From Technological To Virtual Art

Frank Popper traces the development of immersive, interactive new media art from its antecedents through today's digital, multimedia, & networked art.

Produced as part of the Art and Virtual Environment Project conducted at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Canada from 1991 to 1994.

An overview of the art historical antecedents to virtual reality and the impact of virtual reality on contemporary conceptions of art. Although many people view virtual reality as a totally new phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognized history of immersive images. Indeed, the search for illusionary visual space can be traced back to antiquity. In this book, Oliver Grau shows how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and immersion. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art and the image and relates those concepts to interactive art, interface design, agents, telepresence, and image evolution. Grau retells art history as media history, helping us to understand the phenomenon of virtual reality beyond the hype. Grau shows how each epoch used the technical means available to produce maximum illusion. He discusses frescoes such as those in the Villa dei Misteri in Pompeii and the gardens of the Villa Livia near Primaporta, Renaissance and Baroque illusion spaces, and panoramas, which were the most developed form of illusion achieved through traditional methods of painting and the mass image medium before film. Through a detailed analysis of perhaps the most important German panorama, Anton von Werner's 1883 The Battle of Sedan, Grau shows how immersion produced emotional responses. He traces immersive cinema through Cinerama, Sensorama, Expanded Cinema, 3-D, Omnimax and IMAX, and the head mounted display with its military origins. He also examines those characteristics of virtual reality that distinguish it from earlier forms of illusionary art. His analysis draws on the work of contemporary artists and groups ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleischmann, Ken Goldberg, Agnes Hegedues, Eduardo Kac, Knowbotic Research, Laurent Mignonneau, Michael Naimark, Simon Penny, Daniela Plewe, Paul Sermon, Jeffrey Shaw, Karl Sims, Christa Sommerer, and Wolfgang Strauss. Grau offers not just a history of illusionary space but also a theoretical framework for analyzing its phenomenologies, functions, and strategies throughout history and into the future.

Emerging new technologies such as digital media have helped artists to position art into the everyday lives and activities of the public. These new virtual spaces allow artists to utilize a more participatory experience with their audience. Digital Media and Technologies for Virtual Artistic Spaces brings together a variety of artistic practices in virtual spaces and the interest in variable media and online platforms for creative interplay. Presenting frameworks and examples of current practices, this book is useful for artists, theorists, curators as well as researchers working with new technologies, social media platforms and digital culture.

Produced as part of the Art and Virtual Environment Project conducted at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Canada from 1991 to 1994.

In this first book-length study of the internationally renowned Canadian artist Char Davies, Laurie McRobert examines the digital installations Osmose and Ephémère in the context of Davies' artistic and conceptual inspirations. Davies, originally a painter, turned to technology in an effort to create the effect of osmosis between self and world. By donning a head-mounted display unit and a body vest to monitor breathing and balance, participants are immersed in 3D-virtual space where they interact with abstract images of nature while manoeuvring in an artificial spatial environment. Char Davies' Immersive Virtual Art and the Essence of Spatiality explores spatiality through a broad scope of disciplines, including philosophy, mythology, biology, and visual studies, in order to familiarize the reader with virtual reality art - how it differs from traditional artistic media and why immersive virtual art promises to expand our imaginative horizons. This original study provides us with an important exposition of two of Char Davies' acclaimed projects and an exploration of the future impact of digital virtual art on our worldviews.

Cathy Malchiodi reviews the hardware and software most pertinent to art therapists and demonstrates how the Internet can be used to conduct research and establish links with other art therapists. She also discusses the ethical and legal issues of communicating online, particularly the confidentiality and copyright of data.

Technological advancements have influenced many fields of study, and the visual arts are no exception. With the development of new creative software and computer programs, artists and designers are free to create in a digital context, equipped with precision and efficiency. Analyzing Art, Culture, and Design in the Digital Age brings together a collection of chapters on the digital tools and processes impacting the fields of art and design, as well as related cultural experiences in the digital sphere. Including the latest scholarly research on the application of technology to the study, implementation, and culture of creative practice, this publication is an essential reference source for researchers, academicians, and professionals interested in the influence of technology on art, design, and culture. This publication features timely, research-based chapters discussing the connections between art and technology including, but not limited to, virtual art and design, the metaverse, 3D creative design environments, cultural communication, and creative social processes.