Time-based Media Research Articles

Klimata

Abstract This article explores the notion of “curatorial research” within the realm of the live arts through the case study of the perfor mance exhibition Klimata (2019) curated by Léna Szirmay-Kalos, Dániel Kovács, and Jasna Layes Vinovršky, at the Berliner Flutgraben. In the article, I accentuate the transdisciplinarity of the project, which constitutes a paradigmatic example of curatorial research in exhibition settings. I argue that the project underscores the transformative potential of integrating the live arts with time-based media, or installation art, while foregrounding the embodied knowledge of the vulnerable body. Additionally, these forms are combined with non-art/scientific forms, enriching the transdisciplinary dialogue and expanding the boundaries of curatorial knowledge production. This investigation contributes to the progress of curatorial studies by providing insights into the dynamic intersection between curation and research.

A Sometimes Mercurial Process: New Protocols for the Preservation of Singapore's Time-Based Media Art Collection

La conservation des œuvres d'art basées sur le temps (TimeBased Media TBM) s'inscrit dans le monde des bits, des octets, des sommes de contrôle et de l'obsolescence, des termes bien différents de la conservation du papier, des peintures ou des sculptures. Les processus qui sous-tendent la conservation des œuvres d'art TBM reflètent la même nature ésotérique. Cette étude de cas vise à montrer les avantages et les défis liés à la création d'un flux de travail spécifique au TBM en mettant en évidence son efficacité dans la prévention d'un problème de conservation potentiellement important dans The Mercurial Inscription, une œuvre d'art d'installation TBM avec des logiciels et des éléments interactifs.

Comparative analysis of kinetic typography elements in movie title sequence

Typography, usually closely related to printed media, has now been explored in digital media. These changes make typography, which is usually static, more dynamic. One example of digital typography is kinetic typography. Typography's position as a medium of visual and textual communication becomes more interesting because the element of motion in kinetic typography adds another meaning value. This study examines how typography reveals meaning in time-based media formats. In this study, three movie title sequences with different genres will be analyzed: Monsters Inc., Se7en, and Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. The film was chosen because it has a dominant kinetic typography structure and has a good reputation in terms of visuals. The method of analysis is carried out by comparing the structure of the three title sequences based on the kinetic typography theory by Bellantoni and Woolman. Furthermore, an analysis of the semantic value of each title sequence was also carried out. This research is aimed to figure out the elements used in the visual creation of a title sequence and how these elements can construct meaning. From the analysis process it is known that each genre of the title sequence has different element variations which of course have their own meaning. The results of this study are expected to provide recommendations for the title sequence design method based on the genre like comedy animation, thriller, and action.

Empathy in game design - Exploring a human-centric approach in designing engaging video game experiences

The link between engagement and player emotions has been extensively explored by researchers in recent years. Empathy, which is the innate ability to accurately perceive another person’s current feelings and meanings can be broadly categorized into two main human-centric design approaches - cognitive empathy and affective empathy. Certain forms of media especially time-based media have been proven to better exploit viewers’ empathy and provide a more engaging experience when a human-centric design approach is applied. The aim of this research paper is to explore if a human-centric design approach can provide the same level if not more immersive engagement when designing video game experiences. The initial research into a human-centric design approach in video games will be obtained through an exploratory research design involving six tertiary-level students in the field of game design between the ages of 20 to 24 over a period of two weeks. The exploratory research encompassing of a semi-structured interview process with eight key questions relating to the respondent’s experience with empathy in games determined the advantages of planning and designing a game using a human-centric game design approach. The research determined that human-centric game design focusing on affective empathy provides a high possibility of a more engaging game experience that is strengthened by in-game narrative elements resulting in increased time spent in-game. This can be attributed to two main factors – firstly, a stronger player connection through direct empathy to their virtual avatars or in-game characters, regardless of the player’s moral standings and principles. Secondly, an immersive narrative structure produces a deeper player attachment toward game characters and game worlds.

