Art through Media
Audio-visual Arts Communication, Culture and Aesthetics: 25 Frames Per Second, Billions of Cultural Frames
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nélia Cruz, João Abreu, António Polainas
This paper presents a part of the research project entitled “25 frames per Second: Audio-visual Arts Communication, Culture and Aesthetics” the result of a cooperation protocol established between the public broadcaster (RTP) and the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon. Our research group was created in 2015 and it seeks to develop four lines of action / reflection based on the audio-visual arts: the first line – entitled Ephemeral and Memory – aims at surveying what exists in the Portuguese audio-visual archives and problematizing its preservation criteria; the second line – History, Theory and Critic – seeks to contextualize forms and themes, to analyse and interpret contents, to relate aesthetic experience and technical possibilities; the third line – Poetic and Technic – aims at making a critical analysis of aesthetics and audio-visual grammar; finally the fourth line – Audio-visual Culture – focuses on understanding the importance of the audio-visual mediation in the construction and practice of the everyday life.Reflecting on a work of television always encompasses the articulation of the public and the private, the past and the future, the local and the global, according to their relations to image, sound and movement, inquiring about this kind of artistic creation. This project aims to show how a specific Portuguese perspective is reflected in audio-visual narratives, and how those narratives reflect foreigners perspectives. How could we create tools to analyse it, in order to contribute to the contemporary thought on the television landscape as an art.
Data Design: Exploring Drawing Practice
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicholas Rodgers
Designing with data for infographics etc. has a rich, recent history with work such as McCandless’ Information is Beautiful and Knowledge is Beautiful having a significant impact on graphics related design education. Similarly, the early work of practitioners such as John Maeda now inform a great deal of thinking and practice in these areas. Whilst there is now a significant impact on textile design practice and education through the use of Adobe Creative Suite and programmes such as AVA there appears to be limited investigation of methods that can introduce coding as an integral aspect of the design process. Developing skills in creating imagery and pattern using computer code is not routinely taught. In this project, I will explore strategies that introduce an awareness of computer coding and its creative possibilities in textile design. I will test the hypothesis that students with limited knowledge of creative coding can develop a conceptual understanding of the subject through an exploration of drawing practices. Action Research workshops will introduce students to drawing methods where they explore the use of algorithms and data to create pattern. Learners will test how we can construct similar patterns using creative coding. Through a series of interviews and focus groups there will be an evaluation of the teaching methodologies to propose a second stage of workshops based on the findings from stage one.
Expression as a Tool to Research the Creative Potential of Software: Signs, Symbols and Language as a Means of Expression
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Monika Szucsova
Digital communication technologies represent communication apparatus within which today's techno-cultural society operates. Machines create images that are meant for other machines, the creative movement of software art had a couple of decades ago introduced and uncovered the aesthetic and performative qualities of its programming code. The objective of the paper is to interpret the context that will help to understand the process of artistic work using software as a way to comprehend the contemporary culture. It aims to look at the categories of perception and interpretation of software art through the category of expression as a way to recognize the world, and as a means for evaluating conceptual contents in a creative way. Furthermore, it argues that the semiotics theory is in a deep relationship with the modes of expression. Humans have invented a multitude of using the language as a means of communication. Artists-programmers use the computer language to program their artworks but have to engage with human readable language that supports the expression through the programming creativity. Software art is understood as a creative practice that works with programmable media, thus it uses software code as the material for the manifestation of its own aesthetics. Therefore, in order to understand software art, we need to be familiar with its language as a tool for creation and ways in which it is expressed and identified. The evaluation criteria for learning about this type of creation thus imply to be seen through a cross-disciplinary framework (computer science, linguistics, arts).
Lost in Transcription: A Sculptural Approach to Analysing Group Conversation Using a Transcription Array
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael Anthony Mc Loughlin
This paper I will discuss a methodological tool; a system of presenting group conversation for analysis that is cognisant of the spatial nature of group conversation and of the time based nature of the conversation. I will refer to the system used as a ‘transcription array’ as it spatially presents the transcription of each individual contributing to a conversation in its own space/time relative to the contributors’ physical position within the conversation. The process has developed through art practice, be it an art practice that researches conversational interaction between groups of people and the sense-making that occurs within that conversation. As such it presents a practical intersection between visual art, sociology (particularly the fields of ethnomethodology/conversation analysis). It builds on an approach to audio recording conversation spatially and the necessity to develop a method of analysis faithful to the breath of the spatial data these recordings offer. The paper will address the following questions: How can we represent transcribed group conversation in a manner that allows for an analysis reflective of the time and spatial characteristics of the conversation? How can we analysis space in transcribed conversation, observe patterns of contribution and the complexity of interaction? Why is it important to be able to analyze a conversation in this way?
