GradCertTheoryLinksToCurrentResearch - GradCertTheoryLinksToCurrentResearch

INITIAL PREMISE

"WE�RE NOT COMPUTERS, SEBASTIAN WE�RE PHYSICAL": UPLOADING BLOOD INTO THE MACHINE

My project was conceived via N. Katherine Hayle�s conjecture that, �the form of the body may change, and so too our concept of embodiment, but that, as humans, our materiality is the key to our lives�. It is informed by the premise that the body is a fundament of human identity and perception, ------------------[ Related to research on perspective]?
and seeks to inscript the corpo/reality of the body into the corps of the algorithmic code.The project proposes that, in order to evolve the digital/material interface, a form of �viscous data�----------------[�Viscous exchange�? The dissolution of parameters between the analog and digital identity]? must be realised. That outcome is envisaged to evolve through an investigation of those determining signifiers which exist as virtual conditions, but are critical to material experience (i.e., the relationship of one body to another. The relationship of the body to Other, and the relationship of the body to self)----------------[ Refer caillois and deleuze � transformative image]?. It looks to undertake analysis to examine what spaces those virtual conditions might inhabit within a digital environment. Specifically, the spaces in this investigation are the gaps of potentialities in the flickering signifier. ---------------------[Refer: massumi � sites of becoming & deleuze � zones of indiscernibility]?.
The project investigates the following :

* Are the spaces within the flickering image traversable? --------------------------[Refer: Julia Irving thesis]?

An exploration and quantification of the affect within these gaps

Is this a space a site the corpo/real can populate virtually?
The research will draw on the work of contemporary emergent theorists in both scientific and cultural fields (i.e., Brian Massumi and N. Katherine Hayles), as well as work done previously within SIAL (eg., Boo Chapple). It�s important to stress the structure of the work will be framed within an artistic understanding. Therefore, it is envisaged the project will culminate in a series of documented exercises, the findings of which will be inscripted within the artistic substratum.

"WE�RE NOT COMPUTERS, SEBASTIAN WE�RE PHYSICAL": UPLOADING BLOOD INTO THE MACHINE

This project builds from the conjecture presented by N. Katherine Hayles, that �the form of the body may change, and so too our concept of embodiment, but that, as humans, our materiality is the key to our lives� . The project extends this premise through an investigation of the �body� as a fundament of human identity and perception. The project advances the evolution of this condition and will attempt to inscript the corpo/reality of the body into the corps of the algorithmic code. For an integration of corpo/*reality to be fully realized, I believe a form of �viscous data/information� must be formulated in order for the coalescence to take place. The project will investigate the history of the human/machine dichotomy with particular emphasis on how the digital environment in a posthuman world purportedly renders the physical body obsolete [�leaving the meat behind�]?? by initially examining the history behind post-modern tenets running counter to the above, purporting the evolution of man within the digital renders the physical body obsolete, leaving the body to assume a solely virtual existence. The project seeks to incorporate elements of the physical, and their suspension in the material of the ether.

�Earthing� the virtual and giving the digital a sense of mortality.

SECONDARY ASSERTION

The research focus of this project evolved out of problems I was experiencing engaging with new media art and forms an attempt to resolve that dilemma.

In the past I had encountered significant difficulties getting beyond a reoccurring focus on the diagramming of activity transpiring between spectator and work. This practice seemed to effect a form of separation - distancing the spectator through a disconnection of activity from materiality. Additionally, it confined the exchange to parameters set within a screen, which binds the viewer response within artificial restrictions.
These concerns were contrasted by the relational responses produced by the more traditional mediums like painting and sculpture. Conditions embedded in their materiality produced exchanges which German empathy theorists attributed to the amodality inherent within visual stimulus.
In this way a low ceiling in a room could produce sensations of weight and pressure; light and shade could momentarily impress heat or chill upon physiology; and vast dimensions could generate �feeling(s)of expansion�.--------------[Related to research on perspective?}
All responses which are not restricted to the pictorial frame. --------------[Responses are not restricted to pictorial frame due to embodied nature of perspective and spatial �identity�]?

Assuming an egalitarian position across all mediums, there should be no reason why one communicates more effectively than another. (In fact, it should be entirely possible to use contrasting mediums and subjects as a way of creating interesting juxtapositions - evidenced in Ricky Swallow�s work �Killing Time�* �which explores the viscous, slimy qualities of fish using a comparatively dry and rigid wood medium).

The project aims, therefore, to examine properties (such as light, form and colour) of screen-based expression which correspond to traditional mediums, in addition to textures unique to the screen; and how each might be investigated and channelled. -----------------[�reinvigorating spectatorial role through an amalgamation of the analog and the digital]?�

While multiple avenues could be employed to steer this analysis, this project will focus its investigation on the role of the unhomely within screen-based art; specifically examining the �embodiedness� of perception, sentience and obsolescence as re-affirmations of the relationships between corporeality and technology. These conditions are particularly germane to the project�s research as each is located critically within corporeal and technological terminology (re: the Visible Human Project).
And each serves as a condition of the unhomely :

i) obsolescence = contained within spatiality as an �instrument of monumental dissolution� --------------[Mirror/mimic � destruction of perceived parameters demarcating analog and digital � sites of becoming and indiscernibility re: massumi and deleuze]?
ii) Perception = active in sensory dislocation --------------[Mimicry and legendary psychasthenia � perspectival dislocation]?

iii) Sentience = in the conscious awareness of the �unconceivable� - quoted by Vidler as ��an indecipherable truth of dreadfulness which cannot be grasped or understood�(p21:Vidler)--------------[Again � transformative image � �awareness� of parameters of �evolution� outside the physical perimeter � dissolution of �known� spatial identity]?

The project�s proposition is contextualized in relation to dematerialization fears manifested within cultural production over the 1950�s-1980�s. It contrasts the beliefs underpinning these fears, highlighted within Virilio�s statement that, �(technology)� will take us out of our bodies, minds, nature, and world as we have experienced and known them, and into a terrifying new sphere that will cause disastrous, possibly fatal, mutations of mind, body and experience�, and explores instead the possibility that man and technology contain open fields of influence --------------[Refer comment 7]? � therefore feedback and response can be exchanged without a dissolution of either�s margins.
As part of that process the project seeks to enact a cognizant form of recognition on the spectator�s behalf of their complicity in this unbound exchange. In keeping with the stated direction, the investigation will aim at locating the spectator and work at a site of the unhomely � a virtual, liminal site, defined by Catherine Waldby as �a space of the improper, of ambiguity and the abject� in which �life and death exist in an ambiguous mixture�.--------------[Refer comments 5&7]?