Piotr Zawojski: Cyberaesthetics – Some Basic Theses

Piotr Zawojski Cyber Aesthetics - Some Basis Theses Source of Im age: https:/ / www.flickr.com / photos/ arselectronica/ 148275140 86/ CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X Pio tr Za w o js ki Cybe r Ae s th e tics - So m e Bas is Th e s e s Abs tract: Referring to Sidey Myoo’s m otto - „There is one hum an and there are two worlds” - I would like to suggest a different perception of hybrid reality in which our doubled or m ultiplied “self” in a natural way experiences “multiple realities”. Cyberaesthetics is not only an aesthetic phenom ena with the prefix “cyber”. Separating a phenom enon of cyberculture sphere from phenom ena of new m edia sphere is a m istake. Therefore I try to think about cyberculture and cyberaesthetics in term s of their m utual relations with the world of new m edia. This is integrative and not oppositional thinking. Cyberaesthetics is an attem pt at describing the way in which new m edia shape and co-create cyberculture. And the latter is expressed in new m edia art (cyberart). Tags : Cybe r Ae s th e tics , Cybe r Art, Cybe rcu ltu re ; PIOTR ZAWOJSKI Assistant Professor at Departm ent of Film & Media Studies, The Un iversity of Silesia, Katowice. He also work at Academ y of Fine Arts in Cracow. H is research interest focus on the theory of photography, film and cinem a, new m edia, digital arts and cyberculture. He is a chief of Film and Media section at polish cultural quarterly Opcje. H e is also an essayist, reviewer, film and art critic. He is a m em ber of International Association for Aesthetics and International Association of Art Critics (AICA). CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X ...in tro 1. Referring to Sidey Myoo's m otto - „There is one hum an and there are two worlds”1 I would like to suggest a different perception of hybrid reality in which our doubled or m ultiplied “self” in a natural way experiences “m ultiple realities”. Leon Chwistek's theory of “m ultiple realities”, which im plies m ultim odality of our “self”, can be considered a starting point for the discussion. The theory can be treated as a pen dant to Witkacy's concept of “self” - which im plies “plurality in unity”. 2. Cyberaesthetics is not only an aesthetic phenom ena with the prefix: “cyber”. Separating a phenom enon of cyberculture sphere from phenom ena of new m edia sphere is a m istake. Therefore I try to think about cyberculture and cyberaesthetics in term s of their m utual relations with the world of new m edia. This is integrative and not oppositional thinking. Cyberaesthetics is an attem pt at describing the way in which new m edia shape and co-create cyberculture. And the latter is expressed in n ew m edia art (cyberart). 3. Cyberart still needs to be defined. Or, perhaps, if not defined, it needs to be constantly re-defined – and this should set the route to prolegomena which are the foundation for cyberaesthetics. 4. Only dialogue m ay enable this process. This is why we participate in the dialogue – or precisely – polylogue discussion, for exam ple on the web. Taking into account references to the “philosophy of dialogue” is crucial. Dialogue on the web is the basis for the philosophy of dialogue, of “interfaceology”, which is an interpretation of “interfacing”. 1 See: http://www.ostrowicki.art.pl CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X 5. Web aesthetics (and cyberaesthetics) m ust be an aesthetics of a m ultiplied dialogue in cyberspace. Of course, the web should be understood in the whole com plex dim ension in which this notion can be understood. From the technological, through the hum an (anthropological) perspective, to the cultural and philosophical aspect of networking. Web aesthetics and aesthetics on the web, the web as a m etaphor, but also as a real structure, the web as a challenge and as a space to be m anaged – these are the issues which require attention. Being netizens – who extensively colonize (and are colonized by) the hybrid, yet, at the sam e tim e, integral doubled (or rather m ultidim ensional) reality – we are responsible for developing a form al language to describe art in the era of bio-techno-logical system s. So, let's create a “web aesthetics” as a contem porary version of aesthetics being the first dom ain of knowledge providing insight into our ontological and epistem ological entanglem ents in the world of web practices. ...an d fu rth e r... What is the place of art in cyberspace and cyberculture? Writing about “the work of art in the age of digital reproduction”2 Charles Alexander Moffat states that works of art will not be experienced in galleries because instead spectators will adm ire artists' perform ance – both: the ancient and the contem porary ones – in cybergalleries. There is no convincin g reason for such thin king, yet, on the other hand, there is no doubt that cyberspace has becom e a place where a huge num ber of im ages (or rather their digital reproductions) is collected, and for m any spectators it is the only possible 2 See: Charles Alexander