This paper applies Karl Marx’s definition of alienation to art produced by artificial intelligence system Dall-E. This is achieved by examining Dall-E’s productions through the lens of historic...Show moreThis paper applies Karl Marx’s definition of alienation to art produced by artificial intelligence system Dall-E. This is achieved by examining Dall-E’s productions through the lens of historic texts, namely Walter Benjamin’s text on ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility’ and Leo Tolstoy’s book ‘What is Art’, further supported by contemporary literature on artificial creativity in relation to the remaining role of the artist. The resulting analysis indicates that Dall-E’s production process is divided as framed by Marxist definitions, thereby making it difficult to trace artistic mastery. In the following section, the analysis of creativity results in the idea that alienation in Dall-E is better understood as a shaded artistic freedom. Contrastingly, in the final section Dall-E shows that it can overcome its own alienating aspects by becoming universal and multi-usable, aligning democratic results.Show less
Museums have been putting effort into making their collections accessible. However, for visually impaired people, the possibilities have not yet been explored. The method of 3D printing can provide...Show moreMuseums have been putting effort into making their collections accessible. However, for visually impaired people, the possibilities have not yet been explored. The method of 3D printing can provide haptic interactions with artworks for visually impaired people, yet museums have been hesitant in including 3D prints in their collection out of fear that the reproduction would threaten the authenticity of the original. This thesis explores the possibilities of using 3D prints of paintings in the museum space to achieve the inclusion of visually impaired people by using arguments based on studies in 3D printing technology, museum studies, authenticity studies and by reviewing previous exhibitions that include 3D prints. Eventually, the found results will be applied to design a 3D print of Girl with a Pearl Earring, creating a design that is not an exact copy of the original, but an interactive 3D print that triggers more senses than just touch to create an art experience as complete as possible.Show less
In his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin argues that even the most flawless reproduction cannot prevent the decay of aura of the artwork. This article...Show moreIn his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin argues that even the most flawless reproduction cannot prevent the decay of aura of the artwork. This article as a comparative literary research challenges his viewpoint by proposing that VR experiences can surpass the limitation of mechanical reproduction. Moreover, it suggests that the real-life art experience is more just its original context, and that it also has a social side to it. Although this argument is supported by articles tackling the influence of visitors’ surroundings on how museum goers look at art, it concludes that the authority of an artwork’s authenticity cannot be overcome by such modes of multimedia.Show less
In dit artikel bekijk ik Hito Steyerls videowerk How Not To Be Seen (2013) vanuit het perspectief van ontwrichtende werking in de context van de vorm en het medium. Dit perspectief is opgedeeld in...Show moreIn dit artikel bekijk ik Hito Steyerls videowerk How Not To Be Seen (2013) vanuit het perspectief van ontwrichtende werking in de context van de vorm en het medium. Dit perspectief is opgedeeld in drie delen; onzichtbaarheid, collage en multimedia. Op het gebied van onzichtbaarheid in dit werk is al literatuur geschreven, wat hier vergeleken wordt. Hieruit komt voort dat een incomplete onzichtbaarheid leidt tot een verstorende werking, waar verschillende conclusies over getrokken worden. Door te kijken naar het werk als collage is te zien hoe verschillende elementen in het werk worden opgenomen, om deze elementen te ondervragen als vorm van ontwrichtende werking. Het werk is binnen de context van het medium op meerdere manieren te zien, en is gepresenteerd in verschillende vormen, wat leidt tot andere verwachtingen over de vorm en de relatie tot het medium. Hierin vindt ontwrichtende werking plaats in het vervagen en verstoren van het medium op meerdere manieren.Show less
This thesis examines whether repetition and reproduction have an effect on the value of art and what role society plays in value acquisition. The purpose of the analysis is to understand the extent...Show moreThis thesis examines whether repetition and reproduction have an effect on the value of art and what role society plays in value acquisition. The purpose of the analysis is to understand the extent of the power repetition has on the arts. As well as whether social media and most importantly Instagram, can be considered post-museums that accelerate repetition and digital mass-reproduction of the art. Moreover, the second chapter of the thesis focuses on the notion of post-museum and how it can acts as a platform for mass production and repetition. In order to investigate the subject, the thesis will centralise on contrasting opinions of Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol. Benjamin argues that repetition and reproduction take away the aura of the artwork, while Warhol argues that it provides authority. The result of the analysis shows that repetition and reproduction have immense power over the value of the arts within post-museums. It can either elevate an artwork in terms of its significance, power, and valuation, yet at the same time, it can be the reason why another artwork becomes nearly invisible.Show less
Instagram influences our perception and manipulates what we buy, think, and engage with. This has contributed to the digitalization of art and a shift in the shaping of our collective perceptions...Show moreInstagram influences our perception and manipulates what we buy, think, and engage with. This has contributed to the digitalization of art and a shift in the shaping of our collective perceptions of the past. Previous research has indicated that artists and cultural memory are intertwined. Likewise, it demonstrated that social media and cultural memory are connected. However, literature on cultural memory theory has rarely been developed in context of academic research of the combination of artists and social media. This thesis will use qualitative research methods and the theories of Halbwachs’ collective memory, Warburg’s social memory and Nora’s sites of memory in addition to other expert’s analysis to investigate how contemporary artists’ use of Instagram affects the theory of cultural memory. The combination of this research illuminates that artists and their fans are in the unique position to create a visible anchor of memory by shaping or viewing Instagram as a carefully curated exhibition site. This thesis’ purpose is to add value to memory studies, social media research and art history literature streams by taking insights from cultural memory research and applying it to social media research.Show less
