Slow Track: Slowness and the Virtual Moving Image

This thesis offers a comprehensive investigation into virtual image production and analysis through the lens of slowness. It argues for deploying slowness as an aesthetic, perceptual, and dialectical strategy that can provide new insights into digital image-making practices and offer unique perspectives on the ontological status of the virtual image. Slowness has been utilised throughout the history of the moving image, particularly in contemporary art and cinema, as a means of understanding the nature of image-making. In contrast to the "spectacle" that characterises much of the visual culture surrounding digital image media, slowness can encourage contemplation from viewers, serving as a valuable tool for understanding and analysing images. This research conducts a thorough examination of computer-generated media from both technical and conceptual perspectives. It surveys the body of knowledge on slowness in art and culture and puts these theories, concepts, and techniques to the test in the computer-generated artwork Slow Track, as well as in accompanying creative explorations using real-time and extended reality technologies