Motivated by questions posed to the new media artist, concerning the difficulties with coming up with an innovative artistic style in interactive media performance, this dissertation takes as a departure point a self-created multimedia work for a dancer, 5.1 surround sound, and 3-channel HD interactive projection. The work uses a custom-built wireless gestural interface to translate kinetic energy from the performer, into real-time multichannel synthetic sound and real- time OpenGL graphics. Throughout my preliminary research I became very much aware of the importance of influence on not only creative endeavors in general, but also the influential nature of the ever-evolving technologies available.<br/>This paper attempts, firstly, to place the new work in the context of these available technologies, within a sociological context for the contemporary artist, and secondly, to analyze how personal artistic style and voice can be transposed through so many different converging elements, all the while, encompassing design, technological enhancements & spontaneous performance.<br/>The over-arching thesis was to observe the journey of self-discovery of creating the piece, to discover how it fits in with the history of interactive media and new media art today.<br/>In its entirety, the paper follows a dual purpose. Firstly, it attempts to formalize a perception of the self in this century, via the convergence of mind and body, through its relationship to software and hardware. Any deduced conclusions are then pitted against an analysis of the work itself.<br/>In conclusion, it is useful to re-evaluate the juxtaposition of disparate media paradigms, as reconciled by the human body, to create a new way of thinking about the marriage between the moving digital image and digital sound in the context of time - as instigated by the translation of kinetic movement.
Byron, Robert,
"Anxiety of Influence: Artistic Identity in Interactive New Media"
(2013).
Computer Music and Multimedia Composition Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z00R9MRC