Moffat, The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction, http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/contemporary/The-Work-of-Art-in-the-Age-of-DigitalReproduction.html CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X way to experience classical paintings, sculptures, photographs and also video film s, docum entations of installations, perform ances or concerts. Placing Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper on the web by the HAL90 0 0 com pany 3 m ight assum e the proportions of a sym bol. The photograph of the fresco located in the church of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milano was taken with the resolution of 16 billion pixels and with the help of contem porary m ost advanced photographic equipm ent by Nikon and the cutting edge optics relying on the technique of panoram ic photography. In order to achieve an excellent quality of the digital im age, 1677 photographs were taken and subsequently turned into one digitalized im age. Spectators m ay enlarge the im age on their com puter screens by using the zoom feature – which m eans that they are able to see even the tiniest elem ents of the fresco, som ething they would have never been able to see standing in front of the work in the della Grazie church. It would be absurd to claim that watching da Vinci's m asterpiece in cyberspace is the sam e thing as watchin g the original. However, the digital replica of The Last Supper m ay be an ideal addendum and exten sion of the physical existence of the work of art. This slightly anecdotic event can be a perfect introduction to the reflexions upon the very com plex stories of traditional art facing new situations resulting from digital breakthrough in culture, but it can also encourage various (re)interpretations of the state of the art in the age of digital m edia. As a result of cultural transform ations a num ber of new form s of electronic art an d cyberart have been created, sim ultaneously, digital tools have enabled the earlier unknown, because technologically im possible, m ethods of representation, prom otion, 3 See: http://www.haltadefinizione.com CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X distribution and they have given the opportunity to develop com pletely new research m ethods, for exam ple, for the analysis of the structure of im ages. The digital copy of The Last Supper will not substitute the original, although it presents researchers and com m on spectators with totally new possibilities of m onitor perception. Thus, new perspectives of viewing the history of the traditional (let's say, pre-digital) art with the use of “digital glasses” have em erged and they are different from the ones we have known so far. Media art seem s to be one of the key issues of cyberculture – both in term s of new technocultural tendencies being m anifested in society defined by using new com puter technologies (not only, though) and in term s of playing a special role in the process of (self)defining of a new cultural paradigm . Cyberculture finds art to be a perfect m edium in which fundam ental characteristics of culture of the age of inform ation and com m unication are revealed. Before we begin to discuss digital aesthetics, we should probably m ove back to the m ost basic questions: what digital art is and how it differs from analogue art, because if we acknowledge that the digital does exist, then, obviously, the analogue paradigm should be, in a dialectical way, placed at the opposite pole. It is worth rem em bering that the very “digital art enables an alogue processes occurring in nature being represented digitally”4 . The words com e from Peter Weibl's m anifesto published as a supplem ent to the catalogue of Ars Electronica festival in 4 PeterWeibel, On the History and Aesthetics of the Digital Image, [in:] Timothy Druckrey with Ars Electronica (eds.), Ars Electronica. Facing the Future. A Survey of Two Decades, Cambridge MA, London 1999, p. 51. CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X 198 4 (nineteen eighty for) – as the author him self claim s the term “digital art”5 was used in the text for the first tim e. The very term is highly am biguous, all the m ore that it has undergone a specific form of evolution: from the com m only used at the turn of the 60 s. and 70 s term com puter art, through m ultim edia, hyperm edia art, to digital art and cyberart. At the sam e tim e, the term new m edia art has been quite com m only used and the term digital m edia art – less frequently. Christiane Paul, taking into account those term inological am biguities, writes: “The notion of “digital art” is used to such diverse objects and artistic practices that it is im possible to define it by a hom ogenous set of aesthetic term s”6 . A little further Paul explains the reasons for such definitional problem s: “Defining and categorizations m ight be helpful in identifying basic attributes of a given m edium . Yet, at the sam e tim e, they pose a threat of constructing pre-definitional lim itations in explaining and understanding of works of art, especially when they are constantly developed as it is in the case of digital art”7. One m ore aspect em erging from the discussions on digital m edia art should be added to the above doubts – a fundam ental issue of the basic distin ction between the art which uses digital technology as a specific tool for creating traditional (analogue) artistic objects such as photography, sculpture or music, and the art which uses digital technology as an im m anent feature of a m edium , that is the art which is 5 See: Peter Weibel, Ars Electronica. Between Art and Science, [in:] Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schöpf, Gerfried Stocker (eds.), Ars Electronica 79-99. 