Analysing computer-related works of art-1 · 1 Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical considerations Salah Uddin Ahmed Trial Lecture. 2 Analysing

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Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical considerations

Salah Uddin Ahmed

Trial Lecture

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Analysing the topic

Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical

considerations– Analyse (what?)

• Computer related works of art (CRWA)– Methodological considerations– Theoretical considerations

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Outline• Introduction of CRWA• Interpretations• Aspects of Analysis• Interpretation 1• Analysing Traditional Artwork• Analysing CRWA• Interpretation 2• Analyses on Interactivity• Theoretical, Methodological Consideration• Conclusion

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What is Computer Related Work of Art

Is it Computer Generated Art?Is it Digital Art?Is it Multimedia Art?

Any kind of Art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork

5Computer generated landscape art by Steve Carter

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History• First three exhibitions

– Generative Computergrafik, February 1965, Germany– Computer-Generated Pictures, April 1965, New York,

USA– Computer- Grafik Programme, November 1965,

Germany

• Earliest digital computer artists– A. Michael Noll, Bell Labs, USA– Frieder Nake, Professor of computer graphics,

Bremen, Germany– Georg Nees, programmer, Siemens, Germany

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History

• History of Digital Fine Art– The Pioneers Era (1956 – )– The Paintbox Era (1986 – )– Multimedia Era (1996 – )

http://www.dam.org/home

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Nr 7 by Frieder Nake, 1965

Computer Generated Patterns by Michael Noll, 1964

Cubic Disarray, Georg Nees (1968 -1971)

Pioneers Era

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Picture by Drawing machine 1, Desmond Paul Henry, 1960s

Pioneers Era

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James Faure-Walker Happy Circle 1988

James Faure-WalkerDrawing 1988

Paintbox Era

11Conceiving Ada, 1997, Full-length film by Lynn Hershman Leeson

Multimedia Era

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Computer Related Works of Art

New Media Art

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CRWAAlgorithm art ASCII art Computer art scene Computer art Computer graphics Computer music Demoscene Digital illustration Digital morphogenesis Digital painting Digital artDigital fine art Tradigital art Evolutionary art Fax art Fractal art

Generative art Generative music Image development Interactive art Internet artKisekae Set System Motion graphics New media artNet art Multimedia Music visualization Software art Systems art Video gameWeb art

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Topic

• Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical considerations

Analyse

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What does Analyse Mean

• To separate or distinguish the component parts of something (as a substance, a process, a situation) so as to discover its true nature or inner relationships

• To divide a complex whole into its parts or elements.

Merriam webster dictionary

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Two Interpretations

1. How do we analyse a computer related work of art (CRWA as an unit)?

– Take one artwork and analyse it

Artwork Processinginput output

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Two Interpretations

2. How do we analyse computer related works of art, i.e., all artworks related to computer?

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Aspects of Analysis - CRWA

– How it is build– Who the audience is– Interaction with audience– Artistic Concern– Copyright/Authorship– Lifecycle of artwork– Preserving/ Archiving– Distribution

FocusMethodological and

Theoretical

Considerations

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Interpretation

1. How do we analyse a computer related work of art? CRWA as an unit

2. How do we analyse computer related works, i.e., all artworks related to computer?

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How do we Build CRWANew Media Artwork has Four Stages• Artwork design

– define the message & content, gathering, studying, clarifying ideas.

• Media acquisition & production– production, annotation and storage of the media artefacts

• Artwork production– building artwork through combination of different media artefacts

• Artwork exhibition– meet spectators via installation, web application or interactive

DVD

(Kerherve et al. 2005) (Kerherve et al. 2008)

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Analysing an Artwork through Conceptual Framework

• Artist• Artwork• Audience• The World

(Charman, Ross 2004)http://www.erskineparkhs.com.au/

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ARTIST• Who is the Artist?• When, Where, How does the artist work?• What are artist’s messages in the artwork?• What materials and processes has the artist selected to

convey these messages?• What are the artist’s intentions? • What signs & symbols in the artwork display the artist’s

beliefs / identity.• What art movement/style is the artist associated with?

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ARTWORK• What is it? (painting, sculpture, drawing etc.)

• What is it about? (artwork’s nature, explanation, message)

• Formal qualities (colour, line, texture, tone, composition)

• Mood of the artwork

• Who / what has influenced?

• Function (Historical record, personal, propaganda, decoration, religious message, social or political comment, entertainment…)

http://www.erskineparkhs.com.au/

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AUDIENCE• Who is the intended audience? • How has the artist considered the audience?• How does the artwork make the audience feel?• What styles/ other artworks might the audience recall?• How does the audience identify with the work?• Where might an audience see this work?

