Body and technology in todays

Hybrid arts: interactive digital installation art( video art);

Cave Automatic Virtual Environment- CAVE

The body is our medium for having a world.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 1945

Muntean Adela-Iuliana
2011

Creating art today is not sufficient to give it the status of contemporary art,
because there are artifacts made with methods and techniques used by artists from various
past eras. Contemporary art means art produced since World War II, but it also refers to
art produced at this present point. In the continually changing technology, contemporary
art is defined through these transformations: todays so called digital installation art
developed from video art movement from the 1970s, named after the video tape, which
was most commonly used in those years. At that point video art was represented by
single-channel works: a video was shown as a single image, projected or screened. This
method is close to the conventional idea of television. The second variety of which is
represented is installation: art movements developed before video art like performance art
in the 1960s and then installation art mixed with video and gave birth in the 1980s to
video installation art.
The 1990s Digital Revolution transformed continually over the years bringing up
new concepts and visions of our modern, information-based society. The term comes
from the 1980s, which is generally considered a part of the digital age, when computers
started to be familiar in developed countries. The consequences of evolution are the
constant innovations in art-technology-society; this is the era when the biggest trend is the
crossroads of disciplines and use of multiple technologies. Writing this in the early 1970s:
We are now in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of
near and far, of the side-by-side, of the dispersedour experience of the world is less of a
long life developing through time that of a network that connects points and intersects
with its own skein Foucault appears to prefigure not only the network society,
exemplified by the Internet (a network which connects points) but also GUI (epoch of
simultaneityof the side-by-side). GUI allows the users to run a number of software
applications at the same time; and it uses the convention of multiple overlapping windows
to present both data and controls. 1
This path of evolution morphed video installation art into digital installation art, where
the environments created with no camera and video are entirely digitally rendered and
responds to the spectator or other elements of the environment. The other complex

Manovich, Lev, p.272 (Michel Foucault, Dits et ecrits. Selections, vol. 1 (New York: New Press,
1997).

interactive, multimedia and virtual reality environment is called Cave Automatic Virtual
Environment- CAVE.
Some installations involve large scale projections and live video capture. By using these
techniques many digital installations attempt to create immersive environments, where
the spectator feels like the part of the simulated world and disconnected from the exterior
physical space, so it can be accompanied with distorted sense of time and space, intense
focus and awareness of physical self. 2
New Media is the era in which we live today- many of the characteristics of
digital installation art define New Media, and New Media by its characteristics defines
digital installation art. In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich explains what
New Media is and how media became new: ...But this is not yet the end of the story. Our
story has a new twist a happy one. Zuse's film, with its strange superimposition of the
binary code over the iconic code anticipates the convergence which gets underway half a
century later. The two separate historical trajectories finally meet. Media and computer
Daguerre's

daguerreotype

and

Babbage's

Analytical

Engine,

the

Lumire

Cinmatographie and Hollerith's tabulator merge into one. All existing media are
translated into numerical data accessible for the computers. The result: graphics, moving
images, sounds, shapes, spaces and text become computable, i.e. simply another set of
computer data. In short, media becomes new media. This meeting changes both the
identity of media and of the computer itself. 3
He also describes five principles of new media: numerical representation, modularity,
automation, variability and transcoding.
New Media follows the logic of the postindustrial or globalized society whereby every
citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and select her ideology from a large
number of choices. Rather than pushing the same objects to a mass audience, marketing
now tries to target each individual separately.

The language of new New Media

promises to have access to data, content any time, from any digital device, anywhere, as
well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around

The CAVE at CRVM - Mediterranean Virtual Reality Center

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdR3yPIjb_Y
3
Manovich, Lec, p.48
4
Manovich, Lev, p. 42

the media content. Another important promise of New Media is the democratization of
the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. 5
New media embraces artworks created with new media technologies: virtual art,
interactive art technologies, computer robotics, digital art, biotechnology and so on.

