Pozorování a jeho popis
(2025)
author(s): Roman Štětina
published in: Research Catalogue
(CZ)
Předmětem mého výzkumu je ekfráze – detailní obrazný popis, který svou přesvědčivostí vyvolává ve čtenářově či posluchačově mysli vizuální představy nebo jiné multisenzorické, emocionální a estetické prožitky.
Prostřednictvím setkání a rozhovorů s lidmi z různých oborů se snažím přiblížit roli popisu napříč historií i rozličnými oblastmi lidské činnosti. Zkoumám, jak se měnilo postavení popisu coby kdysi esenciálního stavebního prvku rozhlasových pořadů. Dále jeho význam a užití jako jedné z prvních forem reprodukce umění, analytického kunsthistorického nástroje nebo nedílné pomůcky při interpretaci výtvarných děl. Zaměřuji se také na jeho aplikaci v podobě promptu pro generátory obrázků založených na strojovém učení a trénování neuronových sítí. A věnuji prostor také úloze popisu v životě nevidomých a zrakově hendikepovaných i jeho funkci jako klíčového nástroje v psychoterapeutické praxi.
Podstatnou součást práce tvoří sdílení konkrétních pedagogických postupů při výuce umění v intermediálním ateliéru na Akademii výtvarných umění v Praze (AVU) a v kurzu intermediální přípravky tamtéž. V tomto prostředí, kde se často pohybujeme mezi médii, hraje ekfráze zásadní roli – umožňuje překlenout mezeru mezi slovy a obrazy, respektive plní roli žánru prostředkujícího mezi médii.
V závěru disertační práce prezentuji vlastní umělecký audit v podobě autorské knihy. Zároveň uvádím sbírku ekfrází převážně fiktivních uměleckých děl, které jsem během svého výzkumu nashromáždil od studujících a vyučujících na AVU.
úvodní ilustrace: Martin Groch
(EN)
My research topic is the ekphrasis, i.e., a detailed figurative description that, with its conclusiveness, evokes visual images or other multisensory, emotional and aesthetic experiences in the reader’s or listener’s mind.
Through meetings and interviews with people from different disciplines, I try to approach the role of description throughout history and various areas of human activity. I examine how the notion of description as a historically essential building block of radio programmes has changed. Furthermore, the emphasis is put on its importance and use as one of the first forms of art reproduction, as an analytical tool for art historians or as a crucial device for artwork interpretation. I also focus on its application in prompting of image generators based on machine learning and neural network training. And I also consider the role of description in the lives of the blind and visually impaired as well as it being a key tool in psychotherapy.
A substantial part of the work is dedicated to the dissemination of specific pedagogical practices in teaching art in the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU) and in the intermedia preparatory course there. In this environment, where we often switch between various media, the ekphrasis has a crucial role. It allows us to bridge the gap between words and images, or rather it represents a genre that mediates between the given media.
In the conclusion of my dissertation, I present my own artistic audit represented by my artist's book. At the same time, I present a collection of ekphrases of mostly fictional works of art that I collected from students and teachers at the Academy of Fine Arts during my research.
thumbnail by Martin Groch
Responsive Aesthetics: Remediating Digital-to-Analog Television Converters as Artist Tools
(2018)
author(s): Eric Souther, Laura McGough, Jason Bernagozzi
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
“Responsive Aesthetics: Remediating Digital-to-Analog Television Converters as Artist Tools” documents the research process undertaken to explore the reanimation of a digital-to-analog television converter box as an artistic tool for intervention with the digital broadcast image through real-time datamoshing. We define datamoshing as an exploitation and interruption of the algorithms that comprise high quality digital streaming video, resulting in the visual distortion and alteration of the image. Our goal was to create a responsive datamoshing system that would not only modulate and distort the incoming broadcast image, but also provide artists with a level of control over these variations. We approached this process as artists, rather than technologists. Inspired by a specific visual or aesthetic result, we would reflect on how this result was achieved technically and then experiment with other methods that might offer further enhancement. The final result was the creation of a responsive datamoshing tool for use in exhibition or performance, both on its own or in combination with other systems (i.e., software, apps, image processing machines).
Writing the Ephemeral. John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing as a Landmark in Media History
(2017)
author(s): Simon Aeberhard
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing is one of his early, legendarily forbidding speeches first held in 1950. The score of the lecture can be understood as a reaction to one of the most momentous cuts in twentieth century’s media history. Cage’s lecture overtly responds to the establishment of the electromagnetic recording, storing and distributing of acoustic material after World War II by reflecting on these technical developments. The text, however, also accurately and subtly reacts to the profound destabilization of the relationship between literacy and orality triggered by these inventions by applying new methods of writing.
Seen as such, the Lecture on Nothing can be connected to Cage’s electronic music on audiotape, Williams Mix for example, and his elaboration of 4’33”, which forms the basis of his “silent pieces.” What unifies these three contemporaneous, but essentially different, works is their thought-provoking semantic emptiness. This article argues that these works are best understood as an artist’s quest for an adequate semiotic means of writing an aural event after electroacoustic media have become widely accessible.