Bare nothingness: Situated subjects in embodied artists' systems
- Submitting institution
-
University of Greenwich
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 17134
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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10.4018/978-1-4666-8659-5.ch002
- Book title
- Experimental Multimedia Systems for Interactivity and Strategic Innovation
- Publisher
- Information Science Reference/IGI Global
- ISBN
- 9781466686595
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This chapter examines the current state of digital artworks, arguing that they have not yet made a ground-breaking impact on the cultural landscape of the early 21st century and suggesting that a reason for this lack of impact is the obsolete model of agency deployed by
many digital artists. As an alternative to what is framed as out-of-date forms of interactivity, the chapter highlights evolving research into interactive systems, artists’ tools, applications, and techniques that provide readers with an insightful and up-to-date examination of
emerging interactive technology trends. In particular, the chapter looks at situated computing and embodied systems, in which context-aware models of human subjects can be combined with sensor technology to expand the agencies at play in interactive works.
The chapter connects these technologies to Big Data, Crowdsourcing and other techniques from artificial intelligence that expand our understanding of interaction and participation. The proposed techniques and/or processes are presented here as parts of dynamic, multi-linear systems, incorporating an enactive approach to human experience that is embodied, situated and emergent; that is, an experience that involves multiple forms of agency. The historical background and typology presented in the chapter identify a distinct pattern of high-profile artworks in which disembodied image-objects (or ‘spectacles’) are deployed. The majority of those works are, on the whole, also found to be operating on deprecated models of human computer interaction, predicated on classically cognitivist divisions
between agents and their environments. The chapter outlines alternatives to these approaches; in particular it highlights the concept of enactivism. As such, it proposes a new way of thinking about embodied artists’ systems with a potentially high impact on teaching interactive art-related subjects. In this context, it can be regarded as a catalyst for new thinking, practices, paradigms, policies or audiences.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
