by Joseph NECHVATAL From: jnech@imaginet.fr (NECHVATAL Joseph) on May 06, 1997 at 11:22:37:
In Reply to: Re: expectation & degradation posted by Nino Rodriguez on May 05, 1997 at 15:30:14:
Nino- Thanks for your comments. If one looks at the question of digital
degradation formally, than I surely see and uphold your distinction. I tend
to think of digital degradation as any type of "noise" in a transformal
way. This is no longer formal theory which speaks of a sovereign object
from the outside, but theory as a viral agent which works according to the
three biological viral rules: invasion of a host organism; cloning of its
master genetic code; and replication of the virus using the dying energies
of the organism.
The perceptual aspect of digi-noise involves visual detection problems
sometimes and communication problems all the time. Problems of detection
and communication include visibility, legibility and aesthetics. The
behavioral aspect has to do with the way in which noise communications
affect the attitudes and conduct of the audience. Advertising design is
expected to make people buy products or services, political or ideological
propaganda is expected to affect people's beliefs and actions, regulatory
signs on highways are expected to organize the flow of traffic, teaching
aids are expected to improve the learning performance, bank notes are
designed so as to make it difficult to forge them and easy to distinguish
one denomination from another. This is the real measure of the performance
of any and every piece of graphic design, the proof that graphic design
cannot be understood in isolation but only within a communication system.
Visual noise, to me, is any degradation that does precisely the opposite.
It raises the importance of aesthetic approaches to a point where the
communication link with the common denominator they were addressing breaks
down, ignoring the fact that communication requires the sharing of codes.
This is the frontier that digital information technology opens up to us, I
figure. There are other frontiers enabled by digital science, of course;
the exploration of space, the study of the brain; but only our field of art
will continue to reveal unsuspected potentials in an important perceptual
phenomena: the relationships between human beings and their noise.
Very few artists have so far attempted to utilize a virtual reality system
as the interface between their creative energy and noise. It is probable,
however, that as virtual reality systems become more sophisticated and
accessible that more artists will introduce the extra dimensions of
immersion and interactive user participation into their noise-tinged art
works as it is likely, judging by the speed that the industry has moved
forward in recent years that virtual technology will become relatively
cheap and consequently more widely available before the end of the century.
>JN:
>>i'm carrying
>>autonomous chance attacks over into vr viral worlds at the moment.
>
>Nino:
>This I'd like to experience. Let us know when there's something to jump
>into.
My fond hope Nino is that it will take the form of networked immersive VR
with stimulus embedded self-authoring tools that are capable of expeditious
self-world generations. But whatever the exact configuration at the end,
what I am attempting to build here will bolster the public to experience
interior understandings and approach them with a palpable omni alertness.
comments:
[ follow ups ] [ Barbara London WWWBoard ] [ FAQ ]