Media Art Research Articles

Image/text/cliché/insight: analogical practices in the global art world

The special issue Analogical Practices in the Global Art World systematically examines for the first time the widespread practice of constructing global art and architectural histories through analogy. In addition to summarizing the essays presented and the pertinent literature on analogy across several fields, this Introduction marshals primary research alongside scholarship and observations from diverse disciplines to advance two overarching arguments. First, we claim that art world analogies both disclose and influence the axes along which art-historical and museological thinking is habitually oriented: national groupings or “schools” above all, but also chronology, gender, race, cultural identification, art media, and style. Second, we argue that the art world analogy paradigmatically involves collaborations of textual iteration with works of visual art. Proposing, ultimately, that visual analogy is never just visual, we build a theory of analogy-as-discourse for the visual arts.

Proposal for ‘Video Design Study’ to Train the Next Generation of Visual Creators—An Examination of Video Design Study and Its Influence on a Toyota Special Exhibition

Presently, in the video production community, large amounts of content are being created. Accordingly, both Arduino Uno and Raspberry Pi are significantly influencing the progression of media arts. Considering this matter, research on media arts is quite important with regard to the estimation and conception of future trends in video content and artwork. Despite this, all content that is created will eventually be forgotten over time. Therefore, when applying new technology and creating new video content, it is necessary to archive a particular movie creator’s hard work in order to save instructions for later generations on how to “design” video content. This study considers the example of projection mapping and elaborates on the importance of Video Design Study. Notably, “clarification of creating method and process”, which is a very important aspect of Video Design Study, is emphasized in this paper. In addition, a specific example of Video Design Study is introduced via the following special exhibitions: “Dreams of Kiichiro” and “Evolution of Toyota: Dreams of Kiichiro and After That.”

Positive Psychotherapy and Art

Art therapy and positive psychotherapy have common points of contact, but differ significantly in their respective theoretical and practical concepts. Both are independent therapeutic methods that require extensive training or further education. Art therapy works preferably with artistic media, whereby psychodynamic processes are integrated depending on the therapeutic orientation. Conversely, Positive Psychotherapy has related approaches in a distinct form to art therapy. This applies above all to the creative process of the procedure. Both methods overlap at the point where psychological conflicts are expressed through artistic means or stories. While artistic therapies focus on this process, Positive Psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic procedure in its own right. In this article, the approach to art therapy is presented against the background of the resource-oriented practice and theoretical approaches of Positive Psychotherapy.

Reprints, reboots and retcons: standardizing comics cataloging with the Best practices guide from the GNCRT

Response to a plethora of historical forces that devalue comics, including hostile cataloging standards, led to the creation of the Best practices for cataloging comics and graphic novels using RDA and MARC21. The guide supports comics cataloging using current standards, recognizing the great diversity in this sequential art medium, as well as needs particular to public, academic and special libraries. With this, and related current and future projects, the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) hopes to promote equity in comics cataloging, and improve patron access to comics.

독거노인의 집단미술치료 경험에 대한 질적 사례연구

The purpose of this study is to find out what the elderly living alone experience through the group art therapy program and the process of change due to participation. This was conducted as a program for self-awareness and emotional recovery by facing mental and physical changes expressed in life in old age and internal conflicts and anxiety felt in life. Participants in the study were selected as eight elderly people living alone who experienced bereavement over the age of 65 belonging to the elderly welfare center, and a total of 10 sessions were conducted. As a research method, Stake (1995) and Yin (2009)’s qualitative case study procedures were classified and analyzed into topics containing meaning among the total contents. As a result of the study, the empirical meaning of the group art therapy program of the elderly living alone gave flexibility to the rigid emotional response and showed active changes in the behavioral aspect. The progression of aging according to the characteristics of old age can cause a decrease in overall function, but by continuing self-expression through art work, the speed of cognitive awareness and work response has improved and language literacy has become abundant. Functional learning and emotional stimulation through the use of art media were found to have helped improve achievement and self-exploration, helping to perform positive flexibility, voluntary roles, and self-understanding and reflection processes in the bond between participants.

