John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

forms of artistic expression as well as the act of transcending the
boundaries between art and research, art and social/political activism,
art and pop culture. Jurors will be looking very closely at how
dynamically the submitted work defies classification in a single one of the
Prix categories of long standing.” (Ars Electronica Linz Gmbh, 2007b).
This is another indicator the incidence of border-crossing is on the increase.
Practitioners can use computer-based technologies to transcend traditional
modes of practice in favour of engaging with what can be viewed as an expanded
cultural field. The result of this is the creation of new orders of critical, cultural
and technological objects.
2.10 Summary of critical and contextual review
This contextual review was conducted to illuminate the current use of
computer-based design and fabrication tools across art and design disciplines.
It appears that expanded access to these technologies has come about by the
ability of software applications that compile programming code from visual
representations of objects (Callicott, 2001). However, only with the increased
democratisation and proliferation of computing technologies in the 1990s has
there been a truly mass uptake of these tools. Computer-based technologies
have become more affordable as the number of their users has increased.
Competition between technology providers for this increased volume of users
has more recently brought about the condition where smaller companies and
even individuals can afford these sophisticated, computer-based design tools.
Many objects that have resulted from the initial use of these technologies by
practitioners have been preoccupied with the technical aspects of these digital
tools (Bunnell, 1998 and Paul, 1999). There have been a number of exhibitions
that have showcased and promoted ‘digital sculpture’. However, much of this
work imitates the formal strategies of traditional sculpture and the critical
discourse around this activity has focused primarily on aspects of productivity.
Nevertheless, we have also seen the use of these tools in ways that question
notions of originality, uniqueness and authorship and that addresses the scope
of both digital manufacturing and the arts.
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