| dc.description.abstract | This paper will focus on research into a newly evolving field in interactive media art within the genre of portrait: the visitors-portrait. For this, we can use already-established art historic methods, visual perception theory from psychology, and also cultural history to decode the specific usage of motifs through the histories of different cultures. But in addition, technological history is needed so that the development of each technique used for these artworks can be contextualized in the time that is used.
Paintings by the 19th-century German artist Caspar David Friedrich once ‘invited’ the visitor to be part of artwork through its ‘Rückenfigur’ - depersonalised figures seen from behind, in whose position the viewers are encouraged to place themselves. In interactive media art, visitors can become the main protagonists of artworks as soon as they stand in front of an artwork. They can even help to create and manipulate their self-representations. The visitors can influence the visual results only by walking in front of an artwork.
The specifics of the visitors-portrait as a new genre of portrait will be discussed using well-known examples of work by media artists, such as ‘Portrait on the Fly’ (2015) by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, and ‘Rigid Waves’ (1993) by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss. These examples will be embedded in a socio-cultural aspect of contemporary society: ‘selfie culture’ will be a starting point for discussion. | |