Lange-Weile

Using lens- and time-based media — photography and very still moving image — the artistic research practice presented here as ‘phenomenological notes’ aims to bring to the foreground that which might be familiar and is easily overlooked. The presupposed perception of the phenomenon of nature is destabilized and put into question through a process of lens-based durational observation, stretching that which is thought to be known, allowing for the opening of other understandings of nature to emerge. The aim is for these phenomena to be re-seen through closely engaging with what surrounds us and through a process of elongated looking that leads to different modes of seeing and recollecting.
 The practice itself comprises two distinct, seemingly opposed but interdependent parts of the overall making process: one foregoes the other which is essential for the other one to evolve. These parts are referred to as modes of attention. The first mode of attention demonstrates a more active form of being in a space: the artist actively moves, seeks, and collects. Following on from this, a less active mode is taken up: the artist becomes more receptive, lets the world reveal and unfold itself in front of the lens. The three pieces of work presented — Stille Fragmente, Leaves, Ice melting — give expression to these two modes of attention, and also show how the work has evolved throughout ‘time’. As the work has developed, the process of looking has become more and more distilled, lending more attention to the idea of duration, a concept that might be somewhat contentious to discuss via a medium so clearly associated with clock-time.
 The decision has been made to trust the agencies of the artifacts themselves produced by this process: not to explain but to frame the phenomenon, to destabilize the pre-established understanding of the phenomenon of nature.

Violence, Affect, and Time-Based Media in Mexico, 2010–2019

This essay examines what affect studies can contribute to the analysis of violence and audiovisual media in twenty-first-century Mexico, paying particular attention to the temporal nature of violence and of time-based media. Does the photo of a dead child and her father on the Mexico-US border, as seen on the front page of a newspaper, allow viewers to perceive the slow violence of neoliberal economies and contemporary immigration policies? Or does it merely encourage shallow cries of pity? Given today’s saturated and vertiginously paced mediascape, do feature films have any role to play in encouraging audiences to viscerally recognise the duration and weight of state repression? In order to adequately analyse the complex sensorial dynamics of audiovisual media, this essay begins by proposing a tripartite conceptual framework that recognises multiple and inter-related forms of violence, overlaid audiovisual economies, and the contemporary scopic regime. The essay then deploys this framework in a comparison of the sensorial engagements of two recent films: Desierto (Jonas Cuarón, 2015) and Ayotzinapa, el paso de la tortuga (Enrique García Meza, 2017).

Double Trouble: Replicas in Contemporary Art and Their Impact in Conservation Decision-making

ABSTRACT Contemporary art conservation is constantly facing challenges relating to materials of poor stability that artists incorporate in their practice, the obsolescence of technological elements within artworks, as well as the multitude of ethical issues that these artworks raise. With the conceptual aspect of artworks often being given emphasis, questions about what values exist within the context and content of the artwork, its universe, is becoming critically important. These questions have become even more complicated since the introduction of replicas created with the use of digital reproduction tools; 3D scanning, 3D printing, digital image capturing and reproduction, and wiki-style documentation methods. Using philosophical frameworks, an attempt is being made to clarify what form replicas of contemporary artworks can take and what conservators should be aware of. The analysis of the values associated with these replicas is illustrated by three case studies; street art, a time-based media artwork, and the work of an artist who specialises in 3D assisted creations. The influence of replicas of contemporary artworks in the decision-making process through their values and interaction with the original amplifies the conservator’s feeling of responsibility.

Instantiation, Actualization, and Absence: The Continuation and Safeguarding of Katie Paterson’s Future Library (2014–2114)

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, the conservation field has developed new frameworks for works that recur in multiple manifestations, such as many time-based media, installation, and performance artworks. Within these frameworks, authenticity is gauged primarily on a manifestation’s perceived compliance with the artist’s directives or specifications for the work. Such models have proven difficult to apply in practice when faced with artworks in protracted states of creation, that have an existence outside the walls of the collecting institution, and whose manifestations are dispersed and distributed in space and over time. This article examines how Future Library (2014–2114) – a century-long public artwork by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson – confounds the two-stage model of an artwork’s creation, and the conventional understanding of the artwork instantiated and made present in discrete, physical objects or events. Drawing upon Deleuze's philosophical writings, I characterize the varied ways in which an artwork or object of cultural heritage may be made present and may undergo change, while forever remaining partial, deferred, and absent. This article considers how the scope of what falls within the conservator’s gaze might be widened, and how an artwork’s conservation and creation might be understood as interdependent and concurrent acts of safeguarding and continuation.

A Documentation Framework for Sound in Time-based Media Installation Art

ABSTRACT Perhaps because the visual arts predominate in museum collections, conservation documentation methods for audio in time-based media installation art are less developed than those for video. However, the aural elements are equally complex, both technically and creatively. This paper proposes a framework for documenting sound in time-based media installations, from the artist's vision for the listener experience of the artwork to its realization in the exhibition space. This documentation framework was applied to one artwork, The Visitors (2012) by Ragnar Kjartansson, as a case study. The framework and excerpts from the case study show how documentation focused on sound elements can yield unique insights about an artwork. For time-based media works that foreground sound, conservators must be conversant with sound physics, acoustics, audio engineering, and sound design so that they can have productive conversations with artists, sound professionals, and other stakeholders in order to create meaningful documentation of the significant aural properties of an artwork for the future. In this way, conservators can approach time-based media installations not only attending to how they look, but also to how they sound.

