Physicalizing the Image, Physicalizing the Digital

Radically shifting personal experience of the visual image from virtual worlds like Second Life, from flat screens, cinema, and paper to physical forms, subverts the predominance of the digital realm. Living on the surface of the screen minimizes the tactility of materials and the resonance of memory and meaning embodied in objects. Digital 3D cinema, 3D television, and 3D cameras are precursors at the threshold of transforming digital into physical. The image flexes from screen to object with 3D printers and CNC machines. In the medical profession, computer 3D images from CT scans are transformed to remotely controlled, physical surgeries. Recently thinking experiments use brain activity to remotely control robotic arms. Vehicles for physicalizing the image from paper, screen, and from one’s imagination and thinking in the brain, manifest three-dimensional, palpable, sensory, tactile, objectified experiences. How will this phenomena transform modes of digital communication, physical interactions, and production on both the global and the personal scales? How will the material role of the computer prescribe new creative activities, new modes of artistic expression? DOI: 10.4018/ijacdt.2012010101 2 International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies, 2(1), 1-9, January-June 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. permeates the body as well as the imagination as one caresses the physical landscape of the object. In Aboriginal mythology, the mind and body are intertwined as the meaning of a symbol is inscribed on one’s awareness only when it is absorbed through languages that affect both the mind and the body (Lawlor, 1991, p. 287). The Aborigines conceptually entwine a multitude of languages in the everyday expression of their lives weaving together the body, the physical landscape, their ancestral history and their spirituality. Symbols are transformed into large earthworks, three dimensional earth sculptures. These ceremonial earth sculptures represent topographies created by the Dreamtime ancestors, some extending for acres in order to complete a mythic cycle. Groups of men work collaboratively forming these relief maps out of earth each depicting a specific myth. During the construction they sing related chants and perform dances that are associated with the forms they are building that embody the many levels of meaning in the linear and circular design elements (Lawlor, 1991, p. 288). As sacred symbols these material constructions engage potent forms of transformation. For the Aborigines this is a transformation of pure energy into form. This is parallel to the digital realm where computer images are transformed into objects using various production technologies. The imagemaking found in Aboriginal artworks provides another way to think about their Dreamtime creation. The Creative Ancestors made the world in a similar way, forming and shaping the creation from the symmetries and geometries of a preexisting energy continuum. The Aborigines maintain within their bodily existence the universal geometry of creation, activating it through sacred images and rhythmic movement (Lawlor, 1991, p. 299). In the contemporary electronic rituals we perform, the power of the digital arena is slipping from the virtual to the physical. Ritual has become the language of the digital realm, opening portals to other realms of experience, forming new communities, and creating alternate realities. The point and click of computing is highly ritualistic, as we go into a trance, entering alternate geographies, connecting with others, and even transforming our identities. Parallels between ritual and ceremony in indigenous cultures, and digital ritual and ceremonies are provocative. Rituals open portals to other realms – spiritual and ancestral worlds, or virtual realms. Indigenous ceremonies function to create and build communities similar to the function of digital social networks (Truckenbrod, 2008). My artwork is inspired by indigenous rituals with the vision of symbols being painted on the body under the cover of darkness, revealed in the undulation of firelight as the dancer moves in ritual celebration. The symbols are revealed and concealed as the body twists and turns in the flickering firelight. The image of symbols taking the form of the body yet fragmented as reflections of the flame in the wind, causing fluctuations in the brightness of the glow of the painted body through ritual time. The intimate resonance between the symbolic imagery and the human body in motion in indigenous ceremonies translates in my installations to disparate connections between hand-made objects and the flickering light of video projections encompassing them. Objects are embedded with social, cultural, political and/or personal meanings which become juxtaposed with video imagery projected onto and into them. Tensions erupt with the meshing of these two elements – the video content informs the object simultaneously with the meaning or function of the object informing the video narrative. Objects, as performers, are a powerful presence in these installations, exaggerated by absorbing the texture, form and story of the video projection. A shallow water pond surrounded by river pebbles on the floor of the gallery appears to be a window to a stream below the floor with salmon rushing upstream during a salmon run. Fish undulate and splash water with their powerful tails, causing viewers to jump back. This installation titled “Quantum Realities,” includes the sound of water rushing in a stream. In another installation titled “Lightening in My Blood” a large cardboard 7 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/physicalizing-image-physicalizingdigital/68387?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Communications and Social Science. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=2