Contemporary Ukrainian Visual Culture on the Way to the International Cultural Space

The article is devoted to the visual culture of Ukraine since independence. It pays special attention to the trends and phenomena of contemporary Ukrainian visual culture that have entered the context of world culture through recognition on international cultural platforms (competitions, festivals, biennials, etc.). The considerations concern the development of various trends in contemporary Ukrainian art, which use various artistic media: photography, installation, performance and film. In particular, Ukrainian conceptual photography was the most interestingly represented by several generations of photographers of the Kharkiv School, who combined radical bodily imagery and social criticism. The Ukrainian installation is represented by the works of artists of the REP (Revolutionary Experimental Space) group, which is focused on the unity of art and politics and considers artistic creation as a political act. An interesting sub-direction of the installation is the video installation, which delivers an original combination of contemporary Ukrainian artists with site-specific art and artistic means of reflecting on the traumas inflicted on Ukrainian society by the war. The article pays special attention to the development of contemporary Ukrainian cinema. The author demonstrates the connection between the work of contemporary Ukrainian filmmakers and the traditions of Ukrainian poetic cinema. In addition, other trends in Ukrainian cinema are identified: the experimental search for a new film language, the development of documentary cinema, on top of the convergence of fiction and non-fiction artistic languages in the work of contemporary Ukrainian filmmakers. The dominant issues of contemporary Ukrainian films selected for screening at leading European film festivals are identified: inclusiveness, reflection on Ukrainian history, war trauma, psychological rehabilitation of combatants, etc.

Reconnecting with the Urban Vernacular through Post-New Order Visual Art

Abstract Indonesia’s urbanization and economic development projects during the New Order established regimes of visuality that ignored aspects of everyday urban life. Contemporary Indonesian artists attempt to share untold histories and stories of everyday life from the urban past or give expression to the social and creative challenges and opportunities of the urban present. This article focuses on multimedia artist Maryanto and new media art collective Ruang MES 56. Maryanto’s use of allegory and his notion of art as a ‘space of exception’ constitute thoughtful ways of engaging with the transformations of people’s urban environments and identities. MES 56’s work utilizes the critical and humorous potential of the ludic to deal with the new urban realities and possibilities under democratic reform. I argue that artistic exception does not exclude but in some ways strengthens, and in other ways contradicts, reconnection with the everyday realities of Indonesian urban life.

Video between Architecture and Telepathy

On 6 January 1973, Chilean media artist Juan Downey exhibited Plato Now at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. A hybrid multichannel video installation and performance, this was Downey’s restaging of Plato’s Parable of the Cave—the “Now” registering what the myth might look like from the vantage of his own historical moment. And whereas Plato’s original operated through an inflexible division between the space of the mind and a derivative sensual reality, Plato Now explicitly sought to blur those philosophical lines by assembling a relay of invisible energies, brain waves, video signals, and telepathic communications, such that the space of mind and sensual reality became speculatively entangled. This article clarifies just how Plato Now did this, and situates its philosophical vision as a significant, if relatively unremarked, aesthetic prefiguration of the new materialist tendencies towards relationality, hybrid assemblages, and vibrant conceptions of energy and matter.

Photography as Cinematic Ekphrasis: Intermedial Study in Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa

The Opera Jawa (2006), directed by Garin Nugroho is an Indonesian film with unique hybridity of art media (music, dance, visual art installation, acting, photography). This study aims to provide an overview of photographic ekphrasis’s form, process, and function. This research used a descriptive qualitative method. Data collection was through observation with the note-taking documentation technique. Through intermedial studies, data analysis was carried out using Agnes Petho’s cinematic ekphrasis and photo-filmic theory. The results of the study show that Opera Jawa displays the characteristics of intermedial reference media through cinematic ekphrasis of photography in film. This matter is manifested at the diegetic media level through family photos of the character Setyo-Siti, and the extra-diegetic media through photographic frames introducing film characters. Cinematic Ekphrasis works with exchange strategies and crossing the borders of basic media modalities (material, sensory, space-time, semiotic) from film to photography. Cinematic ekphrasis ultimately forms a metaphor that mediates the experience and knowledge of film audiences toward the target media and the source media. Thus, Opera Jawa, as the target media, can offer its ideology as a result of Sinta Obong’s source media interpretation.

A Study on the Application of Chinese Cultural Elements in Digital Media Art Design

In the past few years, China’s digital media art has been moving forward rapidly, and this field has been developed rapidly. For digital media, it contains many aspects, just like the rise of the animation industry cannot be separated from the union of modern science and technology and animation elements, and of course the addition of Chinese elements, so it is important to conduct an in-depth study of these aspects. Adding Chinese elements to digital media art design is a good way because it allows the outside world to understand the teaching word media, and more importantly, China, giving the audience a better visual experience.

