0.
guide 1.
introduction 2.
method as field of discussion
3. practice
4. theory
5. conclusion and further discussions
| 4.
theory |
4.1 the dialectic of “reading” and “writing” Media Education 4.2 the novelty and distinctiveness of digital media forms Digital Media Research 4.3 multimodal digital media and visualised culture A matter of method? 4.4 “artifacts of expression” and “expressive artifacts” Exploring theory through practice |
This section will try to put forward an add-on - a supplementary conceptualisation or abstraction of the intersection between theory and practice that may encounter some of the formal questions rising when practice-based method is being performed. I will do so by referring to my own experience exploring theory through practice in Extended, more specifically how my understanding of the “double logic of immediacy and hypermediacy”, appearing in Remediation. Understanding New Media (Bolter & Grusin 1999), were explored and refined by collaborative practice and post-production reflection. As the conceptual apparatus “the double logic of immediacy and hypermediacy” is but an example of how theory may be explored by practice and refined by post-production reflection , and further, how this knowledge-making process may be conceptualised by the dynamic of artifacts of expression and expressive artifact in a practice-based thesis, this theory will be presented later, and only briefly in section 4.4.1. Artifacts of expression and expressive artifacts The separation of artefacts of expression and expressive artefacts derives, for my part, from the traditionally more process-oriented and explorative field of art and design research, more specifically the suggestion put forward by Lily Días-Kommonens (2004) that we may consider the objects produced in the art practice as such. Días-Kommonen´s aim is to get at collaborative made art–objects, like multimedia art often is. By separating these two types of artifacts she claims that we can examine how key elements of the community in which the art object is created interact, and see how other artifacts are artifacts of expression in this context. That is, how object of culture and tools become immaterial and material constructive tools, or in Dias-Kommonen´s terms artifacts of expression [64. artifacts and tools as covered briefly earlier + Marx Wartofsky]. The way I adapt Dias-Kommonen and apply this perspective into this context of practice-based method, is as follows. By separating these two types of artefacts, autonomous wholes like conceptual art works may be approachd by critical theory as expressive artifacts, but may also be regarded as tangible manufactured objects produced in a community by means of immaterial (e.g. theory) and material (e.g. digital media) constructive tools – that is as artifacts of expression. Such an approach to digital media may demystify the relation between media-theory and media-practice and perhaps penetrate the autonomous wholes of interpretation. The conceptual apparatus around artifact and the dynamic between artifact and tool, may in addition help us to better articulate the positive relations between creative, innovative artifact production, reflective practice and refined theory. Covering briefly the adaptation and inversion of the analytical concept the “double logic of immediacy and hypermediacy” throughout the roughly parted phases of practice-based method - production and post-production reflection, I will try to show how this immaterial tool informed and influenced the collaborative performances as creative artefacts of expression, and how both practice and the succeeding reflection making this thesis, questions, contextualise and refine my prior understanding of this double logic. Such interplay and positive relation between practice and theory is in line with activity driven learning where “the tools alter the activity and are, in turn, altered by the activity” (Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy 1999:63) as referred to in Chapter 3 on activity theory and the dialectic of artefacts and tools. As an introduction to this section on exploring theory through practice, see co-coordinator of the electronic art ensemble fOam Maya Kuzmanowic´s comments on Extended and this thesis in progress, at the “Dance and Technology” seminar in the Designing Design series held at InterMedia, UiO, 2004. She questioned the presentations distinction between creative process and theoretical perspective. “Is it possible to see theory as part of this creative process? (...) I would call these projects inhabited theory” (recorded comments). I will now try to present the dynamic between creative process and theoretical perspective more explicitly, emphasising how theory became creative artefacts of expression in the collaborative design process, and thereby cultivated. 4.4.1 Artifacts of Expression. Production 4.4.2 Theory altered by practice 4.4.3 Expressive artifact. Post-production reflection 4.4.4 Theory altered by critical inquiry. The double logic of immediacy and hypermediacy, post-structuralism and performance theory |
| 4.4.5 Recap section 4.4 . Exploring theory through practice |
| |
Practice-based Method. Exploring Digital Media through
the Dynamics of Practice, Theory, and Collaborative, Multimedia Performance
Hovedoppgave i mediavitenskap for cand.filol
graden, Universitetet i Oslo, Institutt for medier og kommunikasjon, Mai
2006, Idunn Sem
