Disintegration Bodies

Abstract

Digital materiality has been mainly discussed in two main domains. On the one hand, to critically capture the physical infrastructure that undergirds digital systems, and on the other, to explore digital materiality as such. I approach digital materiality from a phenomenological standpoint, as a sensuous manifestation of the digital. I associate digital materiality with terms such as “plasticity”, “haptic looking” and the “vitality”. I am interested in how digital materiality becomes tangible and alive in the process of artistic creation, specifically using certain image manipulation techniques such as glitching or datamoshing or morphing.I argue that these destructive digital effects create a “digital abject” a specific state of digital materiality. I apply Kristeva’s notion of the abject as “the jettisoned object, [that] is radically excluded and draws me toward the place where meaning collapses.” The digital abject comes into being when destructive digital practices intersect with representation of bodies. In these cases, bodies are disordered and digitally disfigured so that they become abstract and affective matter. Moreover, in specific context these effects become self-reflective, relating to digital materiality and media representation.