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THE WORLD• Does it represent artist's own personal world? or

physical world?• Does it reflect world at the time artwork was made?• Does artwork represent a particular event, class, race,

religion, place, culture, environment?• Was artist influenced by world events? Environment? eg:

television &media, technology• Past artworks as inspiration or subject matter?

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Analysing CRWA

Input

Output

Processing

Audience

Other source

Artwork

input output

Artist

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Analysing a CR Artwork• Artist

– Who, what type, what movement?

• Artwork– Subject matter – What is it made of– What tools– What is the

input/processing/output– Functionalities of the artwork– The mood, the statement artist

makes– Analysis of content/elements

•Audience– Intended audience–What feelings/ how they identify the work–Interaction–Where/How see

•World/Environment–How the artwork is influenced by world

(Ryn Gargulinski 2011) (Charman, Ross 2004)

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Interpretation

1. How do we analyse a computer related work of art? CRWA as an unit

2. How do we analyse computer related works, i.e., all artworks related to computer?

• How do we define/distinguish, relate each other?

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CRWAAlgorithm art ASCII art Computer art scene Computer art Computer graphics Computer music Cyber artDemoscene Digital illustration Digital morphogenesis Digital painting Digital artDigital fine art Tradigital art Evolutionary art Fax art

Fractal artGenerative art Generative music Image development Interactive art Internet artKisekae Set System Motion graphics New media artNet art Multimedia Music visualization Software art Systems art Video gameWeb art

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Computer related works of art

New Media Art

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Categories

(Warnell 99)

• Cyber art– Any art created by computer software or hardware– Even a natural media work become cyberart by virtue of the fact

they are placed into the cyber stream

Picasso, Three musician

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Categories

• Web Art– Concerned with one or more features of Web– Web art works require Web media to function

• Net.art– Concerned primarily with the Internet as a whole– Secondarily with the Web

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Categories

New Media Art“Projects that make use of emerging media

technologies and are concerned with the cultural, political, and aesthetic possibilities of these tools”

Tribe, M., Jana, R.: New Media Art. Taschen

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Categories

• Blurred lines, Overlapping, hard to categorise

• Challenges– Technology changes– Ephemeral and non persistent nature– What is correct today, may not be correct tomorrow

• “Relax -- call it what you will -- it is all New Media Art”

(Warnell 1999)

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CRWAAlgorithm art ASCII art Computer art scene Computer art Computer graphics Computer music Cyber artDemoscene Digital illustration Digital morphogenesis Digital painting Digital artDigital fine art Tradigital art Evolutionary art Fax art

Fractal artGenerative art Generative music Image development Interactive art Internet artKisekae Set System Motion graphics New media artNet art Multimedia Music visualization Software art Systems art Video gameWeb art

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Interactivity

• Interactivity with audience • Changes with respect to time and

interaction

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CRWA-Interactivity

RegistrationalConsultationalTransmissionalJensen

DynamicInteractiveVarying

DynamicInteractive

Dynamic-Passive

Static Edmonds

EvolutionaryPre-designedSommerer

AdaptiveInteractivePassiveHannington

Level 3Level 2Level 1Level 0 Level ofInteractivity

(Edmonds et. El 2004) (Hannington, Reed 2002 ) (Sommerer 1999 )(Jensen 1998)

45Starry Nights – Van Gogh

Static


Dynamic


Dynamic Interactive


Dynamic Interactive Varying

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Interactive Artwork

static dynamic

passive

interactive

varying

Dynamic- passivestatic

Dynamic- interactive

Dynamic- interactivevarying

x

y

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CRWA-Interactivity

RegistrationalConsultationalTransmissionalJensen

DynamicInteractiveVarying

DynamicInteractive

Dynamic-Passive

Static Edmonds

EvolutionaryPre-designedSommerer

AdaptiveInteractivePassiveHannington

Level 3Level 2Level 1Level 0 Level ofInteractivity

(Edmonds et. El 2004) (Hannington, Reed 2002 ) (Sommerer 1999 )(Jensen 1998)

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Methodological and Theoretical Considerations

• Who is the author/artist• Computer as an artist• Who owns copyright• Audience and User engagement

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Author

• New media art can contain various components, artefacts

• In case of computer related works, who is the author?

• User interaction makes the scenario complex– Artist– Computer– User-artist derivative

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Author

“Almost all novels are now written on a computer, but that does not make them computer art.”

“Computer art is art that is made by computer and is also artistically distinctive in some way.”

