Technology by design

Introduction

My plan for this essay was to look at the time it has taken for technology

to come in to what we know it as today, the beginnings of the telephone, radio

transmission, and the journey it has taken to what we know as mobile technology

and the internet, it has shaped how we as consumers use technology to communicate

and educate, social and economic impact of its uses and where it is leading us in terms

of the digital.

We want to be more connected to society by means of E-mail, texting,

video conferencing, its use in different kinds of businesses, film and

educational establishments. Pen and paper are of limited use in this decade,

but will we find a way where we are using even more advanced technologies

such as VR(virtual reality) and AR(artificial reality) to deliver knowledge and

information to schools and workplaces, and to train employees to use new

technologies for existing activities, to further enhance production.

Most of the technology that we use today began its inception in the U.S intended for use by the military. Companies such as Microsoft, Google and apple have bought in to this new technology and developed it for civil use. One example is face recognition which the military uses to counteract terrorism, Apple uses this for the new i-phone.

So where did all this begin? How did this type of technology evolve? we can only ask those questions by looking back to the past to see how technology has progressed through out the centuries.

Thomas Edison started his career at fifteen, after a train car accident left him profoundly deaf, working for the western union telegraph company, he became noted as an accurate and rapid operator, he spent his spare time in study, and at the age of twenty one, he worked on the Bell telephone, which was later exhibited in Philadelphia, he then went on to invent the phonograph in 1877.

Societies obsession with finding ways of capturing sound and vision and improving the materials used to do this escalated in the early 1930's with the introduction of magnetic recording tapes, making sound clearer and less distorted and more compact.

But why has technology advanced so quickly?

From the early 1980's since the introduction of the compact disc by Phillips we have seen technology move from being a basic tool, computer, phone, television,tape cassettes, video players, they have all advanced and are using more sophisticated technology, replacing physical devices for data requiring more and more data to hold the vast amount of files containing music, video, and documents helping us save space by uploading to the Internet where we can store infinitely and always have access. Then came home assistants such as Google home and Alexa, they help us incorporate different aspects of life from ordering groceries to monitoring our capacity to save energy while at the same time collecting data on our preferences.
Is it right that companies have access to all our data? Is it possible to be able to truly delete that information?

The social and economic impact of the telephone changed peoples lives, as they now had a way of speaking directly and instantly to a person with out having to send a telegraph. People were amazed by how instant and clear their telephone conversations were and the design has become user friendly and more fashionable, having the latest design will improve your standing in your social circle.Bringing these new technologies was a step in to a new world of music, film and television, a pleasant distraction in another world that will predominantly, structure our lives, to be accepting of the new media technologies that are marketed in a way that people from upper and middle class societies feel they cannot do without.

Marketing such products has inundated society with a need to upgrade to the latest tools and gadgets to be able to stay ahead, in business, employment, social standing and moving with the times.
The human cost though is still being measured by the amount of energy and waste the manufacture of these gadgets and tools are having on the environment. We upgrade without thinking if our old tech is widely recycled, while mountains of old tech is piled high in landfill with only the metal components which are able to be used again.
Do we really think about how these changes are effecting our health and our mental well being with more and more children using technology, children as young as four and five are addicted to using tablets and mobile phones, and we are still unaware of the long term implications of this.

Mobile phones have moved from just making calls to calls and texting, to being able to access the Internet on the move and streaming films and music, it is making the home computer obsolete. In business it means people can move out of the office and conduct business on the move, where ever they are. No doubt this makes working life more flexible but the technology that is used can also monitor our search habits.

Companies such as Google, Yahoo, Bing to name just a few gather our data to personalise our experience every time we access the Internet.

Is big brother watching?

Many would speculate that society is becoming more intrusive, our lives are becoming more and more transparent because of our addiction to social media applications. Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Linked in, are allowing us to share personal experiences and become more and more open about our information, this kind of data can be captured and shared with third parties or used by advertisers to sell products and services matched with our information. GPS and location based services also captures our data, to enhance our experience whilst using certain apps such as weather and satellite navigation.

Google being one of the largest search engines has already released new tech called the home assistant that can set reminders, play music, even regulate your heating and switch your lights on and off at given commands, Google glass, a pair of glasses with a user interface that can be used as a computer to aid in health care, manufacturing and many other businesses, making working with computers hands free and enables the user to upload information to a hard drive and connect remotely to other computers, eventually all this information can be stored on the cloud.

''The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.''

"Bill Gates Quotes." BrainyQuote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2019. 30 August 2019. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/bill_gates_446483

Speed cameras on our motorways and cameras in use in public spaces monitor peoples movement, and this data can be used to solve crime and deter crime as its presence can be a deterrent in itself.

