Running Head: SOFT(WARE) SCULPTURE Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media. By Matthew Galea A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Arts at the Faculty for Media and Knowledge Sciences (MaKS) University of Malta 2018 Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media !ii Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media Declaration I hereby declare that I am the legitimate author of this thesis and that it is my original work. No portion of this work has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or institution of learning. ______________________ Matthew Galea May 2018 !iii Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media Abstract ‘Soft(ware) Sculpture’ is a re-articulation of the notion of sculpture developed in this thesis to reflect sculpture’s new relationship with software and the consequent emergence of new forms of sculptural practice and sculptural artefacts, which through digital technology are able to sense their environment and become reactive to it. ‘Soft(ware) Sculpture’ is therefore composed of a multitude of fluid relationships in constant motion across time, dimensions and realities. The notion of ‘Soft(ware) Sculpture’ was developed by the author from a re-articulation of expanded arts practices that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. Contextualised through research that was conducted in sculptural and media arts histories across multiple artistic disciplines, these practices were re-evaluated and extended upon through the application of current digital technologies overlaid on the author’s existing sculptural practice, thus connecting material, time and space in order to explore possibilities previously beyond the remit of sculpture. Conceptual, historical and technological precedents were identified and utilised as foundations for the development of the frameworks that lead the software sculpture fusion. This study re-examines the relationships and the roles of sculpture with and within a constantly changing, technologically oriented society through the emergence of software as a mono-medium, more precisely, as a medium that has grown to encompass most of the technology that preceded it. The practical body of work that accompanies this thesis advocates the fusion of the conventional sculptural ‘object’ and the digital medium to create both a ‘sculptural ecology’ and a ‘sculptural situation’, read within this study as macro and micro-states of a new breed of sculptural artefacts that are fluid in both appearance and behaviour and that in themselves are also capable of creating artistic artefacts. !iv Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Jack !v Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media Acknowledgements I shall start by expressing my sincere gratitude to Professor Vince Briffa M.A. (Leeds), Ph.D. (UCLan), Head of Department of Digital Arts at the Faculty for Media and Knowledge Sciences (MaKS), who has been my supervisor for this thesis. He has been my mentor, a role model, and a good friend ever since I started my MFA within his department. Professor Briffa has helped me grow both as a sculptor - researcher as well as an individual. I would like to also thank Mr Ryan Pillow, Chairman of the Bieganski Foundation, for his generous patronage that has allowed me to work with materials and machinery that have opened new possibilities for my practice and research. Mr David Xuereb, owner of Gallery Last Touch in Mosta, for his generous support, not only for providing me with spaces to exhibit and document my work but also for his invaluable advice over materials and processes, as well as countless amount of hours, over countless amounts of coffees, discussing, art, art-making and being an artist. I would also like to thank my partner Julia for her patience, for innumerable hours spent enduring loud and possibly obnoxious sonic experiments and for always being supportive and understanding when I put my research and practice first. Last but not least I would like to thank my parents for their long endured support, for allowing me to burn a hole in their bank account, for always dragging large, arguably useless objects in their house and turning every surface in their house in artistic experiment for over a decade. Their support, advice, encouragement and patience has made all this possible. Thank you! !vi Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media The research work disclosed in this publication is partially funded by the Endeavour Scholarship Scheme (Malta). Scholarships are part-financed by the European Union - European Social Fund (ESF) - Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 “Investing in human capital to create more