record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00243
Thesis Title
The Sublime in Interactive Digital Installation: An analysis of three artworks: Listerning Post, Translator II: Grower, The Cloud Harp
Author
Tegan Bristow
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
Masters in Digital Arts (MA)
Year
2007
Number of Pages
111
University
University of the Witwatersrand
Thesis Supervisor
Christo Doherty
Supervisor e-mail
christo.doherty AT wits.ac.za
Other Supervisor(s)
Language(s) of Thesis
English
Department / Discipline
Digital Arts - Interactive Digital Media
Languages Familiar to Author
English
URL where full thesis can be found
Keywords
Sublime, Interactive Digital Installation, Nature and Technology
Abstract: 200-500 words
This examines the notion of the sublime in interactive digital installation art, with the primary aim of showing the methods and devices used to evoke the sublime in the participant through interactive digital installation that uses data (from natural phenomena) as material. The evocation of the sublime which is largely associated with nature is an appealing yet contentious aesthetic in these technology driven artworks. This paper follows the notion of the sublime in the arts and philosophy from Dioynisus Longinus to Jean-François Lyotard, with an emphasis on Romanticism and Postmodernism. Three case studies are presented and addressed: Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen’s Listening Post (2001-2003), Sabrina Raaf’s Translator II: Grower (2004) and the NXIO GESTATIO Design Lab’s The Cloud Harp (1997). These are addressed as contemporary adaptations of the notion of the sublime, which comparatively address what is refered to as the ‘technological sublime’ and is influenced by the notions’ postmodern sentiments introduced by Jean Francois Lyotard.