Facebook Sluts Transcoding between Voyeuristic Media and Figure Painting

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Anderson, Kim

Keywords

Facebook, Figure Painting, Art

Area of Concentration

Art

Abstract

Despite differences in media, the predominant kind of pictures with human subjects being made now�digital photographs shared on the internet�have a place in the centuries-long art historical discourse surrounding representations of the human form. This paper is the written accompaniment to a thesis exhibition of thirteen oil paintings depicting nude and partially clothed figures. The paintings are interpretations of digital images from social networking websites and personal e-mail. Through my work, I hope to encourage a breakdown of perceived boundaries between digital and traditional artistic media in favor of an inclusive view of the history of images. These paintings are informed by Donna Harraway�s theory of hybridity as presented in Cyborg Manifesto and Lev Manovich�s concept of Transcoding between computer and cultural layers. By rendering large scale paintings of nude figures from user-submitted digital photographs, I intend to merge the problems of the digital nude with those of the nude in figure painting, allowing the discourses surrounding each type of image to influence each other in terms of both complications and understanding. Questions of privacy, objectification, voyeurism, sexualization, and agency become paramount. Rather than staking any specific moral claim, these paintings seek to open conversation about the methods and issues of representation in digital and painted images, questioning the conventions of looking in each genre and how these practices play upon each other.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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