Masters Degrees (Fine Arts)
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Item Open Access Artistieke visualisering van konnektiwiteit(University of the Free State, 2005-11) Mellet-Pretorius, Louisa J.; Allen-Spies, J.; Van den Berg, D. J.English: Connectivity is expanded through technological deve lopments converting the world into a global and interactive connectivity field. Each individual finds him- or herself to be a link in this network of connectivity. Using certain visual projects as an example, this particular project argues that man has, on the one hand, become entrapped in this network through technological developments, and is liberated by them, on the other, through the global mobility they facilitate. The applicability of “connectivity,” the mathematical loanword, to the visual arts is explored and depicted through art projects. In this project, representations of illustrations, paintings, photographs, installations and video art are employed as a form of artistic visualization of the experience of connectivity in post- modern society. Technological phenomena as extensions of the human body and central nervous system, and the implications of this for visual culture and the society of connectivity are explored. The spatial expansiveness of the network is visualized in the texture of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, which in this project are referred to as a metaphor for connectivity. The series of photographs by Danwen Xing, “disCONNEXION,” are described as the antithesis of connectivity, where computer parts are arranged separately from one another, eliciting the notion of a living organism. In representations of connectivity the symbiotic relationship between man and machine is brought to the fore. The mutual dependency of man and machine are symbolized in Eduardo Kac’s Teleporting an unknown state. Herein an attempt is made to foster a critical consciousness which sufficiently takes into consideration the man- made nature of the new media. Man builds technological information systems which creep across the earth, enfolding it in a web. In the photographic and installation-type depictions of Frank Thiel, Dan Graham and Peter Weibel, the omnipresence of the surveillance camera is fore grounded. It surrounds, captures and reads man into databases, forming a categorized, typified data image of the individual. In a more positive light, the media of connectivity creates an immediate though virtual presence through mobilization, where man is an absent presence who is simultaneously here and at the site of communication. Connectivity enables the immediate connections between individuals who are physically separated from one another, and is visualized in Draadwerk, where the implied communicator is overwhelmed and drawn in by the scale and mass of tin can telephone wires. Man is simultaneously here, physically, and, in thought, in the conversational space (i.e. cyberspace), where communication takes place through technological communication media. The greatest liberation of technological means is facilitated by the virtuality it creates. James Turrell’s light installations visualize illusory virtual spaces where the viewer enters a light-drenched space and the actual boundaries of the space are faded. In my own installation, Immersie, a virtual space is entered which becomes a connective plane between top/bottom and inside/outside. Ties which limit and entrap man are left behind as the virtual space is entered, and man creates, through technological media, new spaces in which freedom or liberation may be experienced.