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  • The Scan, The Touch and The Surface: Swimming in the Shallows

Faust, Chantal, 2017, Conference or Workshop, The Scan, The Touch and The Surface: Swimming in the Shallows at Electronic Visualisation and the Arts Pre-Conference Symposium, London, UIK, 10 July 2017.

Abstract or Description:

A ‘scan’ is a close examination, a slow and repeated sweep of the eye and also the hasty glance of a quick skim. These actions are markedly different, but they all perform the same function: an eye is searching for something. The slow careful focus that absorbs every detail, the staccato pan across a horizon and the bounce of an eyeball as it skips across words on a page are all forms of reading the surface of the visible. Slow, sideways or barely there, behind each method of observation is the one purpose: detection. For the scanner who reads the perceptible world, meaning accumulates with each shift of the gaze. Thought and vision are here combined. It is a close-up form of vision that takes us into the realm of haptic aesthetics. But what happens when we try and see surface? The distance between the thing that sees - whether it is an imaging machine or the seeing eye - collapses. There is no space between the look and the thing. It is all there, on the surface. Nothing is hidden, everything is given away. This practice-led presentation focuses on scanning, touch and an attraction to surfaces, from the interface of the screen to the painted gesture, offering a haptic approach to thinking about digital aesthetics.

Official URL: https://ewic.bcs.org/upload/pdf/ewic_eva17_preconf...
Subjects: Other > Historical and Philosophical studies > V500 Philosophy
Creative Arts and Design > W100 Fine Art
Creative Arts and Design > W800 Imaginative Writing
School or Centre: Research & Innovation
Funders: Royal College of Art, Pratt Institute, School of Information
Date Deposited: 14 Jul 2017 11:40
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2018 15:48
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/2835
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