topical media & game development
research directions -- information art
Given the rise of the
creative industry it is not suprising
that initiatives have been taken to provide
academic curricula in
creative technology.
The Institute of Creative Technology (LA),
which developed the Mission Rehearsal Exercise discussed in chapter
9,
may be taken as an example of an institute combining both technological and creative
expertise in its staff.
The new media or creative technology
play an important role in our society,
in that they contribute in envisaging our dreams and (through advertisement) selling
our reality.
[InformationArts], which provides an in any sense exhaustive investigation
in the relation between technology and art, observes:
new media
a consequence of the constitutive function of artistic-illusionary utopias
for the inception of new media of illusion is that the media are both
a part of the history of culture and of technology.
Although the research agenda's of scientists may easily conflict
with the artistic agenda's of artists, [InformationArts],
describes numerous projects where projects where artists and scientists cooperate, with mutual benefit.
[InformationArts] is together with [DeepTime], [VirtualArt] and many others, part of series
of books from MIT Press, dealing with the cross section between technology, art and culture
We repeat the quote, already given in section 1.1, that accompanies
this series of books:
cultural convergence
the cultural convergence of art, science, and technology provides ample
opportunity for artists to challenge the very notion of how
art is produced and to call into question its subject matter and
its meaning in society.
Examples of projects with both relevance science and art, may for example be found
in the area of tele-presence, to thematize, following
[VirtualArt]:
tele-presence
- notions of artificial life
- fusion with (infinite) virtual image worlds
- transformation of self into digital data
Such themes, apart from all technical problems involved,
deeply affect human aspirations, as expressed in our myths and movies:
human aspiration(s)
telepresence also combines the contents of three archetypal areas
of human aspirations: automation, virtual illusion and
metaphysical views of the self.
In particular, such notions may be used to analyse, or de-construct,
our behavior(s) on the web and our adoption of, for example, Second Life:
cybergnosis
what is being preached is the phantasm of union in a global net
community, cybergnosis, salvation through technology, disembodied as
a post-biological scattering of data that lives forever.
This, eveidently may lead to criticism(s), which after all is a function of art,
to make us aware of our limits, and the intrinsic qualities of our existence:
zealot(s)
what we observe are hyperzealots of a new technoreligion running wild,
zapping, excerpting and floating in cyberspace.
However, although we may encounter similar criticisms in popular culture, that is
cartoons and games, it is interesting to reflect on the difference between art and
the of new media applications that are somehow related to art.
Again following [VirtualArt]:
aesthetics
since the eighteenth century, aesthetic theories have regarded
distance as a constitutive element of reflection, self-discovery
and the experience of art and nature.
Aesthetic distance, however, is a notion that is also subject to criticism
from new developments within art itself, for example performance art,
which aspire a more direct existantial impact, as for example the works
of Marina Abramovic, discussed in chapter ,a href=1.html>1.
What is meant with creative technology or new media,
and what will constitute the tools of the new culture is not entirely clear.
For example, [InformationArts] observes that
tool(s)
aesthetic distance is no longer tenable when artist are engaging the same systems
used in general communications and research
Does that mean that we must adopt open source to make an artistic statement,
or shy away from the powerful visual effects enabled by for example shader technologies.
Of course not. But it does indicate the need to critically reflect on the
need and functions of these tools, and not adopt a technology, style or for that matter
realism simply because everybody does so.
Art, through its history, teaches us how to fight against both visions of dominance,
and dominant vision(s)!
(C) Æliens
04/09/2009
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