opportunities and promote the well-being of society”. European Union – European Structural and Investment Funds Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 “Investing in human capital to create more opportunities and promote the well-being of society” Scholarships are part financed by the European Union - European Social Funds (ESF) Co-financing rate: 80% EU Funds;20% National Funds !vii Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media Table of Contents Declaration iii Abstract iv Dedication v Acknowledgements vi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Aims and Motivations 2 1.2 A Sculptural Approach 5 1.3 Overview of the Study 6 2. Sculpture 11 2.1 Reconsidering The Artefact 11 2.2 Extending Sculpture 14 2.3 Towards a Sculptural Ecology 28 2.4 Sculpture and its Position in the Audio-Visual Realm 39 2.5 Polymedia Sculpture 42 2.6 Software and Sculpture 47 3. Software 60 3.1 Software = Sculpture 69 3.2 Audio-Visual Media in Contemporary Artistic Practices 75 3.3 Expanded Cinema or Cinema by Other Means 81 3.4 Ratios of Remediation in Contemporary Audio-Visual Media 85 4. Media as Sculptural Matter 91 4.1 Projection Mapping 93 !viii Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media 4.2 Holograms 97 4.3 Holography And The Visual Arts 104 4.4 Sound As Sculptural Matter 108 5. Sound Art 113 5.1 Sculptural Approaches to Sound 123 5.2 Sound in the Visual Arts 143 5.3 Sound - Time 151 5.4 Sound - Music 153 5.5 Sound in Matter, Sound in Space, Sound in Memory 160 5.6 Restructuring the Narrative 168 5.7 Sound Art and Narrative (Creating place through aural Narrative) 171 6. Spaces in Sculpture 178 6.1 Digital Space: The Nature of (Cyber)Space 191 6.2 ‘Real Space’ and ‘Virtual Space” 194 6.3 Video as a Space for Sculpture 197 7. Projects 201 7.1 Practice as Research 201 7.2 Sculpture and Image-Making 207 7.3 The Writer and the Reader in Sculpture 210 7.4 Tracing a Historical Genealogy for My Practice 215 7.6 Soundwave Sculpture (2015-2016) 223 7.7 On the Rocks (2016) Constructed Situation for 3D Printer, Lamp and Frozen Confirmation of Civilisation (on an Over Populated Island). In Collaboration with Francesco Scialo 234 !ix Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media 7.8 Sculptural Situation for Articulated Lamp (2016) 242 7.9 RGB Sculpture (2016) 246 7.10 Point and Shoot (2016) 249 7.11 Landscape Instruments (2016) 251 7.12 Sound Painting (2016) 254 7.13 Self Portrait in 5.1 (2016-2017) 256 7.14 Minor Works - Self Portrait with Self Doubt, Fat Face, Short Hair No Beard and Exploded Minor Chord (2016) 257 7.15 Major Works - Mildly Inebriated Self Portrait with Green, Larger Forehead, Vodka and Arpeggiated Synth (2016) 257 7.16 Singing Sculptures (2016-2017) 259 7.17 Karrotti (2016) 260 7.18 Crosstalk - Imaginary Arachno-Christian Cruciform Reliquarium, Brazilian Amethyst and Sonic Fragments from 90s Pop Culture (2017) 265 7.19 (Re) Diffusion (2016-2017) 267 7.20 Earth Machines (2017) 270 7.21 Sonic Objects (2017) 276 7.22 Final Thoughts 282 8. Conclusion 289 8.1 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Studies 298 References 301 Appendix (USB Drive) 347 !x Soft(ware) Sculpture: Spatial and Temporal Interventions in Audio-Visual Media 1! 1. Introduction The computer's most profound aesthetic implication is that we are being forced to dismiss the classical view of art and reality which insists that man stand outside of reality in order to observe it, and, in art, requires the presence of the picture frame and the sculpture pedestal. The notion that art can be separated from its everyday environment is a cultural fixation [in other words, a mythic structure] as is the ideal of objectivity in science. It may be that the computer will negate the need for such an illusion by fusing both observer and observed, "inside" and "outside." It has already been observed that the everyday world is rapidly assuming identity with the condition of art. (Burnham, 1969b, p. 103) Software and sculpture have an interesting relationship. As shall be discussed in this thesis, software and sculpture behave in the same manner, essentially (re)shaping or (re)arranging information, be it in the form of physical matter, sound or data, and organising it in a way that is meaningful. Both software and sculpture are processes of remediation, and whilst they more often work on different levels, at times in separate dimensions also, this research focuses on how the two work together. Soft(ware) Sculpture is not an artistic genre or a movement. Through technology, humankind now also resides in virtual and augmented spatial and temporal dimensions and Soft(ware) Sculpture can be understood as a natural expansion of sculptural practice into these dimensions.