Absences within and surrounding light-to-sound translations

Main Article Content

Graziele Lautenschlaeger
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Kulturwissenschaft

Abstract

Within the material-immaterial dichotomy structuring the creation of media artworks and its inherent informational aesthetic, one may observe fractures or continuities. Considering media artworks through the notion of translation of materialities, the aim of this paper is to analyse some of the multiple roles that absence play within and surround this sort of aesthetic experimentation. The discussion is unfolded through the articulation of Vilém Flusser’s media theory – namely considering the zero-dimensionality of electronic and digital media and the concept of Mediumsprünge. These concepts are exemplified through historical and contemporary media devices and artworks technically based on light-to-sound translations. The discussed examples were partially selected from references and methodological tools used in a cross-disciplinary practice-based PhD research on photosensitivity in relation to media history and media art history conducted between 2014 and 2018. The methodology combines a historical and analytical approach, through new materialism, media archaeology, cultural techniques and second-order cybernetics. The significance of the discussion is exposing both the artistic freedom (or emancipation) and the arbitrariness (and responsibility) implied in bridging the gaps involved in media artworks.

Keywords: Absence, Zero-dimensionality, Black box, Translation of materialities, Media artworks

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Baecker, D. Das Nullelement. (2000). In: Brian Rotman: Die Null und das Nichts: Eine Semiotik des Nullpunkts. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos. 7-17.

Barreiro, D. L., Canavezzi de Abreu, S. & Ferreira de Carvalho, A.C.P.L. (2009). I/VOID/O: Real-time sound synthesis and vide processing in an interactive installation. 12o Simpósio Brasileiro de Computação Musical. 127-138.

Beck, J. (2011). The evolution of sound in cinema. In: Guynn, William (Ed.) The Routledge Companion to Film History. London/New York. 64-76.

Boothby, R. (1995). "Now You See It …": The Dynamics of Presence and Absence in Psychoanalysis. In: Babich B.E. (Eds.) From Phenomenology to Thought, Errancy, and Desire. Phaenomenologica (Collection Fondée par H.L. van Breda et Publiée Sous le Patronage des Centres d'Archives-Husserl), vol 133. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1624-6_26.

Canavezzi de Abreu, S. (2011). Interfaces em arquitetura: permeabilidades entre o humano e o digital. Tese de Doutorado defendida pelo Programa de Pós-Gradução em Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Área de Concentração em Teoria e História da Arquitetura e do Urbanismo / Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos da Universidade Paulo. São Carlos, Brazil.

Capp, M, Picton, P. (2000). The optophone: an electronic blind aid. Engineering Science and Education Journal. June. 137-143. https://doi.org/10.1049/esej:20000306

Chan, T. (2016). An optophone schema: From text to sound. Maker Lab in the Humanities. July 4. Available at: <http://maker.uvic.ca/schema/>Accessed Dec 7, 2017.

Chun, W. H. K. (2013). Programmed visions: Software and memory. Cambridge, MA/London: The MIT Press.

Crary, Jonathan. (1990). Techniques of the observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century. Cambridge, Massachusetts/London, England: MIT Press.

Deacon, T.W. (2012). Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged From Matter. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company.

Donguy, J. (2001). Machine Head: Raoul Hausmann and the Optophone. Leonardo – Synesthesia and intersenses. Vol.34 (3). https://doi.org/10.1162/002409401750286967.

Flusser, V. (2008). Universo da imagens técnicas: elogio da superficialidade. São Paulo: Annablumme.

Fournier D'Albe, E. E. (1924). The moon-element. An introduction to the wonders of selenium. New York: D. Appleton and Company/London and Aylesburry: Hazell, Watson &Viney.

Glanville, R. (2009). Black Boxes. In: Cybernetics Human Knowing: a journal of second-order cybernetics autopoiesis and cyber-semiotics. Vol.16, n. 1-2. 153-167.

Guldin, R. (2010). Pensar entre línguas: a teoria da tradução de Vilém Flusser. São Paulo: Annablume.

Guldin, R. (2013). Translating philosophy: Vilém Flusser's practice of multiple self-translation. In: Cordingley, Anthony (Ed.) Self-translation: Brokering originality in hybrid culture. London/New Delhi/New York/Sydney: Bloomsbury.

Gumbrecht, H. U. (2004). Production of Presence: What meaning cannot convey. Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press.

Guyton, A. C.; Hall, John E. (1997). Tratado de fisiologia médica. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Guanabara Koogan.

Harbisson, N. (2012). Hearing colour. June. Non-published manuscript distributed by the artist's producer via Email.

Harbisson, N. (2013). Cyborg art: The art of extending our senses. Non-published manuscript distributed by the artist's producer via Email.

Hausmann, Raoul. (2013). Versuch einer komischen Ontographie/R.H. Optophonetische Weltanschauung I. Teil. Raoul Hausmann. Dada-Wissenschaft. Wissenschaftliche und technische Schriften. Hamburg: Philo Fine Arts.

Kittler, F. (1995). There is no software. In: Kroker, A. and M.L. Ctheory.net. a032 Oct, 18. Available at <http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=74> Accessed Jan 6, 2018.

Krippendorff, K. (2011) Discourse and the materiality of its artifacts. In: T. R. Khun (Ed.), Matters of communication: Political, cultural, and technological challenges to communication theorizing. New York, NY: Hampton Press. 23-46.

Lautenschlaeger, G. (2018). Self-portraying an absence. Candy, Linda; Edmonds, Ernest; Poltronieri, Fabrizio (Eds.) Explorations in Art and technology. London: Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7367-0_28

Matta, S.; Rudolph, H.; Kumar, D. (2005). Auditory eyes: representing visual information in sound and tactile cues. IEEE Xplore 13th European Signal Processing Conference.

Niebsch, A. (2013). Einleintug/Optophonethik und die Photozelle In: Raoul Hausmann. Dada-Wissenschaft. Wissenschaftliche und technische Schrifften. Hamburg: Philo Fine Arts.

Pask, G. (1976). Conversation theory: Applications in education and epistemology. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Pedrosa, I. (1977). Da cor à cor inexistente. Rio de Janeiro: Léo Christiano.

Plaza, J. (2003). Tradução intersemiótica. São Paulo: Perspectiva.

Rosen, M. (2008). 'The control of control' – Gordon Pasks kybernetische Ästhetik. In: Glanville, Ranulph; Müller, Albert. Pask Present: An exhibition of art and design inspired by the work of Gordon Pask (28 June 1928 to 28 March 1996), cybernetician and artist. Wien: Echoraum, 130-191.

Seife, C. (2000). Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. New York, NY and others: Penguin Books.

Siebers, T. (2006). Disability aesthetics. In: Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. Vol. 7 n. 2. Available at: <http://www.jcrt.org/archives/07.2/siebers.pdf> Accessed Jan 12, 2018.

Simondon, G. (1958). Du mode d'existence des objects techniques. Roubaix: Aubier Philosophie, 2012.

Sloterdijk, P. (2015). Licht und Widerstand. Heibach, Christiane; Rohde, Carsten (Ed). Ästhetik der Materialität. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 33-50.