The Systemic Image
In media art history as well as in science studies an intensified reception of cybernetic and system-theoretical concepts can be seen in the last few years. In the book a conceptualization of the relationship between the systemic and the iconic in interactive real-time simulations is proposed. To this end, the author differentiates between four main strata of form-giving design decisions: perspectivation, modelling, iconization, interaction. The particular images – ephemeral, changeable and open for interventions – fulfill the conditions of all these layers and, as a necessary consequence, they exhibit characteristic aesthetic features. With a close reading of the chosen example works, the variations within the repetitive cycles become evident as does the reason why the narration remains ‘flat’ (with only a few consecutive steps), contributing to the general impression of being confronted with a situation rather than a story. How are the borders of simulations either artificially marked or hidden and extended with images or other models? What role does the sensuous interface play for the degree and mode of user participation in the simulated scenery? The book assembles some basic preconditions and main features of image worlds based on computer simulations.