This kind of transdisciplinary projects lead to Hybrid arts, movement in which

artists work with different fields: biology, robotics, physical sciences, experimental
interface technologies (such as speech, gesture, and face recognition), artificial
intelligence, and information visualization. They tend to bring new artistic expressions.
After trying to define the concept of today and presenting the brief of video artdigital installation art-Cave Automatic Virtual Environment- CAVE history, we will take
a further step and discuss the context of communication between human and artifact:
interactivity, which is strongly associated with new media as it basically sets apart the
old and new medias: new media is interactive. In contrast to traditional media where
the order of presentation was fixed, the user can now interact with a media object. In the
process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which paths to
follow, thus generating a unique work. Thus the user becomes the co-author of the
work. 6
Interactivity allows the user to change the course of an artwork, to give a free and unique
interpretation upon the way effect each other. Audience has an active role by involving in
the created space. The success of the interactive artworks is that they convey to create
positive emotions upon the audience, so they feel comfortable to interact with the
environment in a natural, intuitive manner. The creative team tends to create various
designs to influence the emotional responses of the spectators. Using expressive
interfaces can be one method of achieving the proper feedback: different software allows
creating dynamic icons, animations and sound. Effectiveness is also influenced trough
graphical layouts, color pallet, line styles and typography; all this helps creating a
subjective appeal. Designers design objects and give them a physical shape. People use
objects and give them a social shape, actively participating in the process of
constructing their meanings. 7
5

New Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media

Manovich, Lev, p.66
7
Damazio & Diaz , p.139
6

Esthetics has a major role in reaching the proper affective aspects which are important
because it can influence the users perception which is subjective in nature, because it is
about an individuals feelings and thoughts about the system.
ISO definition explain that user experience includes all the users' emotions, beliefs,
preferences, perceptions, physical and psychological responses, behaviors and
accomplishments that occur before, during and after use. The notes also list the three
factors that influence user experience: system, user and the context of use. 8
The focus is on pleasure and value rather than on performance. User experience is
dynamic, because it changes over time as the circumstances change.
Designers developed different technologies to stimulate one or more of the five senses to
create perceptually-real sensations: for the vision stimulation- 3Ddisplay, holography,
head-mounted display, fulldome; for the auditory-3D audio effect, surround sound; for
tactile- haptic technology, for olfaction- machine olfaction; and gustation-artificial flavor.
Digitally created environments can be modeled from reality; can take the form of an
abstraction or follow the fantasy of the creator. To render the virtual worlds and to create
an immersive environment designers often use artificial intelligence and virtual worlds.
Various immersive technologies such as gestural controls, motion tracking, and computer
vision respond to the user's actions and movements. Brain control interfaces (BCI)
respond to the user's brainwave activity. These technologies provide the ability to interact
and communicate with the virtual environment.
Nowadays the newest, most deeply interactive and immersive form of art is Cave
Automatic Virtual Environment, term which is widely used after the recursive acronym
CAVE. 9 The name is also an allegory of the Cave in Platos Republic where a
philosopher contemplates perception, reality and illusion. The most important
characteristic of Cave is that the display enables you to experience the sensation of being
inside the data, not only observing data through flat screens or other portals.
Every interaction requires a body in a very physical sense. Without a body to
give input to the artifact there can be no interaction. 10
Communion is the word that Merleau-Ponty uses in his major work, "The
phenomenology of perception" from 1945, as a metaphor to describe that as human
8

User experience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

The Cave Automatic Virtual Environment: Characteristics and Applications
http://www.cs.uic.edu/~kenyon/Conferences/NASA/Workshop_Noor.html
10
Svanaes, D. p. 222
9

beings, we are in the world, and in constant interaction with it. This allows object and
self-reflection, we become aware of ourselves trough interaction with the physical
environment and other subjects. From the various topics well name just a few of them
which are important in the relationship between body and the type of artifacts discussed
here. One of them is intentionality and the embodied nature of perception, Merleau-Ponty
using the term pre-objective intentionality to describe our instinctive will to explore the
world. As living beings we can not avoid having this drive to perceive and interact.
Our intentionality toward the world, which is a priori given, is governed trough our body.
If for example we are interacting with an artwork by using our hands, they are
automatically coordinated with the rest of our body; the whole body takes part of the
process of perception. "Sight and movement are specific ways of entering into
relationship with objects. 11
To Merleau-Ponty, the body is an undivided unity and it is meaningless to talk about the
perceptual process of seeing without reference to all the senses, to the total physical
environment in which the body is situated, and to the "embodied" intentionality we
always have towards the world. 12
According to these statements- every artwork that will be presented integrates the
whole body, even if the interaction starts with, or is generated by the face, the hands, feet,
voice, breath, according to the artists conception.
The Reface [Portrait Sequencer], 2007 works with the spectators face- mouths, eyes and
brows, which bring up the problem of identity, society, and the tendency of globalization
where the cultural differences tend to disappear.
The endless combination of the visitors faces sends to the idea of circle of life, the
allusion of birth, when a new face-identity is created by the union of two different people.
The resulting kinetic portraiture blends the personalities and genetic traits of its visitors
to create a "generative group portrait" of the people in the project's locale.13
Even we think our daily gestures are insignificant they can have repercussions on the life
of others- we have influence upon each other even like strangers. On this idea is based
Michael Hanekes Code unknown where characters belong together in some way, but we