Literature Study of Learning Outcomes of "Pak Krumun" Cartoon Art Media in Readers' Lives

The communication media tools include the press, print media, film, radio, and television. Communication media has opportunities, challenges, and abilities in providing value to human society. One of the print media studied is cartoons. One of the print media in the form of cartoons is the "Pak Krumun" Cartoon. "Pak Krumun" is a cartoon that is in Utusan Magazine. This research aims to study the influence of "Pak Krumun" cartoon art media on readers' lives. The research methods used are literature study, interviews, and questionnaires. A literature study was conducted to find out about thoughts about cartoons, media, and the Church. Interviews were conducted with readers and Pak Bambang Shakuntala the creator of the "Pak Krumun" cartoon. The questionnaire was given to readers as many as 162 respondents, to find out the learning outcomes obtained from "Pak Krumun" cartoons. "Pak Krumun" cartoon is the work of Bambang Shakuntala who invites people to reflect on their lives. "Pak Krumun" cartoons provide real and concrete themes of people's lives.

Time as Duration in Artistic Communication

The article deals with epistemological, aesthetic and communicative aspects of time. The metalanguage of the study is the system of artistic communication. Understanding time as duration, the author uses A. Bergson’s theory of duration which has become relevant in the context of post-non-classical trends in the development of science.
 This study is based on a phenomenological analysis of the artistic communication of the twentieth century (avant-garde painting, media art, modern music, photography), and takes into account the concepts of time of G. Deleuze, multiple temporalism of I. Wallerstein and F. Braudel, ideas of E. Husserl and M. Heidegger.
 The study showed that in the conditions of the information society, the duration of social interactions changes, diachrony at the communication maximum is compressed into synchrony. Art objects, in which the reception of culture is carried out, display individual and social time, and also convey qualitative transitions and temporal layers through the procedures of duration compression and stretching.

The 2020 Presidential Debate But Only the Parts Where Someone Breathes Loudly or Sighs

This essay is both an artist statement and a case study focusing on the surprising viewership of a video I created in 2020 unexpectedly became popular in April 2021. In the course of this reflection and analysis, I show how the meaning of this video involves the algorithms driving the YouTube platform, and the various and painful contexts of the year 2020. Although I view the video as a successful piece of art in its own way, I also argue that, as a meme, it must also be viewed with reference to its three salient contexts: the deformative meme ecology, YouTube as a platform, and the year 2020. Because the memetic logics demonstrated by my video bring together the participatory logics of appropriation with the capricious attention of the YouTube algorithm, my access to the videos’ audience analytics affords a unique perspective on the memetics of resonance and spread. Ultimately, a close analysis of this video will shed light on the ecology of video memes on YouTube, the recommendation algorithm as an audience, and the way that those two structures come into view through the analytics data to offer insight on viewers’ responses that not typically available to artists. Ultimately, I conclude that the qualities of media encouraged by the analytics dashboard’s emphasis on engagement are not necessarily consistent with the goals of critical media art, but it is possible to consider how further attention to metrics could create compelling art with attention to algorithmic affordances.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence Improves Human Decision-Making: Results from a Mushroom Picking Experiment at a Public Art Festival

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) enables Artificial Intelligence (AI) to explain its decisions. This holds the promise of making AI more understandable to users, improving interaction, and establishing an adequate level of trust. We tested this claim in the high-risk task of AI-assisted mushroom hunting, where people had to decide whether a mushroom was edible or poisonous. In a between-subjects experiment, 328 visitors of an Austrian media art festival played a tablet-based mushroom hunting game while walking through a highly immersive artificial indoor forest. As part of the game, an artificially intelligent app analyzed photos of the mushrooms they found and recommended classifications. One group saw the AI’s decisions only, while a second group additionally received attribution-based and example-based visual explanations of the AI’s recommendation. The results show that participants with visual explanations outperformed participants without explanations in correct edibility assessments and pick-up decisions. This exhibition-based experiment thus replicated the decision-making results of a previous online study. However, unlike in the previous study, the visual explanations did not significantly affect levels of trust or acceptance measures. In a direct comparison, we consequently discuss the findings in terms of generalizability. Besides the scientific contribution, we discuss the direct impact of conducting XAI experiments in immersive art- and game-based environments in exhibition contexts on visitors and local communities by triggering reflection and awareness for psychological issues of human–AI interaction.

