MFA Thesis is published!

MFA Thesis is published!

Wow, what a milestone! I’m so happy to have this finished and so proud to be able to share it. My MFA thesis, Rediscovering The Interpersonal: Models Of Networked Communication In New Media Performance, was successfully defended on August 2, 2018, and is now available in the University of Maine Digital Commons catalog. A quick shout-out and thank you to my advisory committee:

  • N. B. Aldrich, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Intermedia (Co-Advisor)
  • Joline Blais, Associate Professor of New Media (Co-Advisor)
  • Amy O. Pierce, Adjunct Assistant Professor of New Media
  • Sofian Audry, Assistant Professor of New Media
  • Jon Ippolito, Professor of New Media

This thesis will be of interest mostly to folks who are into cybernetics, post-structuralism, and generative art. Also, maybe if you have a thing for brainwaves, Alvin Lucier, or Cageian philosophy. 😉

If you are interested and make it past the click to read any of it, I’d really love to hear your thoughts! Especially if it reminds you of any artists or research groups that I should connect with.

ABSTRACT:

This paper examines the themes of human perception and participation within the contemporary paradigm and relates the hallmarks of the major paradigm shift which occurred in the mid-20th century from a structural view of the world to a systems view. In this context, the author’s creative practice is described, outlining a methodology for working with the communication networks and interpersonal feedback loops that help to define our relationships to each other and to media since that paradigm shift. This research is framed within a larger field of inquiry into the impact of contemporary New Media Art as we experience it.

This thesis proposes generative/cybernetic/systems art as the most appropriate media to model the processes of cultural identity production and networked communication. It reviews brief definitions of the systems paradigm and some key principles of cybernetic theory, with emphasis on generative, indeterminate processes. These definitions provide context for a brief review of precedents for the use of these models in the arts, (especially in process art, experimental video, interactive art, algorithmic composition, and sound art) since the mid-20th century, in direct correlation to the paradigm shift into systems thinking.

Research outcomes reported here describe a recent body of generative art performances that have evolved from this intermedial, research-based creative practice, and discuss its use of algorithms, electronic media, and performance to provide audiences with access to an intuitive model of the interpersonal in a networked world.

You can download the full 119 pages from the University of Maine’s Digital Commons. Video documentation of the related performance work is here.

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