pixel

By Alvaro Seica, 26 September, 2014
Publication Type
Language
Year
Publisher
Pages
79-95
Journal volume and issue
7
ISSN
1647-998X
Record Status
Abstract (in English)

In this essay [Digital Art: Pixel, Algorithm, Code, Programming, Data], we reached a theoretical framework that could withstand a hyperdisciplinary analysis and encompass one of the characteristics that both electronic literature and digital art share: the transfer and transformation processes. In order to recognize these processes we used the concept of transduction to perform a theoretical migration capable of supporting these aspects: the transducer function.
Swapping between a critique of textuality and a critique of visuality we analyze two of the most important genres of digital art: net.art and digital installation. Firstly, we investigate the concept of infoduct as a channel of information dissemination in the virtual environment and the characteristics of periphery and discontinuity in digital image, composed by pixels, in opposition to punctum, studium and continuity, key characteristics in analog photographic image, composed by dots, whose concepts were identified and coined by Roland Barthes in La Chambre Claire (1980). Secondly – by focusing on the nomination of the artwork and the relevance of the title in its intelligibility, from the abstract movement until nowadays – we reflect on the use of code as an emerging language, which reveals a new aesthetic sensibility, e.g. the k. series by André Sier. Finally, the third and fourth points develop the analysis of the transducer processes in the works by Pavel Braila, R. Luke DuBois and Sier, considering the aesthetics of data transfer and recreation in mutant works as a common phenomenon to art that uses programmable and networking media. In digital art, the transducer function originates a pictorial, visual and aesthetic transformation, which we observe in SSB, Hard Data, or 32-bit Wind Machine , and erects the artist as a data filter and data miner.
In this investigation, we highlight mechanisms, patterns, languages ​​and common motifs: authorship, user, cybertext, surface, infoduct, interactivity, pixel, algorithm, code, programming, network, software and data.

(Source: Author's Abstract)

Abstract (in original language)

Neste ensaio, chegou-se a um enquadramento teórico que pudesse resistir a uma análise
hiperdisciplinar e englobar uma das características da partilha entre a literatura electrónica e a arte digital: os processos de transferência e transformação. Para reconhecer estes processos recorreu-se ao conceito de transdução para efectuar uma migração teórica capaz de suportar essas valências: a função transdutora.
Transitando entre a crítica à textualidade e a crítica à visualidade, são analisados dois dos géneros mais relevantes da arte digital: a net.art e a instalação digital. No primeiro ponto, investiga-se o conceito de infoduto como canal de difusão de informação no ambiente virtual e as características de periferia e descontinuidade na imagem digital, constituída por pixels, por oposição às características de punctum, studium e continuidade na imagem fotográfica analógica, composta por pontos, cujos conceitos foram cunhados por Roland Barthes em La Chambre Claire (1980). No segundo ponto – através de um foco na nomeação da obra de arte e na relevância do título na sua inteligibilidade, desde o movimento abstracto até ao presente – reflecte-se sobre a utilização do código como linguagem emergente, reveladora de uma nova sensibilidade estética, na série k. de André Sier. O terceiro e quarto pontos continuam a análise dos processos transdutores, nas obras de Pavel Braila, R. Luke DuBois e Sier, inserindo a estética de transferência e recriação de dados nas criações mutantes como um fenómeno comum à arte que utiliza media programáveis e em rede. A função transdutora, na arte digital, origina uma transformação plástica, visual e estética, que observaremos em SSB, em Hard Data, ou em 32-bit Wind Machine, e erige o artista como um filtro de dados e um data miner.
Nesta investigação foram realçados mecanismos, padrões, linguagens e motivos comuns: autoria, utilizador, cibertexto, superfície, infoduto, interactividade, pixel, algoritmo, código, programação, rede, software e dados.

