Object and Identity in a Digital Age
CHArt 25th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Object and Identity in a Digital Age
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Dew Harrison, University of Wolverhampton
Re-Materialisation of the Art Object
The idea of the art object had replaced the actual artifact by 1972 when text and language became the tools of a post-Duchampian conceptual practice. The term ‘postmodern’ appeared in 1973, became current in the second half of the 1970s and posited the end of history as a linear narrative. Our considerations of art ideas were then contextualized without the need of anchorage to the history of object making. The second postmodern period, beginning at the end of the Cold War, was multiculturalist and global. Art became a form of social engagement concerned with social production, it allowed for multitemporality and syncretic identity. This era of the worldwide web and global hypermobility gave rise to new ways of perceiving human space and according to Nicholas Bourriaud ‘The term ‘postmodern’ can be applied to art that is refractory to these two types of perspective: spatial and temporal.’ The virtual worlds of the new century are the playgrounds for artists to explore space, time and identity, the digital objects created here are experienced by avatar, without the full range of sensory perceptions we use when confronting the real world. We cannot become truly digital so is it now time for those virtual art objects to materialize into solid form?
The second life platform is relatively new and still under development, but there are a number of artists beginning to explore the possibilities of this virtual world outside its commercial premise. The Kritical Works in SL curation project has set out to harness creative activity inWorld and is now in its second phase with ten major SL artists on board creating work for the ISEA2009 exhibition in August. For phase one of this project exhibited last year at ISEA, the work largely concerned place and identity. Artists and curator only conversed inWorld and some were known only by avatar. For phase two the artists are better known in the real world e.g. Lynn Hershmann and Paul Sermon. They have been invited to the island to develop their practice with regard to their bridging of the virtual with the real world, and are in the process of creating physical objects which respond directly to their virtual counterparts. These materialized objects will be exhibited in the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast. The phenomena of the re-materialization of the art object will then be explored using the Kriti Island exhibition as case study.
Dew Harrison is a researcher and practitioner in digital and computer mediated art currently working as Reader in Digital Media Art at the University of Wolverhampton. Within her practice she undertakes a critical exploration of Conceptual Art, non-linear narrativity and multimedia mind-mapping where she often work‘s collaboratively and considers ‘curation’ a form of digital media art practice. She continues to show internationally and has presented papers at a diverse range of conferences spanning digital art, consciousness studies, art history and museology. She also works as a co-director of PVA MediaLab’s‚ LabCulture Ltd, a supportive agency working across UK and international media centres to enable and facilitate artists engaging with new media.