Launching the Imagination – Interdisciplinary Arts

        In chapter fifteen of the book Mary Stewart talks about interdisciplinary art, which is "two or more disciplines fused together to create a hybrid art form", and performance art, which is "live art performed by artists" (pg 346). Before reading this chapter I was not completely sure when interdisciplinary art was, but was familiar with performance art. The first section of interdisciplinary art Stewart talked about the visual book and all the elements that go into it that can make it different. The writer/artist has to select a text/music, has to write the text, select text and type style, which can all have different meanings, and then put the words and images together to form a relationship that is both understandable and organized in a way that gives the viewer the meaning and feeling the artist was going for. In the section about installation art, Stewart talks about using space and time, the importance of context, and the advantages, such as fresh perspective, large scale and increased viewer involvement. I particularly liked the last section of the chapter about performance art because it was something that I was familiar with and something that I really enjoy. Performance art "pushes the possibilities of interdisciplinary  work further"  by mixing dance, theater, music and art with politics, philosophy, and other disciplines. The are so many elements that go into a piece of performance art, such as historical background, the characteristics, the collaboration of the elements together, the boundaries that become blurred, and the relationship/connection between the artist and the audience. The advantages to interdisciplinary art are that "the connections created offer new opportunities fro creative thinking and complex communication, ideas and emotions outside the mainstream can become accessible to both artists and audiences, and relationships between artist and audience are redefined" (pg 364). 

Launching the Imagination – Narrative and Nonnarrative

        Chapter fourteen is all about narratives and how they are viewed and used to relay different messages and meaning. Stories within the art world can be portrayed in so many different ways that it is hard to pick just one as my favorite, but I really liked the section of the book titled, Storytelling because storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment. Because stories can be told orally or can be written down and then read aloud, every single culture has told stories through the generations. The author, Mary Stewart, says that stories can "increase self-awareness, provide inspiration, supply information, and encourage understanding" (pg 320).Stewart goes on the explain in detail and provides pictures as examples of all the different ways stories can so all those things. Working with multiple images can "provide many advantages over an individual image" (pg 321), multiple-image structure can be categorized into groups, series or sequence, and scenes can be transformed into screenplay. These different methods allow the viewer to see the story from different perspectives and to be seen as more than images or scenes, because when grouped together into a series, sequence, or screenplay, you get a story that flows to tell a story about someone or something. The rest of the chapter talks about boundaries when developing a story and the different styles that an artist can use to set the mood or indicate historical setting. And also causality, character-driven narrative and narrative compression, all of which are more and different ways to tell a story. The last part of the chapter was also interesting because it talked about nonnarrative in which there is no story and viewers are just shown a series of close-ups so that they may develop the story on their own. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – When Presence-absence Becomes Pattern-randomnes: Blast Theory's Can You See Me Now?

        Maria Chatzichristodoulou (aka maria x) starts off this section of the book by talking about this british group, BlastTheory, who's "installation/performance/ game piece" Can You See Me Now? broke the boundary between virtual city and physically city. As virtual city players and physical city runners communicate with each other while playing in extremely different settings seems like one of those things that is so crazy it just might work. I think that this idea is so genius that I now wonder why I have never heard of anyone else doing something like this before. As virtual and physically begin to overlap into becoming this hybrid city so do the players and runners who are present and those who are absent. As the game goes on it becomes harder to figure out which players/ runners are really present and which ones that are really absent. Honestly, I think that is what Blast Theory was going for with this 'game'. By overlapping cities it allows for communication between people of different worlds (virtual vs. physical). It also allows for those who were once though of as absent to really be present (but in a different kind of way) and vise versa. Towards the end of the section Chatzichristodoulou quotes Machiko Kasahara and explains that she believes that "our culture is undergoing a drastic change in terms of our physical and physiological relationships  which space and bodies - our own and those of others" (pg. 83). I think that even though there may be these drastic changes happening I think that in the end it will be a good things, because isn't change that our society ultimately thrives on? Lastly, Chatzichristodoulou argues that Can You See Me Now? "produces more pattern than randomness through their connections and engagements with the system and other users" (pg. 85). This reoccurring cycle that never ends, ultimately never will which makes the overlap of virtual and physical worlds that much easier to cross. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – Digital Archiving as an Art Practice

        Dew Harrison begins this section of the book by going over a few examples of artists and their pieces of art that he believes relates to this topic. Throughout the chapter he continues to provide examples for each of the different methods he proposes for digital archiving. Harrison lists collective memory/ memorial, museological methods, complexity management, art and language, and archiving the LabCulture sessions as methods of digital archiving. I thought that the last method he listed was the most interesting because it is new and because its for the arts and academic community. Because it is a "ready-made archive transposed into an online database accessible from a website" (pg 107) I think that it sounds like the best method for digital archiving. Even though Harrison explains in detail about each one he ultimately ends the chapter by stating that, "Digital archiving is an activity which will continue to develop within current art practice but may be recognized as such only retrospectively for a while longer" (pg 108). If and when it eventually develops into a current art practice, I think it will be a very great thing. 

DVC: Theory and Practice – Preservation of Net Art in Museams

        In Preservation of Net Art in Museums, the author Anne Laforet begins by talking about the different methods for preserving net art that museums are looking into using today. To even begin to try to preserve net art, Laforet says that within the museum, "the balance between documentation and preservation is shifting in favour of documentation" (pg. 109). Even though current models that are being implemented could serve as a potential solution to the "problems within net art preservation", new and updated models still need to be explored. Laforet goes on to explain that the problems that exist with preservation, such as maintaining an internet-based artwork in an 'origianl' state, the strategies are going to vary from place to place. Even though different preservation strategies are going vary depending on the institution, action needs to be taken. The author goes on to explain four different approaches to preservation, and even though these approaches, storage, migration, emulation and reinterpretation, are all possible approaches they all still have their downfalls. Later on in this section the author highlights variable media, but again says it is not the only solution. Lastly, what the author does say is that, when a concrete solution does arise the emphasis of the dialogue between net art and the environment in which it is placed could make institutions into "a living archive" or "a research space with fragments of artworks that could be updated and reactivated in multiple ways". A living archive would not only be a great thing for the institution, but for the net artworks as well, the only problem is finding the perfect solution to fulfill this demand.

DVC: Theory and Practice – Mapping Outside the Frame: Interactive and Locative Art Environments

        In Mapping Outside the Frame the authors, Graham and Elizabeth Coulter-Smith start the chapter by talking about the most recent form of new media art: locative media. They describe locative media as "a burgeoning installation art movement which is that latest attempt to involve the viewer in the work of art" (pg. 49). I think that involving the viewer into a piece of artwork is a great way to get the viewer more involved in, not only art in general, but the specific piece in question. I think it would make the viewing process more fun for the viewer and allow the viewer to enter the world that the artist is in. Having the viewer become more involved in the the piece of art has been done successfully with video games and game-like interactivity, but when it come to fin art attempts can "appear derisory" (pg. 51). "Fine art is much more successful when it comes to involving the spectator's visual perception: the level of the disembodied gaze" (pg. 51). There are so many different elements, kinds and features that locative art possesses, but one of the most interesting features, I thought, was how is uses collected interactive data to create the visualization for the viewer. Instead of altering an existing data-driven work of art, locative art allows the viewer to enter the art in a visual way. Finding new ways to involve all kinds of people, and not just those interested in art, is a great idea. Getting more people interested in things that they might not normally be interested in it always a good idea. "...new media art seems to be the only sphere of artistic activity in which there is any hope of realizing the goal of overcoming the elitism of fine art" (pg. 64). 

Photo #8