Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

The proposition below is the result of the research of the thesis “Semiotic approach to Rafael Lozano Hemmer’s artworks and implementation at school” that was supported on 30/09/2023 in the Master’s degree program “Graphic Arts and Multimedia” of the H.O.U. , supervised by the professors Xenofon Bitsikas and Ioannis Papadopoulos.

The present research approaches this artist’s work (interactive installations by technological- digital means and a strong social ground) from a semiotic point of view, through the literature review and using the tools introduced by Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Marshall MacLuhan etc. The purpose of this theoretical part is to avail as a guideline for the creation of a pilot application for the classroom, grounded on the means and the meanings of the artworks by Lozano-Hemmer. The research contributes to a review of the ways and means a digital artwork creates “meanings”, defines the cross sections of the digital artwork with the space of the public school and it discovers an innovative model (“innovative” because during the conduction of the research there was no equivalent application found on Mind+, connecting hurt pulse sensors to animation assets and it was necessary to devise it through similar functions) that implements an interactive artistic and educational work with digital moving image, using low cost micro-controllers and heart pulse sensors, in Mind+, an open source programming software with blocks (easy and accessible coding to non-programmers and children). The application was grounded on the idea that children act in anxiety when about to speak in front of their classmates- glossophobia, a phenomenon similar to stage fright- and an attempt to approach this fear with playfulness, as a field where something could flourish. The project that was created was tested on five educators of the 56th Athens’ primary school, confirming the assumption that the hypothesis that the connection of the heart beats of the participants to animation assets, in a specific context of conversation, does not only consist a concrete implementation of the digital social interaction but it serves the core of the artwork, the profound and real symbolic and emotional connection among the participants.   

The project “Glossophobia” works as a hybrid installation in the classroom, changing the space as the participants’ heartbeats affect the animation assets on the projections, while they speak.

On a literature class, we read “The son”, a piece of N. Kazantzakis’ “Report to Greco”, while we watch the animation on the projection, telling the story on a linear narration. When it finishes, we place our fingers on the heart pulse sensors and we start answering questions. Now the animation assets start acting differently, according to the heartbeat of each participant, composing a unique synthesis every time. The questions start as general reading questions (who are the protagonists of the story/ where it takes place etc) and then slowly they turn more personal (What is “fear” for you/ describe a memory with your father). The point is that the connection of the participants to the Arduino with the five sensors not only serves as a philosophical question towards the role of technology and the digital social interaction but also creates a symbolic gesture of connection of the participants.

It is important to mention that Mind+ opensource software does not record the private data of the participants.