Re: [-empyre-] Returning to bidimensionality & the body

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@unsw.edu.au>]

brendan wrote
>   Now if we look at the sources and methodology of producing the digital
> image, appropriation and mechanical image capture are fundamental.
> Opposite of these techniques we have the more pure, abstract forms of 3D
> geometry (CGI,VRML) and 2D vector (flash, illustrator) images.
...
>   So when someone mentions the "digital sublime", I get images of
> mathematically perfect forms and minimalist VR architectures.  It's
> beautiful but it leaves me cold when it says "the meat is weak!" and "the
> engineer is god!".  Digital media on the other hand feels messy and
> incomplete but it lets me hug my mom and watch madonna videos without
> having to abstract or exclude it from my art practice.

i heartily  disagree. i think that who creates the tools of
production eg engineers. programmers, etc certainly influences how they are
used by  what capabilities are written into them...and they are designed to
render aircraft simulations, architectural and manufacturing type
information where it does need to be precise or the bits wont fit togther in
the end..,  but its the person using
them who has to choice to make content that is interresting and use them in
ways that dont conform to sterotypes. eg you can have a live unpredictable
streaming server pumping info into a 3dworld. i also dont really believe
that
minimalism is cold.. i think its the interpretation of minimalism that puts
a value on it. is a red square is more emotional and warmer than a blue
square?

its sort of interresting how we equate the messy, seamful  body with "good"
digitality and cold sublime and disembodied and removed with bad.. perhaps
this is is a hangover from technophobic and also some femminist writers like
liz groz, where disembiodied cyberspace from the  early 1990's..where any
thing cyberish was
labeled a "disavowel of the flesh"
i think where we are now is the beginning of an across-the-board update on
those theories, as many artists are now working in a very embodied way in VR
space, and writers like Ollivier in Metal and flesh are  starting to look at
it with different perspectives.
the recent Leonardo 9th NY Digital Salon focused on virtual space and
several people on  this list wrote great articles about topics like human
centered cyberspaces and immersive intelligence.
which is good spot to mention the web 3d show forthcoming at siggraphs
web3d2002 in arizona curated by Kathy Rae Huffman and Karel Dudesek where
there are great examples of new vrml and vector type work. dont think the
show opens till later this month tho.. there will be a  link from
http://www.vrml-art.org/  where there is some great "not cold" vrml, from
past shows.


melinda