Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

Marializa Kambi, Universita Bocconi, Athens School of Fine Art

This paper delves into how artists and designers use data not just as a source of information, but as a material- as means of expression-, as an artistic tool, an aesthetic on its own right, transforming abstract numbers and codes into engaging, thought-provoking artworks, moving forward from the established, traditional art practice, its semantics and thematology, as well as its hierarchical and contextual rules. 

Cubitt in “The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technologies From Prints to Pixels” (2013) argues that we have moved from a hierarchical visual culture focused on semantic values to a more democratic but value-free numerical commodity.

An aspect of this present paper is a continuation of exploration of this transformative shift in art culture, which is hereby being examined through the spectrum of data aesthetics and its special elements and allocation within the realm- universe of Digital Art.

 Digital data and artistic creation have a dynamic and transformative relationship. Digital artists have historically approached data as a medium of expression setting current and future applications. In this writing, the theoretical foundations surrounding the aestheticization of information (semiotics, phenomenology and materiality) are being reviewed with a reference to “Undoing Aesthetics" by Wolfgang Welsch,and further emphasis on the materiality (the quality of being material), in order to discuss methodologies and digital tools the artists use to collect, analyse and visualize data.

It is being suggested that the aesthetics generated and “consumed” in the realm of digital art and in the digital realm (i.e. the screen and/or the internet) may influence the general “current” of contemporary thinking. It is further suggested that the goal of aesthetics is to transcend itself, engage the entire field of aesthesis, and so provide direction and new perspectives in the modern world.Both regarding the way we see, the way we perceive, as well as in the way we act and process information (calculative or aesthetic; digital or analog).To do so, selected artworks and primary research will be presented in order to provide examples of field research regarding projects’ conception and realization, in an attempt to showcase how artistic practice can incorporate this moral and demonstrate how art projects can be structured around a deliberate narrative of conceptual play with information and data as a primary concern. At this point, it is worth stressing out the dominantly interdisciplinary character of the data visualizing practice and of digital aesthetic practice in general, since the transformation of data from various sources into art requires engagement with multiple fields, which are composedly altered depending on the relative case and occasion.

With reference to "The Physical Visualization of Information: Designing Data Sculptures in an Educational Context", (from the “International Conference on Information Visualisation"2013), the topic of data materiality will be further discussed through the prism of how the physical representation of data is blending digital and physical realms, challenging the immateriality of digital data.

Having explored the latter, a sort challenge about which is the “physical space”, the natural habitat of digital art and more specifically of data art-aesthetics will be challenged. It is neither a specific geographic location, nor merely the screen or the internet.With its multidisciplinary dynamic and engagement potential, this art may span to exist both in the digital space and in the “real” space, depending on the “channeling” method assigned by the creator.

From digital screen display and devices, to the internet or the VR, digital and data art are primarily non-physical, their  core "existence" spans several key areas which will be elaborated and discussed. This includes:

1. Digital Devices and a. Displays (computers, tablets, smartphones, and digital screens)
2. The Internet: A significant portion of digital and data art is shared and experienced online.
3. Physical Installations: Some digital and data art projects are presented in physical spaces as installations. These can include projections, interactive installations etc.
4. Storage Media: While not a "natural habitat" for viewing, digital and data art is stored on various types of digital storage media such as hard drives, solid-state drives, and cloud storage services.
5. Blockchain and NFT Platforms: For digital art, especially, blockchain technology and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have become a new realm digital artworks, raising further discussion regarding ownership and provenance for digital and data art pieces.

Each of these environments contributes to the ecosystem where digital and data art are created, distributed, exhibited, and preserved. Unlike traditional art forms that might have a more defined physical space (like a canvas or a sculpture park), digital and data art's "natural habitat" is as fluid and dynamic as the technology that supports it.