I had recently been pondering over different ideas and techniques that could be incorporated within my project space in order to make it more immersive and experiential for the participants. I started thinking along these lines when i came across some artists who work in digital mediums to create dialogue and environments through installations. This opened up the possibility of introducing a 'digital' element to the space and the fact that events, especially exhibition, festivals and live performance, have already started to move beyond the traditional and have extended to the new media mediums of projections, visual art and video installations to add further dimensions to audience experiences.
With this in mind i decided to implement the incorporation of the participant within a 'virtual' activation space as a means of extending beyond the physical and encouraging greater engagement within the space. In order to further expand this idea i started to look into theory and works related to 'Digital' and 'Interactive' art as i had previously not been familiar with the workings of these branches of art on an academic level. Following is some of the information that i came across which has helped me immensely in terms of understanding how the whole process work in the world of art.
DIGITAL ART:
The term ‘Digital Art ‘ is a general term used for a broad range of artistic works and practices and hence does not describe one unified set of aesthetics. The employment of digital technologies as an artistic medium implies that the work exclusively uses the digital platform from production to presentation, and that it exhibits and explores this particular platform's inherent possibilities. The digital mediums distinguishing features certainly constitute a distinct form of aesthetics: it is interactive, participatory, dynamic and customizable. However, the art itself has multiple manifestations and is extremely hybrid. It can present itself as anything ranging from an interactive installation with or without network components, software art written by the artist, purely internet based art or any combination of the above.
One of the main characteristics of the digital medium is it's capacity to interact with audiences. However, considering the nature of art one may say that any experience of an artwork is interactive and relies on an interplay between the work and the perception of the recipient. Yet, this interaction remains a mental event in the viewers mind when it comes to experiencing traditional art forms; the physicality of a painting or a sculpture does not change in front of the participants eyes nor does it suggest any means of physical immersion. With regard to digital art, however, interactivity involves different forms of navigating possibilities which go beyond this purely mental event. Similar forms of participant involvements have also been explored in performance art, happenings and video art. With 'digital' or 'virtual' art the control over content, context and time is shifted to the respective recipient through interaction and can take numerous forms with varying degrees of control over their visual appearance by the artist or the audience. In some artworks, participants interact within the parameters that have been set by the artist, in others, they participants set the parameters themselves.
DIGITAL ART INSTALLATIONS:
Digital art installations are in and of themselves a broad field and come in a many forms. Some are reminiscent of large - scale video installations that include multiple projections or of video works that incorporate the viewer in the imagery through live captures. Many are aimed at creating 'environments' that can entail varying degrees of immersion, ranging from art works which envelop the audience in a projected environment to those that immerse them in a virtual world.
The technique or concept of 'Immersion' has a long history and is closely connected with art, architecture and symbolic systems: cave paintings can be considered early immersive environments and medieval churches are equally aimed at creating a transformative enclosure for their visitors through a combination of architecture, light and symbolism. Digital installations are usually site specific and scalable establishing connections to physical spaces because of their lack of pre established dimensions. There is always an underlying spatial element involved which could or could not be important to the piece. In one way or another, all are concerned with possible relationships between the physical space and the virtual and what distinguishes them is the balance between these two realms and the methods employed to translate one space into the other. Some artworks try to translate the virtual world into the physical environment, others map the physical in the virtual but they are almost always aimed at fusing the two spaces.
VIDEO INSTALLATION:
Video installation is a contemporary art method that combines video technology with installation art. It is an art form that utilizes all aspects of its surrounding environment as a vehicle of affecting the audience. It originated in the 1970's but today it is found everywhere as digital video production has become increasingly accessible and can be seen in a range of environments from galleries and museums to site - specific works. Popular formats of video installations include monitor work, projection and performance.
One of the main strategies used by video-installation artists is the incorporation of the space as a key element in the narrative structure. This way, the well-known linear cinematic narrative is spread throughout the space creating an immersive ambience. In this situation, the participant plays an active role as he/she creates the narrative sequence by evolving in the space. Sometimes, the idea of a participatory audience is stretched further in interactive video installation and at other times the video is displayed in such a way that the viewer becomes part of the plot as a character in a film.
The main difference between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actors, contain no dialogue, have no discernible narrative or plot or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from sub categories like avant garde cinema or short films. The intentions of video art, unlike the cinema, are not to entertain but are more varied in the sense that it could be based on anything from exploring the boundaries of the medium of video to a specific concept or it could be used to challenge audience perceptions about certain notions.
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| Diana Thater, The Best Animals Are The Flat Animals, 1998 - Four channel video installation , two projectors and two monitors, DVD's, gelled lights, theatrical flats, colour, no sound. |
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| Andy Warhol, Outer and Inner Space, 1965 - Two channel 16mm film projection, black and white, sound. |
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| Bruce Nauman, Raw Material with Continuous Shift, 1991 - Four channel video installation, two video projectors and two video monitors, laser discs, colour, sound. |
PAUL, CHRISTIANE., 2003. Digital Art. 2003. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
The Art of Projection| Media Art By Students[online]. Available at: http://margaretnoble.net/educator/the-art-of-projection/ [Accessed:]
The Video Art History Archive[online]. Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/videoart/ [Accessed: ]
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