Ipad: a Virtual Studio in My Handbag by Angela Hayward
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iPad: A Virtual Studio in my Handbag By Angela Hayward Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) In Collaboration with: University of the Arts London Arts University Bournemouth June 2018 Dedication I would like to dedicate this thesis to my sister, Debs, who always supported me and who I wish could have seen that I’d completed it. I would like to acknowledge the help and support of my supervisory team, Dr Kavita Hayton, Dr Mark Ingham, Professor Stephanie James, Research Manager Valerie Lodge and all my family and friends whose absolute confidence in me has without a doubt enabled me to keep going and finish what I started. Abstract Central to this practice-based investigation is the concept that the iPad has the potential to provide the appropriate tools and resources required to create a body of new and original artworks. I suggest that the iPad enables the artist to re-define the concept of an artist’s studio and facilitates a move away from the traditional studio towards a new virtual studio. This investigation considers the affordances of the iPad in engendering new ways of visualising intimate, private, domestic and public space, through filmmaking, photography, and digital drawing and painting. The practice-based element of this doctorate is interwoven with an investigation of relevant critical theory and is presented as a descriptive analysis of my virtual studio. The research explores the contemporary methodologies of arts-based research; autoethnography and visual and digital ethnography. My contribution to knowledge is that the iPad is a virtual studio that enables myself and other artists to create new modes of creative practice. I have examined and analysed the historical technological contexts that form the foundations for the emergence of a new means of artistic production. I have also addressed questions around machine replicability and the role of new media in shaping the cultural landscape. An autonomous case study reflects on the emergence of new ethical codes of practice in relation to new media iPad art and considers the role of digital integrity within new Fine Art digital practices. It investigates the emergence of innovative online digital artistic communities who use the iPad as the main tool for the creation of iPad art and then access social networking platforms for its dissemination. It further researches a blog of female peers to consider the duality of the iPad as a complementary toolkit to traditional media. Contents Table of Contents………………………………………………….………………………………………………………. i List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. iv Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………….1 Chapter I 1. Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Overview............................................................................................................................. 6 1.2 What does it mean to be a Feminist Artist? ..................................................................... 8 1.2.1 The Personal is Political .............................................................................................. 8 1.2.2 Martha Rosler: A Feminist Perspective .................................................................... 11 1.2.3 Chantel Akerman: Mapping the Domestic ............................................................... 14 1.2.4 Mapping a Filmic Discourse ...................................................................................... 16 1.2.5 Nan Goldin: The Camera as Diaristic Documentary Device ..................................... 17 1.3 Is the Computer a Viable Artistic Tool? .......................................................................... 18 1.3.1 Mapping New Media ................................................................................................ 19 1.3.2 New Aesthetics of the Digitised Screen ................................................................... 21 1.3.3 The Issue of Remediation ......................................................................................... 22 1.4 How has Computing Enabled Creative and Artistic Practice? ........................................ 24 1.4.1 Cutting up the Cut-Ups ............................................................................................. 24 1.4.2 Technofeminism in a Networking Society ................................................................ 26 1.5 Does Networking Provide New Ways of Disseminating Art? ......................................... 28 1.6 What Does it Mean to be an Artist Today? ...................................................................... 29 Chapter II 2 New Creative Mobile Practitioners – Displaying, Sharing and Critiquing ....... 30 2.1 Are Other Artists Using the iPad in their Creative Practice? ............................................ 30 2.1.1 Online Galleries ........................................................................................................ 30 2.1.2 Digital Integrity ......................................................................................................... 31 2.1.3 Online Communities ................................................................................................. 32 2.1.4 iPad Artists ................................................................................................................ 32 2.1.5 The Mobile Arts Collective ....................................................................................... 33 2.1.6 Questions .................................................................................................................. 33 2.1.7 Interviews ................................................................................................................. 35 2.1.8 Individual Artists ....................................................................................................... 36 2.1.9 Women’s Artists Blog ............................................................................................... 43 i 2.1.10 Summary................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter III 3 Research Methodologies ................................................................................................. 50 3.1 Towards a Methodological Approach .............................................................................. 50 3.1.1 Approaches to Research ........................................................................................... 51 3.1.2 A Visual Ethnographic Approach .............................................................................. 52 3.1.3 The Final Research Design ........................................................................................ 54 3.2 Mapping Creative Practice ............................................................................................... 54 3.2.1 Filmmaking and Photography................................................................................... 54 3.2.2 Digital Drawing and Painting .................................................................................... 54 3.2.3 Presentation of Data ................................................................................................ 55 3.3 Analysing and Testing the Hardware and Software ......................................................... 56 3.3.1 Mapping the iPad in my Handbag ............................................................................ 56 3.3.2 Research Methods for Testing Applications ............................................................. 57 3.3.3 Filmmaking Applications .......................................................................................... 57 3.3.4 Photography Applications ........................................................................................ 58 3.3.5 Drawing and Painting Applications .......................................................................... 58 Chapter IV 4 Creative Practice in the Virtual Studio ......................................................................... 58 4.1 iPad: Film Studio ............................................................................................................... 61 4.1.1 How Can Conceptual and Theoretical Influences Be Reflected Through New Filmmaking Practice?................................................................................................................ 61 4.1.2 A Brief Personal History of Time-Lapse .................................................................... 61 4.1.3 How Does the Portability of the iPad Enable New Practices of Filmmaking? .......... 77 4.1.4 How Does the iPad Enable Editing, To Create Layering and Montages? ................. 84 4.2 iPad: Photography, Editing and Printmaking Studio ........................................................ 97 4.2.1 What are the iPad’s Photographic and Editing Affordances? .................................. 97 4.2.2 Does the iPad Offer a New Aesthetic? ................................................................... 101 4.2.3 Printmaking ............................................................................................................ 102 4.2.4 Post Production - How Does the iPad Enable Photographic Editing? .................... 109 4.3 iPad: Sketchbook ...........................................................................................................