmic virtuality and the digital image. In particular, I assert that the digital image is the new form and expansion of filmic virtuality. While film is always the art of the virtual, that is, the aesthetic imbrication of actual indexicality and imaginary illusion, the digital image intensifies the contradiction of filmic virtuality between reality and illusion. On one hand, computer simulation reinforces the indexicality of film by the principle of perceptual realism. On the other hand, it attenuates the causality between the object and the image by digital manipulation. I argue that digital technology simultaneously intensifies both filmic reality and the manipulation of the imaginary. Thus, the digital image expands the expressive force and aesthetic potential of cinema. After examining the cinematic aesthetics of realism, modernism, postmodernism, and digital aesthetics after postmodernism, this dissertation investigates the aesthetical implications of Deleuzian virtuality in the age of the digital image. Deleuze presents the cinematic aesthetics of virtual conjunction in the monism of simulacra, which implies the indiscernible and inextricable imbrication of the actual and the virtual, original and copy, reality and image, and cinematic movement and time. Following the discussion of the aesthetical ontology of Deleuzian virtuality, this dissertation theorises the assemblage aesthetics of digital virtualism. Consequently, this dissertation proposes the subjective and practical task of digital ethics. Digital technology intensifies the spectacular attraction of images and the interactive participation of spectators in the cinematic process. In contrast, the digital image reveals technological fetishism and aesthetic commercialisation. Based on the ontological contradiction of the digital image, this dissertation articulates the configurative aesthetics and the subjective ethics of digital virtualism

The Cinematic Aesthetics of Digital Virtualism

This dissertation explores the cinematic ontology of digital virtualism in the context of the current trend to digitalisation. I define digital virtualism as the aesthetics of assemblage and configuration in the age of digital images. This definition implies that digital technology strengthens the complex tension between physical reality and imaginary illusion. Based on computer simulation and synthesis, the digital image intensifies the contradiction between cinematic materiality and immateriality. Digital virtualism is the aesthetics of historical hybridity and aesthetic complexity between the actual and the virtual, the indexical and the symbolic, the material and the immaterial, the real and the imaginary. In this context, this thesis examines the aesthetical relationship of filmic virtuality and the digital image. In particular, I assert that the digital image is the new form and expansion of filmic virtuality. While film is always the art of the virtual, that is, the aesthetic imbrication of actual indexicality and imaginary illusion, the digital image intensifies the contradiction of filmic virtuality between reality and illusion. On one hand, computer simulation reinforces the indexicality of film by the principle of perceptual realism. On the other hand, it attenuates the causality between the object and the image by digital manipulation. I argue that digital technology simultaneously intensifies both filmic reality and the manipulation of the imaginary. Thus, the digital image expands the expressive force and aesthetic potential of cinema. After examining the cinematic aesthetics of realism, modernism, postmodernism, and digital aesthetics after postmodernism, this dissertation investigates the aesthetical implications of Deleuzian virtuality in the age of the digital image. Deleuze presents the cinematic aesthetics of virtual conjunction in the monism of simulacra, which implies the indiscernible and inextricable imbrication of the actual and the virtual, original and copy, reality and image, and cinematic movement and time. Following the discussion of the aesthetical ontology of Deleuzian virtuality, this dissertation theorises the assemblage aesthetics of digital virtualism. Consequently, this dissertation proposes the subjective and practical task of digital ethics. Digital technology intensifies the spectacular attraction of images and the interactive participation of spectators in the cinematic process. In contrast, the digital image reveals technological fetishism and aesthetic commercialisation. Based on the ontological contradiction of the digital image, this dissertation articulates the configurative aesthetics and the subjective ethics of digital virtualism

Teaching Everything in Relationship: Integrating Social Sciences and Design in Teaching and Professional Practice

n/

Reassembling an ecology of digital platforms: From interoperability towards convergence

The sociological analysis of digital platforms and infrastructures has almost always been carried out through methodological atomism. They have been observed as unconnected and isolated objects and the issue of their interconnection has been largely neglected. Yet, the topic of interoperability is very relevant today and calls for sociological contribution, especially in the wake of the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. This preliminary paper aims at experimenting with an ecological gaze on digital platforms and infrastructures. An attempt has thus been made to move the focus from the microscope slide isolating each platform to the wider interconnected ecological tangle they chorally perform. To observe reassemble the ecology, the technical concept of ‘interoperability’ has been followed and three stories of interoperability have been described. These stories have been collected at a large university in central Italy. The research shows that the interconnection between platforms happens as an intertwining of technical and social aspects. In the stories collected, interoperability is inscribed with values, hidden cultures, beliefs that express normative ideas and orders of value. Also, it is practically accomplished through collaborative processes, articulation of work and ruses. Digital platforms are thus performative not only as isolated entities: the convergence between platforms – i.e., the ecological ‘coming together’ of platforms – does work on the world too and is endowed with its own agency. Such convergence is dense with values, never detached from social processes, and happens around more or less opaque seam