In the book The Circle, the author explains this perfectly, transparency promotes trust, subliminally telling us that it is good to be open and share on social media, if we have nothing to hide.

With the introduction of moving pictures in 1927, we now had sound and vision working in synchronicity with each other, bringing yet another new immersing experience to audiences who could afford to visit theatres and other establishments that played moving pictures.

Disney's Fantasia 1940

In film and television we are bombarded with how technology can effect us, socially and economically how the use of Artificial intelligence can be used in a totalitarian society to enforce control, and to monitor our movements and behaviour, in health care and welfare, and our personal and financial habits.

The film Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg, released in 2002, shows how technology has advanced and claims that since this films release that there are already some of the innovations being manufactured by large companies such as Boeng, NASA, and IBM. Hand gesture recognition and holographic screens, have been seen in most of today's Sci-fi movies.

Movies and film can depict, and in some circumstances predict how technology can be and will be used. Film directors are now seeking advice from scientists and engineers to realise their ideas for a distopian future, in Minority report (2002), it shows the main character, a detective as using hand gestures and 3D interfaces to interact with different screens and move seamlessly between, the film also shows the use of personalised advertisements on bill boards as the main protagonist walks by them. the information is displayed showing products and services relevant to that person which is not a great leap from Google ads that we have on our search engines every time we access the Internet.

The electronic tattoo that can monitor patient symptoms remotely

This kind of technology is already being manufactured to hold personal data, albeit only medical information, this technology sits on the skin, we are one step away from technology being placed under the skin.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2013/mar/13/electronic-tattoo-monitor-patient-symptoms

Science and technology are so intertwined now that you cannot have one without the other. It is a billion dollar industry that is manufacturing new tech to improve the products and services that help the medical profession diagnose and treat multiple conditions. But is this the start of our data being used to facilitate the use of 'on the body' technology as a way of carrying our data so that it can be used to develop artificial implants that can do the same thing.

Conclusion

We are continually bombarded with technology everywhere from the corner shop to the airport check in, the more we use it the more it has to be improved to work faster, to store more information, to entertain for longer, fact is that in order for the technology to be more efficient, it has to have a longer battery life, it has to have parts that don't wear out, it must be able to withstand corrosion, atmospheric changes, to be able to have down loadable updates, without the need to buy new equipment, but we are not far from this already and the next stage in technological evolution would be to make it affordable to all consumers. If we are going to be part of the next wave of the new digital experience eventually businesses would have to market new technology to all kinds of users, from business to commercial.

Introduction

In this essay, I discuss the beginnings of digital art and how it is used, I also look at how digital art has changed and why, does art immerse?, I will talk about what immersion is and how it can affect the viewer, and the difference between cognitive immersion and hyper immersion used in installations. I will also look at multimedia artist Bill Viola, and his work, I have also included an interview with the artist in which he explains his use of water, and why he waited for technology to become more advanced so that he could produce his vision for his installations.
As digital art has emerged along side technology artists are becoming more creative and I show examples of this.

Art and the digital Experience

In 1967, a collective was formed, originated by engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer, and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. This group was named EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology) and its mission was to promote collaboration between art and the ever accelerating world of technology. The result was a series of installations and performances incorporating innovative electronic systems, including electrical circuitry, video projection, wireless sound projection, and Doppler sonar. Although many of these works were not strictly "digital" due to the relative primitiveness of the technology involved, compared to what is available today, they laid the groundwork for a type of art, which embraced and explored, rather than rejected or ignored, technological progress.

Joseph Beuys was one of the first to use sound in performance art. A German born artist living in America in the 1950's, he became known as one of the artists of the Fluxus movement, a group of international artists who used this kind of medium, but it was mainly in New york city around the 60's and 70's.

With the Introduction of this new medium artists explored the way sound can be used, to separate what is classed as art in a traditional sense, ie, paint and canvas and challenges the social normality of placing the viewer in an alternative reality, messing with what the brain is actually seeing and if, and what socially and politically is correct, Joseph Beuys blurred the lines, and so did a lot of other artists around the same time, making society think, what a bent reality can be like, forcing the viewer to question what they see.

It was the Fluxus movement that first took art to the streets, George Brecht said himself, 'concert halls, theatres, and art galleries" were "mummifying.'(wikipedia George Brecht, 2.3, line 4).

We are creatures of curiosity, constantly seeking new Ideas, using technology to become more efficient and to save time, as we become more and more busy in our every day lives.

In using connectivity we are slowly becoming disconnected In our lives, yet in the art world, it is working to make us become more connected with ourselves, immersing us in to an emotion or a feeling that we had been disconnected from, using technology to enable us to re-connect with ourselves and immersing us in to a digitally enhanced reality.

