Digital Art: p. 174-189

I’ve always been facinated by how digital art had two parts–two layers to it: the visual layer where what is presented is visually stimulating and the information layer where the raw data exists. Usually the information behind an artwork is data or code that the artist manipulates or presents in a variety of ways. For example a website has two layers: the code and the representation of the code. Both of these features essentially have the exact same information, but one is more accessible by everyone. Those who don’t know how to read or interpret html code for instance seem naive to me. Those who don’t understand the raw data for what it is, seem to have been decieved by the artist because the artist represented that raw data as something aesthetically pleasing. Although some or most people would preffer viewing the product instead of the raw data, to me it seems like the meaning of the art work is lost if the raw data isn’t shown as itself. Especially in a piece of art work, I would like to know how the artist came to the visual aspect of the piece from the raw data. If I wasn’t aware of how the artist used the data to create his or her art then I wouldn’t be able to fully understand or feel complete by the piece.

Many of the examples in the reading tells us how the artist used raw data to represent their artwork.  In Apartment the user types in words and a bluprint is created according to what the word means. The symantics of the word plays an important role in this piece. For instance I typed in bed and a bedroom was created with the word bed in the center of it. The meaning of the word bed is closely related to the word bedroom. Then I typed in food and a kitchen was created. Then I typed in the word concept, it didn’t seem to fit anywhere and so the word was faded and floated around the apartment withouth a place of its own. So this piece told me how the artist used the raw data and manipulated it to present his artwork. In Valence, however, there isn’t just one particular image that results from one word. The words interact with each other, but not in an obvious way that everyone would recognize. And so this is an example that manipulates the raw data differently.

On a different note, the reading says, “…databases have become an essential form of cultural organization and memory.” I find this statement to be very true. Take cell phones for example, when was the last time we memorized someone’s 10 digit phone number. We rely so much on databases that we don’t have to rack our brains anymore for memory storage–we can simply have something else memorize for us. In the same way databases that contain information about cities or buildings or libraries are important to have. They not only hold information for us, but also allow us to represent them in a variety of ways which allow us to access the data stored in a more convenient way.
|Moitri|

Advertisement