Abstract
Within the material-immaterial dichotomy structuring the creation of media artworks and its inherent informational aesthetic, one may observe fractures or continuities. Considering media artworks through the notion of translation of materialities, the aim of this paper is to analyse some of the multiple roles that absence play within and surround this sort of aesthetic experimentation. The discussion is unfolded through the articulation of Vilem Flusser’s media theory – namely considering the zero-dimensionality of electronic and digital media and the concept of Mediumsprunge. These concepts are exemplified through historical and contemporary media devices and artworks technically based on light-to-sound translations. The discussed examples were partially selected from references and methodological tools used in a cross-disciplinary practice-based PhD research on photosensitivity in relation to media history and media art history conducted between 2014 and 2018. The methodology combines a historical and analytical approach, through new materialism, media archaeology, cultural techniques and second-order cybernetics. The significance of the discussion is exposing both the artistic freedom (or emancipation) and the arbitrariness (and responsibility) implied in bridging the gaps involved in media artworks.
Highlights
It may be a symptom of the current era of excesses that I, as media artist and researcher, felt attracted to look more carefully at empty spaces, absences, lacks, null and voids, zero and other related concepts
From the invention and assimilation of the absential elements, such as zero in history of mathematics or the lack in psychology, emerged a cultural revolution. How does this revolution resonate in the arts? Focusing on layers of absence within and surrounding media artworks technically based on light-to-sound translations, this paper links the technical, aesthetic and existential issues related to the discussed cultural objects
The conducted discussion is divided into three following parts: (1) Explanations on the foundations of the zero-dimensionality of electronic and digital media, as pointed by media philosopher Vilém Flusser; (2) clarifications on the notion of translation of materialities; and (3) the analysis of historical and contemporary media devices and CITARJ 2-03 artworks, from which the role of absence is unfolded in its multiple aspects
Summary
It may be a symptom of the current era of excesses that I, as media artist and researcher, felt attracted to look more carefully at empty spaces, absences, lacks, null and voids, zero and other related concepts The nothingness these terms suggest is a fertile terrain for analysing the material-immaterial dynamic and other structural dichotomies involved in the creation of media artworks. Considering the materiality of contemporary media devices and artworks, Flusser's perspective suggests that is possible to observe the explorations of organic and man-made elements through a lowest common denominator: electric current. This condition is the basis to discuss the informational aesthetics of media artworks through the notion of translation of materialities
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