Sight as Site in the Digital Age: Art, the Museum, and Representation (Digital Culture and Humanities, 5)

This volume presents a broad coverage of theoretical issues that deal with digital culture, representation and ideology in art and museums, and other cultural sites, offering new insights into issues of representation in the digitization of art. It critically examines the roles of museum and archives in the digital age and reexamines the intricate relations between sight and site in art, museums, exhibitions, theme parks, theatre performances, music videos, and films. The collection represents a multidisciplinary approach to the complex issues underlying the advent of technologies and digital culture. The rise of visual culture since the twentieth century can be accounted for by the advent of technology in film, TV, museum exhibitions, and the wide use of websites, but it can also be understood as a paradigmatic shift toward representation as a visual means to interpret culture, with new understandings of the site-sight dilemma and the co-implications in related tensions. Complicating the issue of representation is the rise of digital culture, as digital sites replace actual physical sites. This book explores how the virtual has replaced the actual, and in what ways, and to what effects, the digital has displaced the physical. With contributions by museum curators, communications scholars, visual artists, theatre artists, filmmakers, literary critics, and historians, this volume is of appeal to academics and graduate students in information science, art, media, performance, literary and cultural studies, and history. “The book binds together different concepts such as site, sight and digitalization in a very original way. It convincingly gathers contributions from academics and practitioners, artists and museum specialists. The chapters are theoretically well-founded, show an interesting breadth of content and are also dealing with current developments.” ― Monika Gänssbauer, Professor of Chinese and Head of the Institute of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden “The chapters raise important and latest questions and discussions on the impact of digital technology has on art, culture, creativity, representation and innovation. They are original in dealing with latest examples in recent years, especially during the pandemic, with reflections and philosophical discussions on the transformation digital culture undergoes in relation to human and posthuman contexts, with examinations of art works, archives and museum collections, exhibitions, theme parks, theatre performances, films and music videos that encompass cultures from ancient to contemporary, from the West to the East, and from physical to digital.” ― Jack Leong, Associate Dean of Research and Open Scholarship, York University Libraries, Toronto, Canada Series Preface Introduction Sites of Cultural Production Museums as Sites and Sights Sight and Digitisation of Art Sight and Representation Some Observations Acknowledgements Contents Chapter 1: What is a ``Site ́ ́? Human Scales, Embodied Experiences, and the Physical-Digital Interface Varieties of Physical-Digital Site Interfaces The Digital Site and the ``Transcendence of Limitations ́ ́ Physical or Digital Sites: Types of Experiential Dissonances What is a ``Site ́ ́?-Conceptual Issues Conclusion: Living with/in Two ``Sites ́ ́ References Chapter 2: Sight as Site: Virtual Andersen in East Asia Virtual Re-siting of Andersen in Shanghai Re-siting Andersen in Tokyo Re-imaginging Andersen in Korean Fantasies Virtual Andersen in East Asian Digital Mediatisation References Chapter 3: Archives and Museums in the Decontextualised Digital World Archives and Museums as Institutions The Distributive Principle of a Networked Society Research Methodology State Archive in Varazdin About the Archive Online Presence Collaboration Digital Connections Statements Concept Varazdin City Museum About Online Presence Collaboration Digital Connections Statements Concept Archives and Museums in the Digital World Conclusion Appendix: Interview Questions References Chapter 4: Do Museums Still Need Objects? Politics of Museums Reconsidered in the Digital Era The Birth of the Museum, Decolonisation, and Digitisation Holding onto the Physical Objects: Irreplaceable Roles Under the Digital Challenge Architectures and Space as Objects Towards a Multisensory Museum Conclusion: To Be or Not to Be References Chapter 5: Museums and Archives in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Post-representation The Concept of the Archive and the Impact of New Technologies on Its Renewed Conceptualisation Hybridising the Museum and the Archive The Archive as a Curatorial Space and as a Mechanism of Self-Reflection: The Museum Explores Itself The Archive and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Final Notes References Chapter 6: Implicit Heritage Values in Online Collection Databases: Assessing the Presentation of Egyptian Artefacts in Art Mu... Digitisation, Presentation and Value Egyptian Artefacts and the Chauncey Murch Collections Methodology Broader Database Structures Object-Level Data, a Systematic Approach Murch Collection: Associated Sites Murch Collection: Bibliographic References Murch Collection: Provenance in the MET Murch Collection: Object Conditions in the BM Overarching Themes and Future Steps References Chapter 7: Large Datasets and the Particularity of Art: Will There Be Any Art in the Deep Learning Age? Generative Art/Neural Networks Art Criticism Today Judgemental AI AI and Migrant Mother AI Curators Conclusion References Chapter 8: Van Gogh ́s Universe in the Crossways of Audiovisual Arts and Digital Technology: A Comparative Case Study from an I... Introduction: On/Gogh/ing Trends in Contemporary Artistic Production Technical and Technological Features: Mediums, Devices, and Artefacts An Interartistic Vocation: Painting, Music, and Poetry as Intermedial Expressions Final Remarks: Gogh/ing Forward and Beyond References Chapter 9: New Stage Aesthetics in the Digital Age New Peking Opera with 3D Effects Modern Dance Drama with Motion Picture Qualities Remarks on Technology-Enhanced Performance References Chapter 10: Luvv Bazar: Queer and Feminist Representation in Music Video After the Internet Arca, Reverie, 2017 References Chapter 11: Demystify Twenty-First Century Creativity, Innovation and Education through Film Analysis The Myths Innovation: The Rational Part of Creativity Eureka Moments in Film Myth about Originality From Creativity to Innovation Moneyball vs. Sully Creative Innovation through Design Thinking Education for Innovation Conclusion References Chapter 12: Visual Art as Alternative Epistemological Approach Vernacular Cultures and Epistemic Oppression: A Field for Alternative Epistemologies A Vision from ``Below ́ ́ as an Alternative to the On-High Vision of the Academy The Power of the Visual Image Corpus, Archive, and Artistic Manifesto First Artwork: De nos vies... quelques Traits (Outlines of Our Lives) Video Part 1: Cosmologies Video Part 2: Medium Video Part 3: Mythologies Video Parts 4 and 5: Aspiration/Imagination Second Artwork: Élévation Conclusion References Correction to: Van Gogh ́s Universe in the Crossways of Audiovisual Arts and Digital Technology: A Comparative Case Study from ... Correction to: Chapter 8 in: K.-k. Tam (ed.), Sight as Site in the Digital Age, Digital Culture and Humanities 5, https://doi.... Index