Betsy_Ch6_Cayley_Q

"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 contructive relationship with the pixels of digital graphic art." (213-214)

Cayley is trying to create a meaningful relationship between letters and pixels. --- I think.

"My argument is that the material manipulation of pixels derives, culturally, from an underlying gasp of the manipulation of letters." (214)

Is he trying to say people have been holding their breath to finally be able to manpulate letters??

RAFAEL_CHAPTER 6_CAYLEY_I

I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH MR CAYLEY. IN PAGE 210 HE CITES THE FOLLOWING: THE WORLD OF LETTERS HAD PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL ART AND CULTURE.
THEN HE GOES ON: TEXT IS INDEED "THE WEB'S PRIMARY FOUNDATIONAL MEDIA"
I DISAGREE HERE. A BOOK PRIMARY FOUNDATION IS TEXT (PHONEMES), IN MAGAZINES TEXT (PHONEMES) BECOMES THE SECONDARY SOURCE AFTER PHOTOGRAPS. I THINK "EFFICIENCY" IS THE PRIMARY FOUNDATION OF THE NEW MEDIA.
VIVA ZAPATA!!!!!

Nick_Ch6_Seaman_Q

"Thus text presents one field of meaning force that can only be understood contextually in relation to other "neighboring" meaning forces - other media elements and living processes" (p. 230).

I know this is probably getting old, but Seaman states the above example, like many other comments in his article, as if it is something new and revolutionary. I don't understand when it was that context wasn't important in any type of visual art or narrative?

I also don't like that there is an advertisement for Seaman's upcoming work, funded by Intel, in the article.

FLOOK_CH6_UTTERBACK_I

One day, technology's interactivity will be at a point to allow artists to create some of the greatest works we have ever seen. I can only imagine how sophisticated artists of the future will manufacture work that allows viewers to transform to participants. Instead of viewing or reading art, we will become active in its rendering.

Camille Utterback shares what I see. As she so narcissistically proclaims, “In this essay I discuss interactive works by myself and others that incorporate poetic rather than practical interfaces to text or spoken language.” I think the idea of the body interacting with artwork is great. It goes beyond using one or two senses and (has the potential) to pull in all five to experience artists' expressions. We are moving in that direction and I can’t wait to see what happens.

However, none of Utterback’s fabulous examples are anything to note. Her and others’ "artwork" really are nothing more than technical novelty. We are given conventional physical objects (i.e. a ladder, see-saw, mirror, video camera) and we use them to interact with text. TEXT RAIN, for example, is stupid and is something that I would expect to find at a mall in Carmel, “Using a video camera as an input device allows the letters in [TEXT RAIN] to respond to a wide variety of human gestures and motions.” How is dancing with text art? I was not impressed by the giant piano in BIG and I am not impressed by people dancing with text.

DRAWING FROM LIFE is neither art nor intelligent. Utterback attempts to make it sound impressive with complex sentences and by employing her diverse vocabulary, “Upon entering the installation space, participants encounter a live video projection of themselves, but their images are completely transformed [into DNA letter code]…By abstracting live imagery of a viewer’s body into the letters that compose DNA, the installation raises questions about our embodiment and the code that is both part of, and helps produce our “selves” ” She has to be kidding. Abstracting live imagery and having it redisplayed as DNA raises no questions, it just looks cool. This really is nothing special and is something that I would expect to find at a children’s museum. “…entering the installation space, participants encounter…” come on, you stand in front of a camera!

Unusual Positions – Embodied Interaction with Symbolic Spaces

actually…

Usual Positions – Neat, Yet Non-Clever Ways To Dance With Text: Video Installations that Represent By-Products from a Stage in the Evolution of Interactive Technologies and Belong in Every White – Middle Class Mall In America.

All flash and no substance. I hate this book.


www.camilleutterback.com