PD - Stuido IV

Contextual Statement

As there are only two people in the group, role and responsibilities are not specifically assigned. Regular meeting and discussing let us exchange researches, ideas and practical works. Personally, my working method was researching along with experimenting. Applying research results to my practical work, and searching the new questions which were found through the practical work.

So many objects are being digitized, and for most of people, the digital world is a solid part of their lives. We are all connected with the digital world, but how is the physical world connected with the digital world? So it’s worth to explore the relationship between the physical and the digital world. 

It is too hard to explain the relationship broadly, as the digital world involves sound, visualization etc. But general speaking, I think the digital world is just like the image at the other side of the mirror, you may see it, but could not actually touch it. Under the main concept of exploration of relationship between the physical and digital world, conjuncted with my own background in graphic design and interest in art installation. I narrowed down my direction to the relationship between digital visualization and viewers. That is not only because sight is one of the most important ability of human, but also because the digital visualization is the most common way of how does the digital world send informations to the viewers.

There were hardly any informations which are exactly regarding the relationship, but the screen are wildly recognized as a window or a mirror from most of my researches. Manovich(2001) divided screens into three types according to the technologies development - classic screen, dynamic screen, and real time screen. In which, the dynamic screen and real time screen are digital screens. The dynamic screen is a window which represents a space elsewhere, the real time screen is a mirror which reflects the physical world (Bolter & Gramala, 2003). The real time screen is normally used to reflect the viewers or the surroundings in an art installation. 

The answer to the topic could not be easily answered, as everybody has different understanding and experience to the digital world. “To design a digital artifact is to design an experience (Bolter & Gromala, 2003).” An installation has been used to give viewers a piece of experience which allow them to explore or experience the relationship by themselves.

As research was going, a varies of ideas have been considered, i.e. digital spray can, interactive dance floor, real time puzzle etc. At last, the window and mirror idea was applied to the installation, and a series possibilities of mirrors combinations were experimented. A space was created to make the viewers concentrate on the image, therefore to get the experience. In order to give more understanding of how the digital image was made to the viewers, the process of the images will be shown to the viewers as a part of the installation. The second screen outside the space was also used to represent the concept of window which also opens a window to the digital world. As a whole installation, it contains all the elements of mirror, window and experience.