Grounded : Locative art and embodied digitality

Abstract

My research is comprised of two connected components – a written report, and an original artwork. In the written segment of the research, I critically assess arguments sourced from digital theorists writing mainly in the 1990s, who positioned “cyberspace” as means of bodily escape, physical transcendence and disconnection from lived reality. I link their writings to a larger notion of technological determinism. I use a combination of theoretical sources and case studies to argue that these determinist attitudes are being challenged by the emergence of a recent artistic practice (termed “locative art”), itself made possible through changes in the understanding of the integration of digital information into the material world. The second part of my research consists of an original locative work, entitled “Tree ID”. It is integrated into my written research in my third chapter, in which I discuss the technical function and conceptual background of the work. “Tree ID” functions alongside my case studies as an artistic response to technological determinism, and, additionally, as a practical investigation into the South African context of locative art.