[ISEA2011] Paper: Justine Poplin – Opera and the Cult of the DJ

Abstract

Physicality in Projection
Artists working in the field of New Media have at times limited their creative outputs of their finished works exhibited in the gallery or public space by the notion of ‘the screen’. The screen I am speaking of is generally rectangular in shape, either within the interface of a computer screen or majestically projected onto flat, uninspiring surface/s. There are however; other possibilities that few artists have explored to create a ‘physicality’ in projection, which extends preconceived notions of screen-based culture.

Video and notions of projection can engage in creative strategies that push boundaries and extend the message of the medium. Artists can initiate an alternate dialogue by creating a screen or screens that are physical in presence and through this physicality take on their own psychological space. This physical presence is illustrated in Tony Oursler’s ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ 2006 the viewer can freely circumnavigate the work in its holographic–like, free-form state, illuminating video’s post-human presence through projection. Oursler’s “general theme was to mimetic technology, that is, technology that could be perceived as a direct extension of psychological states”. [1] In video work such as this created from projected pixels onto surfaces that are freestanding or transcendental take video out of its rigid realm into the transcendental giving the audience something avant- garde and phantasmagorical.

There are several Artists that will be discussed throughout this paper and then later I will discuss how they have informed my own work…

Poplin further explores notions of screen culture and performative presence in her new work ‘Habitat’.

[1] Smoke and Mirrors: Tony Oursler’s Influence machine, A conversation between Tony Oursler and Louise Neri May July 2001, New York City

  • Justine Poplin is an Artist/designer/educator. She studied at COFA, University of NSW in Australia where she majored in Multi – Media. Poplin continued studying through Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia and attained a Master of Art -Media Art. Her work explores concepts of opera as realised through new technologies, cross- cultural and cross – disciplinary means of presentation. She often alludes to ‘physicality’ in projection in her work, which extends preconceived notions of screen-based culture. Poplin’s background has seen her involvement with a variety of hybridised art forms in Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and in China. She has performed, collaborated and exhibited in solo shows and also group shows with artists including; The Post Arrivalists, Frumpus and Swizelstik. Poplin currently lectures in Digital Design & Visual Communication at BNU HKBU United International College, Zhuhai China.  pixeldirt.blogspot.com

Full text (PDF) p. 1958-1963