Application of animation design in the digital media art industry based on artificial intelligence technology

Abstract At present, it is an important period of transformation of China’s social and economic structure, and the state vigorously supports the development of the tertiary industry, to achieve the purpose of optimizing the economic structure. Although the animation industry is a new industry with a short history of development in China, with the rapid development of digital media technology in recent years, digital media technology in 2D, 3D animation film, and television drama is increasingly accepted by the audience. This paper uses the current situation of 3D animation group modeling design and genetic algorithm, multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, digital media technology, and animation design briefly explained. Digital media technology has an important role in animation design, which greatly improves the quality of animation works and promotes the development of China’s animation industry.

Jagad Raya: Representation of Flora and Fauna in Wooden Craft From A Cosmological Perspective

The art of teak wood carving was one of the leading export commodities, especially wood carvings with flora and fauna motifs. Javanese culture and Hindu mythology influenced the flora and fauna motifs, so they had their meanings. This research aimed to develop carvings of flora and fauna motifs inspired by classic batik motifs using wood media. The results showed that the media used was teak wood with a finishing process without painting to produce a natural color. It was adjusted to its function and use in creating teak wood carvings. Wood carving did not only function to be enjoyed for its aesthetic value but as a decorative and sacred medium where each motif influences one's beliefs when creating artwork. In addition, teak wood carvings were used as symbols of a culture, and the designed motifs often contained the meaning of teachings to humans in carrying out life. Based on the economic aspect, the teak woodcarving industry strategically improved the community's income, especially for craftsmen in tourism centers. By making woodcarving crafts with flora and fauna motifs, it hoped that woodcarving crafts would not only use as decorative objects, but it used as an educational media for fine art, history, and Javanese culture, which were full of meaning to the broader community so that they could increase knowledge and encourage people to behave following the concept of cosmology.

Dis-locative Spaces and Digital Interactions

The concept of space constantly is growing with the advancement of technology. The spatial interactions using digital media provide new possibilities to bridge between physical and digital spaces. Location is not all about longitude and latitude, but all the added digital layer which may change the idea of positioning. Over the last decades, space studies faced many conceptual perceptions. The approach of having/imagining the different worlds and spaces, such as cyberspace and physical space, has been mostly formed by distinguishing them. Adriana de Souza e Silva (2006) drew a chronology for these imaginary spaces from cyberspace to virtual and hybrid space. Hybridizing of space with the advancement of nomadic technology like mobiles become more popular and indicates how the interfaces are transparent in our everyday life. So, hybridity occurs when the interconnection of the spaces is accessible for the people who can interact with, through the devices, wearable, headsets, etc. In this respect, the physical space needed to be filled with data, as Manovich (2006, p.226) defined this as augmentation of the space through “overlay[ing] physical space with layers of data.”
 The question of reality may not be valid anymore since both are affecting each other. And, maybe it is time to think about the interlinked worlds and their effects rather than separating and labelling them by real and unreal. Technology can play a crucial role in changing our interaction with space.
 The paper will investigate the concept of hybrid spaces in relation to production of dis-locative space. The dislocation environment that reveals the interconnected spaces and their realities through new ways of interactions and narratives. The realities that are created under the influence of each other. The paper will use the art project Shadows from Another Place as a case study. It will explore the idea of dis-location through spatial interaction and digital technology. The paper will profit from the theories including Production of Space by Henry Lefebvre, Supermodernity and Non-places by Mark Augé, and Relational Spaces by Scott McQuire.
 Paula Levine is a scholar and media artist who experiments with maps, geolocation data, and the dynamic of spaces. Shadows from Another Place is a web-based project using transposed maps, including three artworks San Francisco <-> Baghdad, The Wall, and TheWall-TheWorld. In this series, she tries to challenge the reality of geographical distances by hybridization of the spaces. Shadows from Another Place is a series of artwork that examines the discussion around dis-locative space, and spatial interaction using digital technology. The paper investigates with three questions of locations and dislocation, real and unreal, and intervening in the physical space by the virtual world and vice versa. Question of Location ‘where am I’? What is un/real? How virtual world affects physical world and vice versa?