20 Jahre Festival für Kunst, Technologie und Gesellschaft, Linz 1999, p. 72. 6 Christiane Paul, Digital Art, Thames & Hudson, London 2003, p. 7. 7 Ibidem, p. 8. CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X created, stored and presented in a digital form at. And, m oreover, which uses possibilities of interaction, co-participation and co-creation I ask m yself the next question: about the role of an aesthetician in defining and recognizing digital art – ergo, while giving consideration to the object of m y reflections which is still in statu nascendi. I try, sim ultaneously, to take into account the specificity of the aesthetic reflection whose subjects are the activities and objects realized by m eans of digital technologies. The state of being form ed has a double m eaning here: firstly - an “object” of digital art is in the state of perm anent form ation, it never really undergoes “coagulation”, and secondly – broadly defined digital art is in the process of being born, constituted, in the process of searchin g its own territory – as it would be a sim plification to locate it solely in cyberspace. Contrary to appearances, the subject of digital aesthetics within the cybercultural discourse is not so obvious. I use the phrase “contrary to appearan ces” because one m ay say that the situation is very clear in this case: everything that has a bin ary digital record as its ontological basis that was positively verified by an aesthetician or a theoretician – as including artistic and aesthetic values – is digital art. However, it seem s that the obviousness of such a statem ent is an undue and highly unjustified sim plification. Digital m edia art is an art which m akes an interface a basic category not only in the sense of a “m edium ” enabling contact between the user and (m ost often) the virtual work of art, yet also one of the fundam ental categories of a n ew, m edia oriented aesthetics. The case of database which has becom e one of the m ost im portant issues of m edia aesthetics is sim ilar. An ideal proof of the significant role of a database as a CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X research problem can be found in a joint publication (edited by Victoria Vesna) which, in a sense, proclaim s a new scientific discipline – “database aesthetics”8 . Besides, it has its continuation on the web where one m ay find addition al publications and, m ost of all, various artistic (although not only) projects using databases as a fundam ental constitutive elem ent and, at the sam e tim e, exploring the issues of the need to constantly develop m ethods of selection and m aterial organization in the age of inform ation flood of data 9 . Clearly, it is the Internet which is a special sphere and m edium predestin ed (pridestend) to use database strategies. As Victoria Vesna, an artist and theoretician, and an editor of the above m entioned publication, writes: “Artists using Internet as a m edium are particularly interested in creating new kind of aesthetics which en com passes not only aspects of visual representation, but also invisible aspects of organization, searchin g for inform ation and navigating them ”10 . An im portant subdiscipline of aesthetic studies has em erged recently. It is treated as a kind of centre of various trends an d explorations within digital m edia aesthetics. It is “aesthetic com puting”. Although it m ay seem that “aesthetic com puting” is a phenom enon strictly connected with the digital breakthrough and with the em ergen ce of the world wide web which redefined the whole range of phenom ena resulting from the expansion of technoculture based on the dom ination of a m etam edium – the com puter – one has to be aware of the fact that those processes began in the late ‘60 s. 8 See: Victoria Vesna (ed.), Database Aesthetics. Art in the Age of Information Overflow, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London 2007. 