• Where the system is not only a mere tool • Where the system is actually responsible for the

work

(Gaute 2009) (Dreier 1993 )

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Copyright

• Authorship of computer-created works can be identified as– Programmer– User— Programmer joint work Or derivative

work– Computer

• For an artwork– Artist, programmer, user, computer

(Evan Farr 1989)

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Computer as an Artist

• Aesthetic appreciation might have an underlying mathematical explanation

• Computers can follow a particular artist’s style– Formulating a set of generative rules– A. Michael Noll's computer generated art following

'Mondrians'

(Wright 1998)

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Computer as an Artist

• Through his artificially intelligent program AARON, Harold Cohen managed to simulate the pictorial forms of his earlier painting style.

• The difference between behavioural approach of making art by computer and an artist is – Philosophy of intentionality– In case of computer, how art is produced rather than

why– Why an artist have chosen a style is not relevant

(Wright 1998)

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Audience• Profiles of its target audience and non-audience

are not currently described within the literature• Personal experience in place of museum type

experience• User Engagement• Interaction with (Interactive) art

– Enhanced learning, interactivity, persuasive effects

• Methods for measuring user experience– User Identity and User Satisfaction– Controlled experiments, surveys

(Berman 2005) (Stephen et el 2008)

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Audience Engagement

• How much of ourselves would we see reflected in an 'autonomous' computer's art? Would we feel sympathy with it or alienation?

• Can it be a means of gaining self-knowledge and self identity.

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Conclusion

• Analysing CRWA has many challenges– CRWA has many aspects – Overlapping features– Ephemeral and non persistent nature– New area, lack of established knowledge– Contribution from many authors/artefacts

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Thank you for listening

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ReferencesEvan H Farr (1989), Copyrightability of Computer-created works, Rutgers Computer &

Tech. L.J. 63. Pitts (1986), Allocating ownership rights in computer-generated works, University of

Pittsburgh Law Review. Vol. 47:1131. 1986. pp. 1185-1228. Berman (2005) CHINDigitalArtAudiencesLiteratureReviewandMethodology

http://www.davidberman.com/Birgitte Kerherve, Olivier Gerbe, Paul Landon (2008), Process modeling for new media

artworks, Multimedia Systems, 14:6 Brigitte Kerherve, Anis Ouali, and Paul Landon (2005). Design and production of new

media artworks. In Proceedings of the ACM workshop on Multimedia for human communication: from capture to convey (MHC '05). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11-16.

Ernest Edmonds, Greg Turner, and Linda Candy (2004). Approaches to interactive art systems. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques in Australasia and South East Asia (GRAPHITE '04), Stephen N. Spencer (Ed.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 113-117.

Dreier, Thomas (1993). The international development of copyright protection for computer programs. A handbook of European Software Law. Edited by M. Lehmann & C.F. Tapper. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1993. p. 236/237

Gaute,B. (2009). Computer Art. http://www.aestheticsonline.org/articles/index.php?articles_id=43

Tribe, M., Jana, R.: New Media Art. Taschen

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ReferencesRyn Gargulinski (2011), how to analyze artwork,

http://www.ehow.com/how_2337757_analyze-artwork.htmlHelen Charman, Michaela Ross (2004a) Ways of looking, Tate Modern teachers Kit,

Tate online research journalHelen Charman, Michaela Ross, (2004b), Contemporary art and role of interpretation,

Tate online research journalHannington, A. and K. Reed (2002). Towards a taxonomy for guiding multimedia

application development. Ninth Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC'02), Gold Coast, Queensland, AUSTRALIA.

Jensen, J. F. I. (1998). "Interactivity:Tracking a new concept in media and communication studies." Nordicom Review 19.

Lopes, Dominic McIver (2010). A Philosophy of Computer Art. London: Routledge. Merriam webster dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/Stephen W. Gilroy, Marc Cavazza, Remi Chaignon, Satu-Marja Makela;, Markus

Niranen, Elisabeth Andre, Thurid Vogt, Jerome Urbain, Hartmut Seichter, Mark Billinghurst, and Maurice Benayoun. (2008). An affective model of user experience for interactive art, In Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE '08).

Sommerer, C. and L. Mignonneau (1999). "Art as a Living System: Interactive Computer Artworks." Leonardo 32(3): 165-173.

Warnell,Ted (1999), New Media Art, Journal of new media experimental visual literary theory practice http://www.warnell.com/zinen/library/zn990219.htm

Wright, Richard, (1998) Some issues in the development of computer art as a mathematical art form Leonardo Vol 1

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Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical considerations

Salah Uddin Ahmed

Trial Lecture

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Analysing computer-related works of art-1 · 1 Analysing computer-related works of art: methodological and theoretical considerations Salah Uddin Ahmed Trial Lecture. 2 Analysing