Version Control: Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals through the Lens of the Documentation Model for Time-Based Media Art

ABSTRACT Long shrouded by a history of material change, Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals are reassessed as a work of installation art, using the logic of the documentation model for time-based media art developed and published by Joanna Phillips in 2015. The documentation model and its theoretical framework aid in clarifying both the core identity of the work and its viability for future iterations. By applying the documentation model’s logic to this set of paintings, the model’s broad applicability is demonstrated.

Conducting a Time-Based Media Conservation Assessment and Survey at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

ABSTRACT The emerging field of time-based media (TBM) conservation is actively creating new theory and practice to address the unique needs of these vulnerable artworks and ensure their long-term preservation. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's strategy to establish TBM conservation includes the implementation of a Time-based Media Conservation Assessment and Survey, which sought to identify institutional and collection needs and build consensus and support for TBM conservation internally among staff. In 2018, the Met contracted three consultants to work with staff, completing a conservation assessment and survey of the Museum's TBM collections, spearheaded by the Photograph Conservation Department. It is hoped that this model for conducting an institutional assessment and collection survey, which engaged colleagues across many disciplines, will be useful to other institutions with similar TBM conservation goals. The role of the conservator is rising in administrative structures to a level where they are shaping policy and positively impacting practice throughout museums and other cultural entities. The importance of this shift from behind-the-scenes to an ever more public-facing position is illustrated in this case study, along with its impact on the steps and strategies used to build a TBM conservation program at The Met.

Planning for the Future Right Now: Riskscapes in Conserving Contemporary Design

ABSTRACT Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a leader in the field of collecting and displaying contemporary design across a wide range of media, including born-digital and interactive works, 3D computer-aided designed and printed objects, as well as more traditional materials. As digital acquisitions have increased, an interdisciplinary group was formed in order to best guide this expanding area of collecting. This group worked collaboratively to steer the recent Digital Collections Materials Project, a critical review to develop enhanced protocols for preserving extant digital collections. This paper reports on the results of its collections survey and case studies, demonstrating how theories of contemporary art and time-based media conservation can be applied to the unique needs of a design institution. Concerns circling obsolescence and scarcity – referring both to expert knowledge and replacement materials – are examined with regard to mass-produced consumer electronics and newer born-digital works. In order to unpack these questions in a novel way, the term “riskscape,” borrowed from anthropologist Arjun Appadurai and co-opted by environmental and social disaster studies scholars, is introduced as a tool to better reflect the interconnected nature of commercially produced objects and the processes by which they become institutionalized.

Differentiating (an)notation practices: an artist-scholar’s observation

ABSTRACT Video annotation is an emergent practice and not (yet) a common method in dance studies or research. Subsequently, there are limited accounts that detail the practice of using annotation in dance but those that are available point to how annotation serves diverse and particular purposes. However, a common understanding of what annotation is does not theoretically cohere. Furthermore, the tendency to use the terms annotation and notation synonymously conflates these practices and risks overlooking the significant contributions of each. In discussing my experience, reflections, and observations of working with four different approaches to annotation I offer an understanding of what it offers in analysing and transmitting ideas about dance from an artist-scholar's perspective. Crucially, drawing from Bernard Stiegler's philosophy of technology, I position annotations as technical memories created in dialogue with existing mnemotechnical forms, or technical objects. Such characterisation illuminates how annotation helps to overcome limitations of documentary forms and highlight information otherwise missing or previously unnoticed. To further emphasise annotation as a method of amplification I compare my experience of annotation and of Labanotation to highlight the similarities and differences between these distinctive methodological tools. While the examples primarily focus on dance the insight developed in this article is valuable for other fields working with time-based media.

Updated? Teaching Conservation Through Time-Based Media Art

Time-based media art challenges conventional conservation methodologies. Can the disruption caused by new modes of practice contribute to disciplinary development? This paper reflects on teaching cultural material conservation through time-based media art. In particular, it focuses on how producing documentation engages conservation students and collecting institutions in a learning partnership. The outcomes generated by documenting time-based media art foregrounds twenty-first century conservation practices. Reflexive analysis reveals the way persistent practices and critical situations order these new modes of practice, renewing core approaches to conservation education. This paper argues that time-based media subject design can integrate emergent and established knowledge, and the exchange created enables important disciplinary updates to occur.