Systematic discrimination suggests that societal systems such as governmental, legal, medical educational systems are biased, and positioning certain groups and individuals in a more privileged...Show moreSystematic discrimination suggests that societal systems such as governmental, legal, medical educational systems are biased, and positioning certain groups and individuals in a more privileged position than others. Firstly, this article looks at digitalization in relation to Gilles Deleuze’s concept “Societies of Control” to reveal the controlling power that informatics systems hold. It argues that informatics systems do not only duplicate the already existing biases and norms but also establishes new methods to keep them functioning. Furthermore, it realizes that the controlling aspect is woven with the formal qualities of the digital such as binary digital encoding, algorithms and the actions that they allow and forbid. This article perceives the certainty and the binary limitations that are promised by the informatics systems as a danger for queer, diverse and inclusive understandings of reality. By analyzing Merrit Kopas’s video game Lim through a queer theoretical framework that is provided by the book Queer Game Studies, edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw, it illustrates the queering potential of video games against the normativities and the control power the informatics systems hold. The analysis shows that video games as an action-based medium, can teach about the politics of the informatics age and therefore can raise an awareness but also provide strategies to counter-play with the normativities and the controlling power. As a result, it suggests video games as the tools that carry a potential for resistance against the promised certainty and to build more inclusive, queer futures.Show less
This paper discusses the outcomes of the digital revolution for theological thinking. As societies are becoming ever more mediated by digital apparatuses, the ways in which we experience and...Show moreThis paper discusses the outcomes of the digital revolution for theological thinking. As societies are becoming ever more mediated by digital apparatuses, the ways in which we experience and conceptualize the world is likewise influenced by these technologies. Sage Elwell’s deduction of a crisis of transcendence provides the theological implications of the digital revolution upon which this paper constructs the concepts of fractal self and invisible union. By converging both concepts with Andy Clark and David Chalmers thesis of the Extended Mind, this article unveils code, database and algorithm’s role as cognitive scaffolds capable of sustaining complex systems of ultimate meaning. Moreover, the paper positions its vision with the aid of the artwork Angels by the internet artist Baphomet Kun. In conclusion, this article unearths the theory of the world emanated by code, suggesting an identicalness between self and environment at large.Show less
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) is a video-game published by Ubisoft centring around piracy in the eighteenth-century Caribbean. The downloadable content Freedom Cry (2013) is an additional...Show moreAssassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) is a video-game published by Ubisoft centring around piracy in the eighteenth-century Caribbean. The downloadable content Freedom Cry (2013) is an additional storyline with the protagonist Adéwalé, who has dedicated his life to dismantling slave trade after having escaped his life on a plantation in Port-au-Prince,—current day Haiti. This research takes on the perspective of (post-)structuralism and (post-)colonialism to analyse Freedom Cry for signs of power dynamics established through both the in-game representation of race and the underlying formal grammar that is the video-game. In doing so, potential uses of discourses derived from colonialism have been found in Freedom Cry that could indicate the presence of a disciplinary force that keeps alive the imperial notion of black, and white. Signs in Freedom Cry point to potentially harmful consequences of conveying knowledge from this perspective.Show less
This article utilizes the artworks of Daan Roosegaarde to show how the arts can be appropriated as meaningful reflexity tools to contribute in closing the gap between ecocentrism and technocentrism...Show moreThis article utilizes the artworks of Daan Roosegaarde to show how the arts can be appropriated as meaningful reflexity tools to contribute in closing the gap between ecocentrism and technocentrism in the current sustainability debate. By first analysing the two contrasting worldviews of Idealism (ecocentrism) and Conformism (technocentrism) – inherent in the sustainability discourse – it is shown that we currently adhere to the ideals of the latter to tackle all of the pressing environmental issues our anthropogenic world is faced with. Hereafter, I propose complex thinking as a possible way to overcome this divide, and utilize the theories of social scientists Sasha Kagan and Hans Dielemans to suggest the arts as a way of establishing an all-encompassing approach towards sustainability. Sasha Kagan’s system-thinking is used to articulate the bigger picture of sustainability approaches – which is not solely science infused and emphasizes interconnectedness. However, added to this is the theory of Hans Dielemans, through which such an understanding is suggested as a means to instigate a cultural shift by reflecting on our own behaviour and practices. Subsequently, this framework is applied to several case studies of the Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde to show how his artworks appeal to human reflective capacity, rehabilitate the human–nature relationship, and offer the possibility of a middle ground between ecocentrism and technocentrism.Show less
