Art Practice and Visual Studies
Understanding visual depiction using computers involves two trajectories for me: one in science and one in art. The two continuously evolve, overlap, and inform each other.
The images on the left result from an ongoing art process of investigation. I am interested in how new interactive computer technologies influence our thinking about representation and creation of 3D shape, how this relates to past modes of visual communication, and how our relationships with 3D forms will change in the future.
Virtual forms created with the help of computers today typically show evidence of an increasing role for mathematical definitions of form. As the potential for algorithmic complexity advances, what does the role of the human form-maker become? Is there still a place for the physical interactions that define form creation in traditional media such as drawing, painting, and sculpture? Or, does the creative process that we embrace move closer and closer to the design and implementation of automatic computer algorithms? Can the energy of kinetic body movements of an artist exist within digital representations? What might virtual form derived with significant algorithmic and human contributions look like, and how does it function in our visual language? I have a keen interest in art and visual studies that address these questions.
After developing the CavePainting virtual reality environment (pictures and short video clips above, see publications for more information), I became interested in 3D forms constructed from ribbon structures existing in virtual computer space. This work ties back to the early digital art investigations of Charles Csuri, who also explored ribbons as a basic building block for visual depiction with 3D computer graphics. These ribbons are simple forms from an algorithmic perspective, but they are sophisticated visual elements when their placement, orientation, and trajectories are determined by dynamic movements of a human.
More recently, the Drawing on Air system, developed as part of my dissertation research, has made possible more sophisticated input modalities for exploring virtual form drawn by human hands in virtual reality.
The forms that can be created with these tools may be described as meta-forms, in that they can exist or be exported to many computer-driven environments. Although it is less accessible to the masses, my preference is to view these works in virtual reality environments. The head-tracked, stereoscopic projections used in virtual reality provide unique visual cues to our brains that we cannot reproduce in other environments, like the flat images you see on this web page.
For more information on my work, try following these links:
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•Cynthia B. Rubin and I developed a body-controlled interactive virtual reality environment called Hiding Spaces that explores issues of ambiguity and tension in visual space within virtual reality.