The Case for Documenting User Experience as Part Preservation Strategy for Internet-Based Art

Internet-based art is deeply embedded in the online behaviours, customs and traditions that are constantly emerging through user interaction and engagement. As such, user experience should be considered a fundamental aspect of the artwork in need of considered documentation. This paper provides a historical overview of Internet-based art, that presents the broader socio-cultural aspects of Internet-based art, as experienced by the user. This paper argues that Internet-based art requires the same conservation considerations as more accepted aspects of time-based media art documentation: source-code analysis, materials and equipment lists, variability and artists’ intent. By documenting user experience, it enables opportunities to navigate the culturally-embedded principles of Internet culture and contemporary technological standards that may be lost if preservation strategies utilise a more material/code specific preservation strategy. Highlighting experience as a necessary pillar of the identity of Internet-based art, in conjunction with other widely accepted aspects of time-based media art documentation approaches, allows for a richer picture and understanding of defining qualities of works, whilst providing further evidentiary activation into preservation approaches.

Behind the shutter: disappearance and the postcolonial body in early Sinophone media art

This paper analyses how time-based media practices in Taiwan and Hong Kong initially emerged to preserve traces of the disappearing and the already invisible. This phenomenon is intrinsically related to the elusiveness of the colonial subject due to the complex postcolonial conditions in the region. What became the subject for the camera was already disappearing as it was being caught, a situation conditioned by shifting cultural and political identities. Not only is the local subject hard to see, it keeps adjusting in response to different authoritarian powers. My thesis is that early intermedia art works, particularly in their way of reflecting cultural discourses, are formed with an understanding of the impossibility of catching the present moment. As the shutter itself is an imperialist convention, particularly at the margin of the Sinosphere, the artists employ their bodies and performative methods to dissolve the monolithic power of the camera. In addition, early experimental theater provides anti-institutional contexts for intermedia experiments, which also offered technical support and avant-garde networks.

Built as Rain. Film Analysis of Unbuildable Architectural Speculations – a Case Study of „Instant City” (dir. Peter Cook and Ron Herron, 1968) and „The Zero Theorem” (dir. Terry Gilliam, 2013)

The introduction of time-based media into the design stage opened up a new understanding of architectural and represented space as a dematerialized, dynamic, and user-dependent concept. Unbuildable architectural projects always relied on specific techniques and media. Their radical nature usually channelled innovative artistic currents and visualization tools, like collage and pop art aesthetics in the works of Archigram. Cinema is yet another ground for such deliberations. With Instant City (Archigram’s Peter Cook and Ron Herron) and The Zero Theorem (Terry Gilliam) the problem of dematerialization is being channelled by architectural/spatial proposals that involve a range of literary tropes, cultural texts, and filmic intertexts, in order to create a rich embroidery of references that forward a new look upon architectural production as a practice of creating protocols for dynamic and all the more elusive imagery. This article’s central objective lies in the task of reframing a discussion on iconicity, media facades, and mutative building skins, so as to include modes of cinematic portrayal that are not just contents of architectural “messages”, but also their “media”.

A study on the preservation of time-based media artworks through the use of blockchain technology

A study on the preservation of time-based media artworks through the use of blockchain technology

Metaphors of motion and philosophies of process: A practitioner’s perspective in contemporary motion design

Contemporary motion design has become ubiquitous across all platforms of the modern media landscape, and yet even the term itself enjoys little cultural awareness and has attracted notably less scholarly attention. Like the motion graphics tradition out of which it evolved, it is an inherently hybrid practice that draws upon the histories and techniques of a broad spectrum of time-based media and, in spite of its unreservedly commercial aims, is both deeply rooted in and a concentrated distillation of experimental animation practices in particular. Drawing upon my own recent experience designing a motion sequence for a documentary feature film, this article explores the unique aesthetic qualities and metaphors of motion that characterize motion design, and ultimately seeks to define it as a distinct discipline in its own right.

After All This Time, Isn’t It Still ‘About Time’? Artist’s Work in Slide-Tape in the UK Since the 1970s

This article will address the use of slide-tape by artists during the 1970s and 1980s in the United Kingdom. Slide-tape is seen now as a form that was abandoned and barely worthy of mention by critics and historians, and so has been largely elided in the literature. However, it is significant in the UK for being used by a number of key and emerging artists during the period, where it became a distinctive approach to using image and sound. The aesthetic qualities of slide-tape and the physical presence of media apparatus were exploited in both its performance and installation by a range of artists who are associated with experimental approaches to time-based media. It was also developed as a critical tool by women artists and black artists, and this too is overlooked and that moment forgotten. Overall, artists work in this form has been ignored. I speculate on the reasons why this has happened, having recounted some key points in its development and make an argument for its contribution to artists’ moving image media, whose histories are still being written.