Interactivity and Ecomedia in the Digital Age

Interactivity is a fundamental aspect of contemporary digital media and communication, playing a crucial role in the synergistic relationship between filmic representation and video games. This paper examines the interplay between Jeta Amata's eco-film Black November and the video game Niger Delta Commando, focusing on the narratives, themes, and imaginary worlds that define their relationship. In the context of Nigeria's Niger Delta challenges, these media forms provide alternative approaches for addressing environmental issues while maintaining relevance and competing for attention in the entertainment landscape. Nigeria's rapidly growing video game industry holds significant potential for entertainment and economic development. This study acknowledges the integral part played by film in influencing the development of video games, as both mediums share aspects such as camera techniques, narrative structures, visual representation technologies, special effects, and thematic concerns. In this case, Niger Delta Commando allows players to determine the narrative through interactivity, offering a unique and innovative way to address the Niger Delta's environmental challenges. Adopting a dual analytical and descriptive methodology, this paper explores the interrelatedness of the narratives linking Black November and Niger Delta Commando, reconciling leading arguments in ecomedia, and assessing the Nigerian narrative's notions of interactivity, immersion, and environment. The analysis also considers the environmental impacts of media product life cycles and addresses the differential experiences of affected populations. The eco-film Black November is recreated in the interactive video game medium Niger Delta Commando, emphasizing the military action storyline and visual style reminiscent of the Niger Delta region's activist struggles. However, the video game primarily adopts an action-thriller plot without addressing the underlying factors contributing to violence in the region or the environmental degradation detailed in Black November. Media products, including films and video games, have demonstrated their utility as tools for engaging with and analyzing human concerns. With video games becoming increasingly popular and accepted as an artistic medium, adaptations like Niger Delta Commando can provide more immersive representations of environmental issues. The paper proposes that future video games addressing the Niger Delta region should feature complex and nuanced intersections reflecting the region's ecological challenges, moving beyond violence and towards a more constructive engagement with the environment.

Editorial

The Interactive Film and Media Journal advances scholarly and creative discourse on the intersection of interactivity and various media forms. This issue features contributions from the IV International Interactive Film and Media Conference (2022), coordinated by a diverse group of academics. The conference theme, Interactive Epistemology, Listening, and Ecomedia, facilitated an exploration of knowledge-building, listening, and ecological consciousness within interactivity. Emphasizing the importance of listening as a mode of knowledge production, the issue promotes a holistic understanding of interactivity across different research areas. The contributions address the role of interactivity in media, such as books, films, games, and real-time streaming, along with virtual and augmented reality. They provoke thought on interactivity's embodied and affective aspects and explore interactive technologies' influence on power relations and ecological concerns. The papers in this issue converge on themes like empathy and responsibility, illuminating the power of interactive digital media to reshape the understanding of social issues. For instance, interactive narratives, VR and games employ participatory elements to bring nuanced portrayals of migration experiences to the forefront. This approach encourages critical reflection and social responsibility. This issue also explores the transformative potential of interactive documentaries in varied contexts, highlighting their effectiveness in altering perceptions of history, socio-political phenomena, and power dynamics. These documentaries foster inclusivity and dialectical reflection, urging viewers to engage in complex narratives embedded in various landscapes. Some papers explore the impact of digital and artistic mediums on shaping space, narrative, and community engagement. The issue showcases how machine learning and public art can address mimetic trauma and discrimination and how digital comics and web-based artworks can redefine concepts of spatial interactions and narrative structures. A particular emphasis is placed on immersive technologies like VR and immersive journalism in civic engagement, underlining the power of these mediums in addressing social and environmental concerns. Exploring art and interactive documentary, specifically in the context of historical violence and colonial legacies, adds a significant dimension to the issue. This second set of papers from the 2022 Interactive Film and Media Conference highlights the transformative power of interactivity in reshaping narratives, promoting critical reflection, and fostering social responsibility. It emphasizes the crucial role of interactive media in fostering a more inclusive, empathetic, and informed society.

Porous Worlds – the Liminal Spaces of Relief

Porous Worlds – the Liminal Spaces of Relief was carried out as an artistic research PhD project in affiliation with The Art Academy, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen. The project examines the relief, its connections to art, craft, architecture, and ornament, as well as its various dimensions as an artistic medium. It has been the relief´s in-between status and the lack of contemporary art discourse around it that has informed the questions like: what is at stake working with relief form today? What kind of artistic potential and possibilities does ceramic relief have to offer?