9 See: http://victoriavesna.com/dataesthetics/ 10 Victoria Vesna, Introduction, [in:] Victoria Vesna (ed.), Database Aesthetics..., op. cit., p. XIII. CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X Since 20 0 2 workshops devoted to the aesthetic com puting problem atics initiated by Paul Fishwick, Christa Som m erer and Roger Malina have been organized in Germ an Dagstuhl (near Wadern in Germ any). Dagstuhl is an academ ic institution where Leibniz Center for Inform atics is located. Early com puter art, while studying the possibilities of hardware, software and cybernetics, brought about the transgression of boundaries between cognitive and m aterial aesthetics. The participants of the above m entioned m eeting and later research and publishing defined aesthetic com puting in a brief m anifesto. They referred to artistic practice and theoretical concepts deriving from the area of new m edia art research. Generally speaking, they em phasized the question of “applying theory and artistic practice to aesthetic com puting”11. Writing the preface to the joint publication on the issues which was the outcom e of the above described in itiative, Paul Fishwick tries to outline a program for the future in the form of three fundam ental questions faced by aesthetics attem pting to apply traditional categories and new aesthetic notions to digital art. * Firstly, a question of expanding traditional definitions of aesthetics to include the context of issues connected with digitality. 11 Paul Fishwick, Aesthetic Computing Manifesto, „Leonardo” 2003, vol. 34, no 2, p. 256. In the later introduction to the collective work author states that aestheitic computing should take the such issues as: 1: presentation of programs and data structures taking into account the cultural specificities; 2: inclusion of artistic methods to typical activities using computers, such as scientific visualization and 3: improve emotional and cultural level of interaction with the computer. See: Paul Fishwick, An Introduction to Aesthetic Computing, [in:] Paul Fishwick (ed.), Aesthetic Computing, op. cit., p. 6. CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X *Secon dly, the question of the role of values, subjectivity and em otions in m athem atics and com puter science as the elem ents which en able sustaining the balance between the form and function – needs to be addressed. *And thirdly, we need to answer the question on how effective social structures – where artists, designers, m athem aticians and com puter scientists could co-work directly or by m eans of web – can be created 12 . Paul Fishwick has been working on m ethodological and theoretical basis of an aesthetically oriented research on phenom ena included in the sphere of art as the result of using com puter technologies, but also of activities transgressing art which, however, can be analysed from the perspective of “broadened aesthetics”. Program m ing is the exam ple of such an activity. Using various program m ing languages program m ers apply their own “handwriting” while creating algorithm ic structures which have aesthetic potential them selves. Sim ultaneously, the aesthetic dim ension of program m ing is revealed at the level of the effects of specific procedures application and it can be easily observed, for exam ple, when we watch two- or threedim ensional data visualizations. Moreover, instead of program m ing art we should frequently refer to art of program s whose visual architecture m ay enchant us with their beauty. And I am not talking only about fractals, although evoking them in such a context should be obvious 13 . 12 Paul Fishwick (ed.), Aesthetic Computing, op. cit., p. XVI. 13 About „programming as a form of art” says interesting Roman Verostko, one of the pionieers of the algorithmics art, i.e. “algorist”, which use to the cyberartist who use in their work algorithms. See: Roman Verostko, Algorithms and the Artist, http://www.verostko.com/alg-isea94.html. A kind of summary of many years of experiences (theoretical and practical) of this artist ist the text: CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X ... an d s o o n ... Thus aesthetic com puting seem s to be the area of inter- and transdisciplinary confluence of different research procedures, disciplines, particular issues and attem pts at a global perception of cyberart functioning in cyberculture. To be m ore specific. To globally perceive a certain type of cyberart which is based, in the creative process, on algorithm ic patterns. Cyberart which uses the achievem ents of program m ing languages. Applies m athem atical and com puter procedures as system s of tools facilitating creation, or conditioning it. As tools which constitute basic equipm ent of artists who cooperate in different areas with representatives of num erous scientific, com puter and cognitive disciplines. Epigenetic Art Revisited: Software as Genotype, [in:] Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf (eds.), Code – The Language of Our Time, Hatje Cantz, Osterfildern-Ruit 2003, p. 156-161. CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X Cyberaesthetics – Som e Basic Theses / P. Zawojski, CyberEm pathy: Visual Com m unication and New Media in Art, Science, Hum anities, Design and Technology. ISSUE 8 / 20 15. Augm ented Reality Studies. ISSN 2299-90 6X. Kokazone. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web: www.cyberempathy.com CyberEm pathy - Visual and Media Studies Academ ic J ournal ISSUE 8 / 20 14 Augm ented Reality Studies ISSN 2299-90 6X