11
12

13

Merleau Ponty, p.137

Svanaes, D. p.205
Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman http://www.flong.com/projects/reface/

dont know what does the interconnections mean, we dont know the code, the only
relation between them is that they are side by side like the portraits in Georgs camera.
As in the Reface we see a sequence of portraits, in the movie Georgs photos set side by
side are the allegory of the movie.14
Faces are often hidden by masks: Diaghilev Mask, 2010 produces audio responsive
animal character typologies which cover the viewers face, creating different roles to play
with. 15
Without our action we cannot experience the world and here, the artifacts. Even if
spectators only watch the Reface portraits it is not a passive process, the eyeballs
movement is active. "The thing is inseparable from a person perceiving it....To this
extent; every perception is a communication or a communion" 16
To Merleau-Ponty there is no perception without action; perception requires action.
Other work that reflects upon another type of identity is the Ghost Pole Propagator, 2007
which transforms the visitors body into stick-figures, skeletons or petroglyphic
characters which are connected with the projection on the wall: the rock engravings
were created on a stone surface by incising, carving, had a symbolic communication and
tented to disappear with western culture. Even if the drawing were made in different
regions they have a common style, of which theories say that is a coincidence or tend to
use the assumption of the collective unconscious to explain it.
Projecting on the walls of the 13th century medieval Belsay Hall Castle reveals the
importance of the space and artwork- it wouldnt be the same if the work was presented
in a contemporary white cube. Other characteristic is that the animation is quiet like the
significance of the petroglyphs. The work represents the meeting of the past and present
identity. 17
Zeitspiegel, 2008 send to the idea of mirror which first melts the spectators face, then set
it into frames, the distortions depending on the spectators movement in real time. The
work plays with the reflection-reflect concepts: in the mirror we meet ourselves, duplicate

14

ibid.

15

Pete Hellicar and Joel Gethin Lewis http://www.hellicarandlewis.com/2010/10/25/diaghilev-mask/

Merleau-Ponty, p. 320

16

17

Golan Levin http://www.flong.com/projects/gpp/

ourselves- here the mirror is the video projected image. The distortion puts us in the
situation to reflect about ourselves, about our existence.18
Memory is in close relationship with identity, affecting each other continually.
Shifting time-San Jose, 2010 (based on Liquid Time Series 2000-2002) is a work in which
the viewer travels in memory with his body which becomes the interface of a journey.
Memory is fluid because allows us to bind together distant things: the past and the
present. The work incorporates images of San Jose city during the last century and from
the present. Memory is changing according to the capacity of remembering, during time
we lose some of the memories as certain places from the city disappear. Evolution is
another present theme in the work: the clips offer us the possibility to see how people
worked, traveled, socialized in pastimes and we can compare their lifestyle with ours. As
closer people walk to the projector even deeper enter into space, time and memories.19
Liquid Time Series 2000-2002 highlights the fluidity of the memory on the projected
image which creates disruptions as viewers approach to the projected screen. The work
plays with the idea that the recorded image can be manipulated, here working with
playback and fragmentation. Montage is the other tool which places together different
situations creating new meanings: as physical bodies we exist in one place at one time,
but in a recorded material trough montage we create bridges trough time and space, and
also interpret them by the manner of putting them side by side.20
Perception is an acquired bodily skill that is shaped by all our interactions with the world.
Our immediate interpretation of what we perceive is given by our previous experiences.
Our experiences have shaped our way of being in the world. This creates what MerleauPonty denotes the perceptual field. Instead of saying that perception involves memory,
Merleau-Ponty argues that perception is immediate and happens within the horizon of the
phenomenal field.
The beauty of fluid dynamics-Gold give the spectator the possibility to experience
his body outside of his natural limits: he can visually live his body as being the fluid
himself. The sense of organic is what defines both the body and the fluid, the movement
of the physical body on the projection acts like a liquid continually disintegrating it,
giving the spectator a special experience of their new liquid body.

18

Jens Heinen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLjxCoHFgLs

Camille Utterback http://camilleutterback.com/projects/shifting-time-san-jose/
20
Camille Utterback , Video cubism http://camilleutterback.com/projects/liquid-time-series/
19

A great importance has the typography Gold which in maintained on the screen during
the interactive process- gold reflects not only on the used color, but the magical meaning
of whats hidden behind gold,- magic that reflects into the movement, into making the
body fluid.

