Dorothy Santos – “The Distant Gaze and Contemporary Notions of Perception: Re-examining the New Aesthetic Movement through an Analysis of Satellite Technologies in New Media and Digital Arts”

Panel: You Are What You Post

Within our ocular centric culture, the immediacy of photography gratifies our sense of connection yet the distant gaze of satellite photography catapults us into the foreign and surreal. For this reason, satellite photography and conceptually driven works from artists such as Trevor Paglen and Rachele Riley include an inherent discussion of the social and political implications of orbiting satellites on our vision and perception. Within new media and digital arts, the New Aesthetic movement’s agenda seems to include a harkening back to technologies combining the idea of two-dimensional and organic works through the pixelation and distortion of the image.

Mediation of images through satellite technology and photography can either increase, decrease, obscure, or make visible what exists before our eyes but it is ultimately up to the individual designated to see through the eyes of the machine. In Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual, Lisa Parks speculates the following, “Perhaps we could imagine the satellite as generating a kind of “orbital pull,” a metaphorical dislocation, a figurative removal from the zones of security and comfort in the world, forcing us to recognize the partiality of vision and knowledge and to embrace the unknown.” The underlying premise of the New Aesthetic suggests artworks within the movement show the world through digital eyes. Yet the multitude of works negates the provocative visual commentary on how machines mediate what we are able to see, unable to see, and the complex dynamics in seeing (i.e., power, control over what is seen and unseen, and the privilege of seeing). The works of Trevor Paglen and Rachele Riley entail reflections on the complexities behind the role and function of the machine eye in contemporary art and culture. The visual and cognitive dissonance from satellite photographic works speak to what may be happening culturally, socially, and psychologically. The New Aesthetic movement does not necessarily include these complicated relationships within their current agenda.

This research aims to suggest further exploration into the realms of photographic and internet based works be addressed much more fervently in the realm of the New Aesthetic movement through taking into account the processing of visual and sense perceptions. If the focus of the New Aesthetic movement requires us to see through the machine’s eye, then the works of Paglen and Riley certainly address the fundamental objectives of the New Aesthetic. However, the overall movement requires a solid foundation in which to define new media and digital artworks addressing concepts and ideas beyond the purely visual and taking into account the body and experience. The New Aesthetic ideology seems to negate human perception as the core mechanism creating the perception of the digital device. Understanding the relationship between machine and human vision will enable us to further the scope of vision and perception that has yet to be discussed in the overall dialogue within the New Aesthetic discourse.

Dorothy Santos (@deedottiedot) holds Bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of San Francisco and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Visual and Critical Studies from the California College of the Arts. Her research emphasis is on programming, coding, and open source culture and their effects on contemporary art.