Abstracting Reality Art, Communication, and

Abstracting Reality considers the relationship between digital technology and culture and their mutual influences on each other.

Acknowledgements

vii

Preface

ix

I. The Emergence of Digital Technology

1

(48)

The Quantization of Everyday Life

3

(26)

Divide and Conquer

3

(2)

Time

5

(3)

Space

8

(6)

Value

14

(3)

Information

17

(3)

Growing Number? Quantization and Thought

20

(9)

Digital Technology Develops

29

(20)

Binary Numbering

31

(2)

Early Digital Inventions

33

(10)

Into the Computer Age

43

(6)

II. Art

49

(96)

The Work of Art in the Digital Age

51

(38)

Production

52

(6)

Preservation, Restoration, and Exhibition

58

(7)

The Return of Aura and Cult Value

65

(3)

Links Back to the Physical

68

(6)

Digital Models vs. Physical Models

74

(6)

The Leveling of Dimensionality

80

(9)

Cultural Biases Inherent in Digitization

89

(26)

The Economics of Representation

91

(5)

Economical Representation

96

(4)

Text Displays

100

(7)

Digital Culture

107

(8)

The Composite Image

115

(30)

In-camera Compositing

118

(3)

Optical Compositing

121

(3)

Digital Compositing

124

(3)

Limitations and Spatiotemporal Defects

127

(3)

Theoretical and Narrative Implications

130

(5)

Hierarchies of Elements

135

(10)

III. Communication/Media

145

(48)

Machine Mediation of Social Interaction

147

(26)

Group Interaction vs. Groups of Interactions

149

(5)

Layers of Mediation Between Individuals

154

(7)

Interactivity

161

(12)

The Metaphor of Cyberspace

173

(20)

Degrees of Disengagement

174

(4)

Spatial Structures

178

(5)

Social Structures

183

(10)

IV. Perception/Representation/Cognition

193

(98)

The Digital Environment

195

(26)

Dis-integration and Reintegration

196

(9)

Approach and Engulfment

205

(7)

Abstraction and Invisibility

212

(9)

Virtual Reality and Other Substitutes

221

(24)

Reality vs. Virtual Reality

222

(8)

Virtual Reality Fantasies

230

(7)

Acceptable Substitutes?

237

(8)

Indexicality

245

(46)

Senses and Signals

246

(2)

A Grain of Truth?

248

(14)

Subjunctive Documentary

262

(18)

Spheres of Indexicality

280

(11)

Epilogue

291

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Abstracting Reality Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials