ACUADS 2006 Conference

 
'Beauty changes quickly, much as a landscape constantly changes with the position of the sun.' (Rodin)

By recognising the close, coincidental relationship in the mid-19^th century between the invention of photography and Samuel Morse's first electric-telegraph message, this article develops some thoughts on contemporary aesthetics associated with digital images: images that are realised principally through transmission and relay on the Internet.

This research is drawn from my current research investigation of virtuality and the art of exhibition. This will entail three distinct, but inter-related strands of interdisciplinary investigation and subsequent analysis involving practice-based and research-led methodologies as well as critical theorisation. In particular, research-led practice will directly reference my curatorial design project, Remote (recently exhibited at Plimsoll Gallery in Hobart, Tasmania during June 2005). This will be complemented by practice-based research addressing the networked artworks of two artists represented in the exhibition whose respective practices involve the production of artworks that negotiate the un-fixed, refreshing nature of Webcam imagery: Susan Collins (UK) and Nancy Mauro-Flude (Tas/Neth). Finally, some preliminary thoughts that briefly outline the critical theorisation and contextualisation of this form of tele-image within the history of photographic image making will be interspersed throughout.

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Lelia Green declares that a technoculture is in part defined by the communication technology through which it is conducted.¹ If we are to foster creativity, visual experimentation and sophisticated visual communication, can it be done via conventional text based online learning technologies? Alternatively, will online learning technologies that offer richer modes of visual communication create richer technocultures and promote greater understanding of, and engagement in, creative visual communication?

This paper presents findings from recent research developing and using an online learning system designed to promote and support more sophisticated modes of visual communication. The system draws on functions and metaphors from graphic design desktop applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc.) in order to allow design students to construct online messages in much the same way as they construct their standard graphic design work. The research reveals significant findings in regards to: the role of the learning system; the pedagogy of blended learning (mix of face-to-face and online); the culture of online communication amongst design students and staff; and the notion of creativity within a university curriculum culture.

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Although the strategy of appropriation was central to much art criticism of the 1980s, with the development of more advanced digital technologies, the rejection of 1980s-styled critical theory, and the threat of copyright infringement, artists have inherited myriad incentives for 'concealing' digitally appropriated material. Formerly an iconoclastic strategy, appropriation has become a default, yet tacit, means of extending qualities. 'Subliminal appropriation', a methodology developed in the production of electronic rock bands Def FX (1990-97), and Celebrity Drug Disasters, employs a database in which thousands of Top 40 songs are categorised in terms of matching key and tempo properties. Data-matches are then digitally sampled, distorted and re-sequenced to produce 'new' songs - albeit with a 'ghostly' sense of familiarity. A similar approach is used to generate visual works using prototypes sourced from mass circulated corporate logos (as opposed to the relatively lower circulation of art historical references). Documentation of this methodology has formed the basis of a PhD dissertation and a series of related exhibitions. This production methodology is therefore tested and developed across a range of media and in relationship to both critical and commercial markets.

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The techniques of digital imaging are no longer exclusively the realm of graphic designers and artists. These skills are required in many fields and have become a common tool for communication. Digital imaging techniques are used to combine media from a variety of sources (e.g. print, video, web) into a document or presentation that must then be distributed into a number of different distribution formats (e.g. pdfs, PowerPoint presentations, online delivery). Consequently, digital imaging classes at a University level are becoming popular as an elective for students outside the art and design disciplines. The challenge presented is that though these students may be computer literate their visual literacy is often limited.

This paper will examine how the Japanese form haiku can provide an aesthetic framework for non-art-and-design students to explore digital imaging. It will consider:
      • various techniques utilised in the writing of haiku
      • how these techniques enhance creative thinking and visual literacy
      • how these techniques can be applied to the teaching of digital imaging.

It is argued that the techniques of haiku are more easily grasped by the usually text-oriented non-art-and-design students, and that the abbreviated and abstracted nature of the haiku translates effectively into digital imaging such that images and text can be combined in unusual and interesting compositions.

 
Vince Dziekan is Senior Lecturer in Digital Imaging, and Deputy Head, Multimedia & Digital Art, at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Over the years, he has used photography as a basis for his interdisciplinary research activities and towards negotiating the impact of digital technologies on art practice. He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, and, complementing his own artistic practice, has also curated exhibitions such as Archival Permanence: Time and Timelessness in 100 Years of Australian Photography, The Synthetic Image: Digital Technologies and the Image, Small Worlds: A Romance and Remote.

He is currently engaged in an ongoing interdisciplinary PhD project into the implications of virtuality and the art of exhibition. Additionally, he is associated with current ARC research on the Dictionary of Contemporary Australian Photography, and involved in research activities with The Omnium Project, including co-convening the Creative Waves project in 2005. He has published in relation to these research topics in peer-reviewed journals (M/C, Mesh/Experimenta, FibreCulture Journal) and refereed conferences, both nationally and internationally (including AoIR3.0/NetWorkTheory and AoIR4.0/Broadening the Band, PixelRaiders2, DCITA/OzeCulture, DRS/Futureground, Cumulus/Pride & PreDesign and Era05/World Design Congress).

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Geoff Hinchcliffe is an Associate Lecturer in Graphic Design at the University of Canberra. He is currently engaged in a Masters by Research in Communication, where he is focusing on the design and culture of online learning technologies. He is a graduate of the Canberra School of Art's Graphic Investigation workshop and has practiced as a graphic designer for over 10 years, working in print, web, interactive media and television.

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Sydney based artist Sean Lowry is both a practicing visual artist/theoretician and a producer of electronic music. After achieving considerable commercial chart success in Australia, Asia and North America during the 1990s with his electronic rock band Def FX, he returned to complete his PhD in visual arts at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, in 2003. His latest project, Celebrity Drug Disasters (in collaboration with co-producer Rob Taylor), was recently signed with Shock Publishing, and is rapidly gaining national attention both live and on radio. Dr Sean Lowry is also a frequent contributor to Broadsheet: Contemporary Art + Culture, an exhibiter and curator of contemporary visual art, a current Board Member at Artspace Visual Arts Centre, Sydney, and is currently lecturing in the Painting Department at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.

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Cameron Rose is a filmmaker, digital media artist and lecturer in multimedia at the School of Visual Art & Design, La Trobe University. He is also an MFA candidate at Monash University.