(Fonte: Resumo do Autor)

Attachment
File
By Alvaro Seica, 15 August, 2013
Publication Type
Language
Year
License
CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
Record Status
Abstract (in English)

Electronic Literature and Digital Art share many processes, themes, creative and theoretical guidelines. In this sense, I developed a critical framework that could resist to a hyperdisciplinary analysis and include one of the characteristics of this sharing pattern: the transfer and transformation processes. In order to recognize these processes I have done an approach of the transduction concept that could perform a theoretical migration on these aspects: the transducer function. Thus, the transducer function appears in the critical analysis of the works by Mark Z. Danielewski, Stuart Moulthrop, R. Luke DuBois and André Sier. The selected works are representative of the following genres: novel, hyperfiction, net.art and digital installation, drawing on phenomena and concerns resulting from the creative production within the digital culture. In this research I have enhanced mechanisms, patterns, languages and common grounds: authorship, user, cybertext, surface, hypertext, infoduct, interactivity, pixel, algorithm, code, programming, network, software and data. (Source: Author's abstract)

Description in original language
Abstract (in original language)

A literatura electrónica e a arte digital partilham vários processos, temas, linhas criativas e referentes teóricos. Neste sentido, chegou-se a um enquadramento teórico que pudesse resistir a uma análise hiperdisciplinar e englobar uma das características desta partilha: os processos de transferência e transformação. Para reconhecer estes processos recorreu-se ao conceito de transdução para efectuar uma migração teórica capaz de suportar essas valências: a função transdutora. Deste modo, a função transdutora surge na crítica das obras de Mark Z. Danielewski, Stuart Moulthrop, R. Luke DuBois e André Sier. As obras seleccionadas são representativas dos seguintes géneros: romance, hiperficção, net.art e instalação digital, extraindo fenómenos e preocupações resultantes da produção criativa no âmbito da cultura digital. Nesta investigação foram realçados mecanismos, padrões, linguagens e motivos comuns: autoria, utilizador, cibertexto, superfície, hipertexto, infoduto, interactividade, pixel, algoritmo, código, programação, rede, software e dados.

Organization referenced
By Eric Dean Rasmussen, 15 February, 2012
Author
Publication Type
Language
Year
License
CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
Record Status
Abstract (in English)

John Cayley dadas up the digital, revealing similarities of type across two normally separate, unequal categories: image and text. "Neither lines nor pixels but letters," finally, unite.

(Source: ebr First Person thread page)

Pull Quotes

A line is a string of letters, and letters are the "atoms" of textual materiality. Letters build words and lines in a manner that allows far greater significance and affect to emerge from modulation in processes of compositional or programmatological generation.

Linemakers, poets and writers generally, have long lost all claims to a mastery loaned to them by so-called print culture, by the discourse network of 1800. They must once again serve the literal matter of language, and as such they must serve the machine: typewriter, word processor, programmaton. Its literal symbolic materiality should, in turn, be recognised as intrinsically and necessarily, not only historically or momentarily, engaged with the entire gamut of cultural production that emerges from the generalised, networked use of programmable machines.

... [Kittler] provides us with one of the most sophisticated arguments explaining the most recent recasting and downplaying of the materiality of language, the subordination of line to pixel, in the context of so-called digital art and culture. How can one justify an engagement with verbal art, with language, when symbolic manipulation may be indistinguishable from the machinic symbolic? It's far too tempting for workers in sound and light to adopt this supposition or to proceed with their work on its basis, in a hypercool posthuman irrational.

Kittler's statement that there "would be no software if computer systems were not surrounded by an environment of everyday languages," (my emphasis) is crucial and telling. They are so surrounded.

I'm trying, as it were, to turn our attention from lines of verse to the letters of literal art and to place the latter in a significant constructive relationship with the pixels of digital graphic art. My argument is that the material manipulation of pixels derives, culturally, from an underlying gasp of the manipulation of letters.

For me digital characterises any system of transcription with a finite set of agreed identities as its elements. It follows that such a system allows: (1) programmatological manipulation of its constitutive elements (without any threat to their integrity); (2) invisible or seamless editing of cultural objects composed from these elements; and (3) what we now call digital ("perfect") reproduction of such objects.

The world of letters has played a crucial role in the development of digital art and culture. Text is indeed "the web's primary and foundational media" and the artists of texts are poets.

By Joe Milutis, 20 January, 2012
Author
Publication Type
Language
Year
Publisher
License
All Rights reserved
Record Status
Abstract (in English)

A discussion of the emerging pixel aesthetic in the late 90s, through a meditation on the Pixelvision 2000, Kasparov versus Deep Blue, and analog video art aesthetics.

Pull Quotes

"Everywhere, the pixel is disappearing. No longer is it obligatory to watch the pixel compose our images; images of the future will have left the matrix and the grid to become whole."

Attachment
File