Date Thesis Awarded

4-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

Art and Art History

Advisor

Elizabeth Mead

Committee Members

Michael Gaynes

Eliot Dudik

Tanya Stadelmann

Abstract

When we see an image, by here I mean a visual image such as a photograph, film or video, we perceive it at its surface, just like when we approach a physical object, we experience the physical surface of it. My project and research focus on digital image, which manifests the virtual materiality at the image surface. When we describe materiality at the physical surface, we usually describe a sensory experience of looking, touching, tasting, etc. Similarly, the materiality of an image is associated with bodily experiences—while our minds comprehend and dissect the image, our body are simultaneously sensing its surface. The image’s materiality, influenced by the recorded material, space, time, rhythm, motion, and story, corresponds to the physical space, real time, physical motion, as well as our body. Eventually the recorded materials in the filmic scenes appear as the imagery materiality at the image surface. Our experience of the image surface is then connected with our perception of the physical surface, and our attachment to the physical material shifts to an attachment to the virtual body.