21

We also find the idea of liquid in the Amore Pacific, 2003 real time water simulation
display where the audiences disturb the water causing ripple dynamics. Here the sense of
organic is related also with the cosmetic products, which are placed under the display. 22
The title of the work Waves to Waves to Waves, 2008 could send us to the idea of water,
but actually the work reflects upon the idea that technology surrounds the body all the
time: the waves refer to the electromagnetic energy and fields of wifi, cellphones, radio
and television which are imperceptible to the human senses, but are all around and
through us. This invisible world is alive with activity that directly reflects our growing
relationship to and dependence on, technology. 23
Other subtle notions as identity, memory, liquids are breath and voice.
Whirl, 2007 works only with the breath, blow of the participant. The rotation of the
pinwheel makes the record player and the circle swing from the video spin which creates
a sensation of dizziness, while the vortex absorbs the participant. The whole rotation
creates the effect of a hypnotizing wheel. The breath is also in strong relation with the air
from the video: people from the circle swing float in the air. 24
Terrarium, 2008 reveals an underwater world where the whole ecosystem is maintained
by visitors voice or sound that make during the interaction.
The voice is something that comes from inside the body, which reveals life, the
ecosystem is also alive in the deep water. Both can be revealed or unrevealed: someone
can have voice, but doesnt want to reveal it, as in Ingmar Bergmans Persona did Liv
Ullman, also creatures from underwater can show themselves or stay forever in the deep,
dark water. 25
Our body has a dual nature: we can see it as an object among objects, and on other
hand it exists to us as our experiencing/living body (le corpse propre). As a living body
we move within our bodily space (limitations of our own body).

21

Jens Heinen http://vimeo.com/4377703

Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman http://www.flong.com/projects/amore/
23
Damian Stewart http://frey.co.nz/waves
24
Christa Erickson http://christaerickson.net/
25
Theo Watson http://www.theowatson.com/site_docs/work.php?id=44
22

We relate to objects as things positioned outside of our bodies, when we use them they
enter into the space of the experienced body and changes its structure. When again we
release the object it leaves the experienced body and becomes part of the space of objects.
Our different bodies create different spaces, like external objects to such as clothing, tool
use and prosthesis. Tool use and skill acquisition changes our bodily space and therefore
the way of being in the world. Learning to use new tools gives the body the possibility to
extend itself trough these external devices, becoming part of us.
Using technology, which lead to learning new skill we integrate it in ourselves changing
the world we live in. Merleau-Ponty: "The body is our general medium for having a
world" 26
Space created between, within our bodies and external objects is called negative space.
Interstitial Fragment Processor, 2007 collects shapes formed within and between the
bodies of its participants. Its a work of shadow play and body contour.

27

External objects are controlled by our body. Machinema, 2009 is about the engine which
transforms a move into another- this inner mechanism of the machine runs it in the
outside world. Cinema derives from Greek kinema which also means movement.
Machinema: machine refers to the wheel-engine and chinema to the images which move
if a visitor interacts with the work. Movement is a manifestation, energy have to empty. 28
Works that probe the expressive possibilities of hand gestures and finger movements are
Manual input sessions, 2004 29 and Interactive Puppet Prototype. 30
Footfalls, 2006 creates virtual forms from the stomping of the visitors feet 31 and Run
Motherfucker Run invite the user to deal with space, distance, acceleration and his
physical bodys resistance by running. 32
Urban communication also reaches a high point since arts are no longer limited by
museum or gallery spaces. Today we meet many media based interventions in public
spaces, which include and involve passersby on the street.
26

Merleau Ponty, p.146

27

Golan Levin http://www.flong.com/projects/ifp/

Filippo Vanucci and Adi Marom http://www.adimarom.com/?p=1160
29
Golan Levin, Zach Lieberman http://thesystemis.com/projects/manual-input-sessions/
28

30

31
32

Theo Watson http://vodpod.com/watch/4957403-interactive-puppet-prototype-with-xbox-kinect

Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman http://www.flong.com/projects/footfalls/

Marnix de Nijs http://www.runmotherfuckerrun.nl/project.htm

Samples, 2008/2010 reflects upon urban narratives, which are generated by inhabitants
trough everyday small rituals. The project tour includes Sofia, Istanbul, Pcs and ClujNapoca.
The Central Railway station from Sofia is seen as a gate to the city, the starting point of
the narratives. After the augmented reality performances people receive tickets to
different events urging them to action. The other tours are an empowerment that public
spaces belong to everyone: parks often have guardians who whistle to people. To
counteract spectators receive whistles, becoming equal.

