The Avatar and the Index: Digital Corporeality in the Art of Ed Atkins
(2020) KOVM12 20201Division of Art History and Visual Studies
- Abstract (Swedish)
- This thesis attempts to understand how digital representations of the body understand and mediate the digital and Real body. In order to approach this inquiry, this thesis will engage with and compare debates regarding the semiotic register of the index, and how it has been understood in relation to analogue photography versus digital media. This inquiry will be guided by an investigation into the dichotomy by which the analogue photograph is considered to be categorically indexical based on its materiality, whilst the digital image is thought to bring about the ‘death of the index’ due to its relative immateriality. This reconsideration of these conceptions of the index will then be applied to a reading of the digital representations of... (More)
- This thesis attempts to understand how digital representations of the body understand and mediate the digital and Real body. In order to approach this inquiry, this thesis will engage with and compare debates regarding the semiotic register of the index, and how it has been understood in relation to analogue photography versus digital media. This inquiry will be guided by an investigation into the dichotomy by which the analogue photograph is considered to be categorically indexical based on its materiality, whilst the digital image is thought to bring about the ‘death of the index’ due to its relative immateriality. This reconsideration of these conceptions of the index will then be applied to a reading of the digital representations of the human body, or avatars, in the digital animation artworks of contemporary artist Ed Atkins. A reconsideration of the index will serve as a tool in understanding how digital representations of corporeality effectively function as digital indices. Thereby, digital images do not kill the index, but resurrect it in digital-form. With this analysis arise new considerations of how we can define indexicality, the Real, and materiality within the realm of digital media and digital art. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9075749
- author
- Shachat, Emma LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- KOVM12 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Avatar, digital, virtual, index, semiotics, mask, proxy, corporeality, embodiment, materiality, Ed Adkins
- language
- English
- id
- 9075749
- date added to LUP
- 2022-02-21 16:15:18
- date last changed
- 2022-02-21 16:15:18
@misc{9075749,
abstract = {{This thesis attempts to understand how digital representations of the body understand and mediate the digital and Real body. In order to approach this inquiry, this thesis will engage with and compare debates regarding the semiotic register of the index, and how it has been understood in relation to analogue photography versus digital media. This inquiry will be guided by an investigation into the dichotomy by which the analogue photograph is considered to be categorically indexical based on its materiality, whilst the digital image is thought to bring about the ‘death of the index’ due to its relative immateriality. This reconsideration of these conceptions of the index will then be applied to a reading of the digital representations of the human body, or avatars, in the digital animation artworks of contemporary artist Ed Atkins. A reconsideration of the index will serve as a tool in understanding how digital representations of corporeality effectively function as digital indices. Thereby, digital images do not kill the index, but resurrect it in digital-form. With this analysis arise new considerations of how we can define indexicality, the Real, and materiality within the realm of digital media and digital art.}},
author = {{Shachat, Emma}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Avatar and the Index: Digital Corporeality in the Art of Ed Atkins}},
year = {{2020}},
}