MindFluctuations: consideraciones Poéticas, Estéticas y Técnicas de un Espectáculo de Baile Explorando Conexiones Neuronales

In this era of co-evolution of humans and computers, we are witnessing a lot of fear that humanity will lose control and autonomy. This is a possibility. Another is the development of symbiotic systems among men and machines. To accomplish this goal, it is necessary to research ways to apply some key concepts that have a catalytic effect over such ideas. In the discussion of this hypothesis through the case study of the spectacle MindFluctuations— an experimental artwork exploring neural connections—we are looking for ways to develop them from conception to realization. The discussion also establishes a process of reflection on the design, development and production of this dance spectacle. This artwork uses a customized Java application, NumericVariations, to explore the quoted neural connections for spectacles, performances and site-specific installations. Its approach was made possible by recent neuroscience research and the development of a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) integrated with a virtual reality framework, which enable an experimental interactive virtual reality artwork to emerge. A neural helmet connected to the computer and entwined with mathematical procedures enabled a symbiosis of humans with computers.En esta era de co-evolución de los seres humanos y las computadoras estamos presenciando mucho miedo de que la humanidad pierda el control y la autonomía. Esta es una posibilidad. Otro es el desarrollo de sistemas simbióticos entre el hombre y las máquinas. Para lograr este objetivo es necesario investigar formas de aplicar algunos conceptos clave capaces de tener un efecto catalizador sobre tales ideas. Al discutir esta posibilidad a través del estudio de caso del espectáculo MindFluctuations, una obra experimental que explora las conexiones neuronales, estamos buscando formas de desarrollarlas discutiendo este caso particular desde su concepción hasta su realización. También establece un proceso de reflexión sobre el diseño, desarrollo y producción de este espectáculo de danza. Esta obra de arte utiliza una aplicación personalizada, NumericVariations, para explorar las conexiones neuronales citadas para espectáculos, actuaciones e instalaciones específicas del sitio. Su enfoque fue posible gracias a la reciente investigación en neurociencia y al desarrollo de una Interfaz de Computadora Cerebral (BCI) integrada con un marco de realidad virtual, que permitió que surgiera una obra experimental de realidad virtual interactiva. Un casco neuronal, conectado a la computadora y entrelazado con procedimientos matemáticos, propició una simbiosis de seres humanos con computadoras

Soul models: rationalization and the art of subjectivity.

In the exchange between theory and practice, art is appropriated as a creative mode of enquiry, a differential form of knowledge and experience in the processes of rationalization. As a differential in knowledge, art is explored as the practice of composition making differences out of established rationales - the discrete disciplines that find stability in economic, pedagogic and scientific discourse. As a differential in experience, art may contain the potential to destabilize social, historical and political constitutions of sense, working as an interference pattern in the production and reproduction of rational subjects. The academic distillation of the artist's know how into the 'art of subjectivity', draws both the subjects and objects of knowledge into this critical space of composition, a dynamic space of contestation in which the artist acquires the capacity to become an agent of cultural change. As a cultural and critical formation, the 'art of subjectivity' reactivates the art historical tradition of institutional critique. Re-evaluated through the critical and philosophical components of the doctoral research, the material rendition of institutional critique is configured as a series of artistic engagements with the procedural and regulatory codes of practice that comprise the info-structure of instrumental reason. Through a gradual synthesis of process and product, the 'art of subjectivity' begins to merge with the arts (techniques) of rationalization, drawing upon rather than resisting the bureaucratic, informational, scientific-technical and semiotic energies of political economy

Some resonances between Eastern thought and Integral Biomathics in the framework of the WLIMES formalism for modelling living systems

Forty-two years ago, Capra published “The Tao of Physics” (Capra, 1975). In this book (page 17) he writes: “The exploration of the atomic and subatomic world in the twentieth century has …. necessitated a radical revision of many of our basic concepts” and that, unlike ‘classical’ physics, the sub-atomic and quantum “modern physics” shows resonances with Eastern thoughts and “leads us to a view of the world which is very similar to the views held by mystics of all ages and traditions.“ This article stresses an analogous situation in biology with respect to a new theoretical approach for studying living systems, Integral Biomathics (IB), which also exhibits some resonances with Eastern thought. Stepping on earlier research in cybernetics1 and theoretical biology,2 IB has been developed since 2011 by over 100 scientists from a number of disciplines who have been exploring a substantial set of theoretical frameworks. From that effort, the need for a robust core model utilizing advanced mathematics and computation adequate for understanding the behavior of organisms as dynamic wholes was identified. At this end, the authors of this article have proposed WLIMES (Ehresmann and Simeonov, 2012), a formal theory for modeling living systems integrating both the Memory Evolutive Systems (Ehresmann and Vanbremeersch, 2007) and the Wandering Logic Intelligence (Simeonov, 2002b). Its principles will be recalled here with respect to their resonances to Eastern thought