33

Other interventions turn the public spaces into playground. (Night lights 34)
Projecting on the buildings changes its faade by combining the context of old and new
(Kinect launch night, 2010). 35 Viewers become performers, amplifying projections with
their body movements.
Another topic of Merleau-Ponty is the difference ha makes between concrete and abstract
movement: in front of the artworks the viewers movement become abstract, because they
are consciously moving parts of their body to interact with it. Concrete movements are
done in the normal context of the body, like everyday walking and became abstract when
are done consciously: when someone is asked to move in a particular way.
Augmented reality corresponds with interactive digital art where technology enhances the
perception of reality. By contrast virtual reality replaces the screens with a 3D space: the
real-world is replaced with a simulated one therefore corresponds with CAVE.
Recurring themes are virtual tours, different games, navigation but also different
pedagogies and therapies.
Cocoon has 360 degree surround video capabilities, creating a very realistic world. 36
Screen doesnt explore space but gives a textual experience: on the walls are projected
excerpts from a literary text, which symbolizes memory- we write from our memories.
The falling words create gabs and express instabilities of the memory: forgetting. Finally

33

AltArt http://www.urbansamples.ro/?p=204
YesYesNo team http://yesyesno.com/night-lights
35
Kinect http://vodpod.com/watch/4878478-xbox-kinect-interactive-art-installation
34

36

Cocoon http://thehottestgadgets.com/2008/09/this-immersive-virtual-reality-cocoon-has-a-360-degree-

display-001649

10

the text collapse and a voice send us the ultimate message: if memories define us, what
defines us when theyre gone? 37
Nam June Paik considered the first video artists vision came true: Some day
artists will work with capacitors, resistors and semi-conductors as they work today with
brushes, violins and junk.
Even if we do not reflect on the influence of technology it still has impact on our lives.
This refers to the tacit bodily meaning, which affects us, whether we pay or not
attention. Todays art comes to life if there is a body to start the interaction, and when the
body leaves it stops to produce itself. We can say that is an art created for the body which
calls the visitor while reflecting to touch, speak, dance, and run. It struggles to reach some
kind of unity: it produces visual, sound, emotions and tactile sensations. This unity
follows the bodys nature: we see, hear, feel, move, and reflect, capacities with which we
internalize external devices. Artifacts are a mirror to our changing body: contours,
shadows, masks, deformed shapes reveal traces of the body.
Body and technology are strongly united creating constantly new chimeras.
New technologies culturally mutate our perception of the human body from a
naturally self-regulated system to an artificially controlled and electronically transformed
object. The digital manipulation of the appearance of the body (and not of the body itself)
clearly expresses the plasticity of the newly formed and multifariously configured identity
of the physical body. We observe this phenomenon regularly through media
representations of idealized or imaginary bodies, virtual-reality incarnations, and network
projections of actual bodies (including avatars). Parallel developments in medical
technologies, such as plastic surgery and neuroprosthesis, have ultimately allowed us to
expand this immaterial plasticity to actual bodies. The skin is no longer the immutable
barrier that contains and defines the body in space. Instead, it becomes the site of
continuous transmutation.
In the future we will have foreign genetic material in us as today we have mechanical and
electronic implants. In other words, we will be transgenic. To be human will mean that
the human genome is, not a limitation, but our starting point. 38

37
38

Screen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLChcV_a3o&feature=related
Eduardo Kac, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Vol. 6, N. 11, December 1998

11

References:
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, (1945) Phenomenology of Perception. Colin Smith (translator).
NewYork: Humanities Press, 1962

Manovich, Lev (2001), The Language of New Media, MIT press. Cambridge,
Massachusetts London, England

Eduardo Kac, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Vol. 6, N. 11, December 1998

Svanaes, D. (2000).Understanding Interactivity: Steps to a Phenomenology of HumanComputer Interaction. NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Kirstine Abilgaard Tidemann, Jannicke Dah, Freyja Dgg Frmannsdttir, Everyboy is

doing it, IT Universitetet 19.12.2003

Perhaps, in some darkened viewing room somewhere, there exists an indefatigable art
historian prepared to spend the four and twenty years of monitor watching necessary
to emerge with a definitive overview of video art.
Mick Hartney

12

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