record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00944
Thesis Title
Visualizing the Environment: Exploring the Usage of Media Art in Scientific Data Visualization and Dissemination
Author
Mia DeBakker
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
Master of Arts
Year
2018
Number of Pages
122
University
Danube University Krems
Thesis Supervisor
Oliver Grau
Supervisor e-mail
oliver.grau AT donau-uni.ac.at
Other Supervisor(s)
Scott Hessels
Language(s) of Thesis
English
Department / Discipline
Image Science/Media Arts Cultures
Copyright Ownership
Mia DeBakker
Languages Familiar to Author
URL where full thesis can be found
webthesis.donau-uni.ac.at/thesen/98343.pdf
Keywords
Environmental art, data visualization, data art, media art
Abstract: 200-500 words
Environmental media art is a wide-ranging and unprecedented mode of artistic practice. Through their works, environmental media artists endeavor to convey their stories, represent their landscapes, and communicate the urgent messages of our time utilizing new and ever-evolving technologies. Media art is an exceptional tool for data visualization due to its ability to utilize new digital formats to convey information and data in a personal and captivating format, aiding in the dissemination of scientific knowledge and understanding of scientific findings in the greater public. This thesis focuses on the differing uses of media art, science, and creative applications of data visualization in transdisciplinary practices utilizing Andrea Polli’s Particle Falls (2010) and Jer Thorp’s Herald/Harbinger (2018) as artistic reference and framework. These works epitomize the movement of artists and scientists alike towards the usage of scientific research, citizen science, environmental data, and their predecessors to create immersive and interactive visual representations of our environment which endeavor to engage audiences more deeply in the world around them and ignite social change. Through transdisciplinary collaboration, new perspectives become visible, transcending previous approaches and levels of understanding. These collaborative efforts allow both artists and scientists access to new modes of thinking as well as new technologies, pushing both fields forward. Thus, growing knowledge in varied topics of inquiry as well as building greater insight into our world through unconventional avenues. Through these heterogeneous cross-disciplinary approaches, environmental media artworks bring scientific information to the greater public and those without a high level of scientific literacy in engaging, interactive, and understandable formats. Growing both comprehension and interest in the critical scientific issues of our time. Art has the uncanny ability to connect with audiences, to clue them in to the underlying meaning within a certain piece of information or set of data. Environmental media art is an effective tool for the visualization of scientific data and the communication of scientific information due in large part to the form and accessibility of media artworks as well as the transdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary efforts of environmental media art creation, science-art, and research art. The way audiences engage with art has shifted as our reliance on digital technologies have and these artworks appeal to audiences in a more accessible, personal, and humanizing way. Something that traditional art forms do not necessarily do as audiences turn more and more to digital platforms and formats. Environmental art and media art are not always successful, but in working together across disciplines, these forms of research and creation have a higher likelihood of finding a wider audience and growing the spread of information more effectively due in large part to the changing social and technological climate of our time. The digital revolution has shifted how audiences interact with the arts, as well as how the arts are created, shown, and shared. Ultimately, changing how audiences react to and connect with an artwork as well as what social behaviors that interaction ignites.