B◯TI

a PhD research project

2023 – ongoing

The doctoral project focuses on the questions of technicality in contemporary digital images. The project researches the relationship between technical images and objects and media spaces in a hybrid state with digitization and virtualization within this framework. Specifically, we are in a space that combines analog, digital, physical and virtual media, in which objects are represented through images that also show a mixture of these states. At the same time, the image as a mediator is based on many technics of image production, especially computer technology and digital technology, therefore the study of the image in this issue needs to focus on how the technical aspects of the image shape the transmutation of the object and the media space.

The contemporary image, on the other hand, implies an accumulation of technics beneath its surface, and dissecting the technicality in new media contributes to the perception of its composition. On the other hand, the orientation of new media is rooted in a tradition of visual spatiality, and the physical image traverses a mixture of analog, digital, physical, and virtual states, dispersing technics in every corner of the media space. In addition, images can be produced by hardware and algorithms, which do not require the intervention of an operator. Thus, thinking about the transformation of the materiality of art and human involvement in a New Materialism perspective is also a critical question.

Based on the established research framework, the PhD project will strengthen the theoretical writing and related practical projects. In combination with the analysis of key theories and cases, the “Technical Image Lab” and the “Virtual Workspace” established in practice will produce a working method that combines theory and practice. 

Keywords

Technical image, digital and virtual, mixed state, new media space, materiality