Research Catalogue

In general, I consider the topic of the submission as interesting. However, I wish the artist’s actual practice and research questions would connect to the given theoretical framework more convincingly.

The structure of the paper and the English used are very good, most of the times a pleasure to read. Furthermore the submission’s references are well chosen - it would have been nice to see a few of my interactive video favourites added (Toshio Iwai, Scott Snibbe, and David Rokeby), but of course the list of examples never can be complete.

I believe that quite often the facts (e.g. under the section ‘Theoretical Framework’) don’t connect well with the author’s conclusions and assumptions. For this reason I suggest reformulating suggestions made by the artist (making usage of the word ‘may’) as questions.

The intended research also could have more impact on the execution of the final piece — I have seen frame difference visualisations in a lot of different pieces, with a lot of different explanations for them, so I would like to see something new and more to the point.

The project intends to provide one methodological approach, which helps articulate how computation, video, projection, and interaction can direct and more fully explain our physical experience and comprehension of contemporary public spaces. This is a very interesting goal of crucial impact on research and artistic practice today. The project tries to combine a theoretical research goal with an artistic output. To use video as an instrument of aesthetical research is convincing, too. But the outcomes of the project can only be regarded as ‘first results’. The main cause of the ‘weak’ aesthetical form of the project seems to be rooted—first in the simple concept of bodies—not taking into account the discourses marked by eminent authors like Judith Butler and Amelia Jones. The reflection of contemporary critical media theory in relation to video art is too selective. References to important works such as Sigrid Adorf’s Operation Video (Bielefeld, Transcript 2008) or Georg Christoph Tholen’s Die Zäsur der Medien (Frankfurt 2002) are lacking.

The project should receive further funding and proceed in collaborations with international video-artists to sharpen the theories reflected upon and to improve the outcomes!

The impact on the project is possible in the fields of media-theory, philosophy (especially in the field of so called ‘New Phenomenology’), media enhanced performance art, technological devices to track movements and performance studies.

The submission contains a clear description of the research questions, which it wants to address. The author knows the state of the art in research on public spheres and concerning the tracking of movement in time and space. The submitted project enables a lot of new thoughts, either on the technical level of tracking and morphing or on the concept of bodily movements. Hélàs; the form or the aesthetical output is on a starting level or beginners state and should be developed further. Furthermore the debate on bodily styles, performative space and new media theories in Video art should influence the description-texts of the project, too. The submission provides—from my point of view—new tools for tracking bodily movements over time. This can lead to new insights if the critical reflection and the video-documents are reworked. The research process is consequent, and the methods in use are adequate and correct, but they should be clarified and strengthened.

The design and navigation support of the exposition are good. It is correct and feasible according to referencing. The readability of the submission is perfect.

The submission is worth to be published after a slight rework. The strengths of the project are: the contemporanity of the topic, the state of the art in research topics in art in public spheres and the interdisciplinary working concept of the project between artistic production and reflection. The author should rework before publishing their theory on bodily styles, media theory of the genre video art and the philosophy of time; he should seek also new collaborations with artists using camera-tracking such as Zilla Leutenegger or Douglas Gordon.