As technology advances artists are continually finding ways to use digital technology in art, and the lines between what is art and performance is blurring with the introduction of Installation art, which encourages the audience to become a part of it. In some circumstances the art is not complete without the participation of its viewer, to be able to interpret the work and be involved in the space. For example when I watch television I am only present in the moment for a short time, while a film is on, it is a 2D experience that we can walk away from, it is merely there to entertain, it is a tool with which I can switch over as soon as our brain becomes dis-engaged, this cognitive immersion does not require any interactivity from the viewer, but we can still engage as our brain tells us it is not real we are able to disconnect.

Digital technology, as much as it tries to create an immersing inter-reality can only work with the participant if they are a willing subject, which is why technologies seek to become more sensory, using a narrative that we can relate to, interpreting sound and vision, with sensory elements such as stereo sound giving the illusion that we are in a greater space, such an example is virtual reality, we can only become a part of this inter-dimensional world if we can fully immerse ourselves in the modality of the world technology is trying to create.

We can also look at VR (virtual reality) as a blank space that has been created in a digital world in order for its main aim to be immersion, just as theatre does, subtracting the outside world so that the participant cannot be distracted with real world thinking whilst in the zone of the installation.

What is Immersion

Its dictionary term 'deep mental involvement in something' or 'being put in to water or liquid completely', but we are going to look at being engaged in a mental sense to be immersed in an act or actions that needs complete involvement of the participant. The concept of immersion is generally defined as a viewer “forgetting” the real world outside of the virtual environment and by a sense of being in a make-believe world generated by computational hardware and software. Immersion has been explored in various disciplines (Literature, Game, Architecture, Aesthetics, etc.), but many Virtual Reality (VR) scientists and artists have actively examined the concept by focusing on creating new immersive environments that push the boundaries of new technology.

This usually involves all senses to be engaged in the act, sight, sound, and smell, and sometimes even touch. Artists rely on the participant being completely engaged in the installation, becoming a part of the piece itself for it to have the desired effect. This has been used for centuries in theatre and has also been used since the 1960's for installation art the concept being that 'the audience loses itself in the veracity of the drama creating an immersive experience ' (Packer and Jordan 2001), but we can also argue that installation art cannot immerse as it is not live and is not immediate in the sense that it is not natural and open to mistakes like in the theatre, liveliness usually plays a big part in the act of immersion as it has the capacity to draw the audience in and create another reality that is different to the viewers world, the immediacy of theatre has an ability to engross the viewer in to the mediate time as it is being viewed allowing the participant to relive the experience and playback different memories of the parts that had then engrossed.

Oliver Grau argues that Installation art does not immerse in the same way as theatre does as it is not immediate and requires a level of staging which may mean that the use of technology will enable the artist to re-mediate his work in order for the audience to view the piece on a loop, this may be true for early digital artists who used digital sound and video, also computer generated imagery, for example VR, technology grows more advanced and is enabling Artists to become more and more creative in its uses.

One such example is Bill Viola's Installation art. Bill uses large empty spaces to stage his installations, because of the size and the medium he uses it would not be cost effective for him to show this live every single time he wanted to show it, instead he video records his work and plays it back on a loop, reversing the video, in some instances his work involves water and lots of it, and actors who are part of the installation. Tristan's Ascension(2014).

Because of the size of the installation the viewer is surrounded by sound and visual on a grand scale
water is flooding down and the actor is visibly being raised up by the water, it has a sensory immersion due to the scale and the eye wanders up with the actor, his movements denoting where he is going you are transfixed until the very end. Bill Viola's work has a way of hyper immersion because of the use of water and how it has a calming feel to the flow of it, and the effect it has on the viewer is hypnotic. Sound also plays a large part as without this it would not have the full sensory effect, visually and auditory it is able to engulf us in the sensation of being immersed in water.

Conclusion

Installation art appeals to the viewer because it does not seek to take them out of their immediate space but still seeks to immerse emotionally, physically and sensory, art as a whole over the centuries has sought to make people question reality and takes your mind outside of normal thinking, Oliver Grau said himself that 'the definition of immersion as characterised by diminished distance and increased emotional involvement' and 'requiring the most exact adaptation of illusionary information to the physiological disposition of the human senses'(Grau, 2003). Artists internationally have worked to bring to us critical thinking of how we view art today and it is constantly changing, the lasting impression it has on the viewer, is what an artist strives for to dig deep in to our Psyche, to make us think more about alternative realities besides our own.

Using Sound and vision in art

What is digital art

BEUYS - FILZ TV 1970 Fluxus, happening and performance art

The British arts council

The Box

Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping on moving surfaces. The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera.