Controlled Serendipity

Although the term "controlled serendipity" sounds completely contradictory at first, it is now a term that can be referred to when describing the surfing we do online.  Sorting through the endless amounts of websites available at our fingertips is completely impossible.  However, through social websites, for instance, others help to filter through links and stories for us.  Each of us helps to filter, collect, and share important sites.  Controlled serendipity is thus how we experience the web.

The relationship between 'presentation' and 'representation'

As previously explained in the post below, the term 'representation' refers to how the piece of work was made while 'presentation' refers to where/how it is presented.  However, the two share a connection.  How something is presented can impact the representation of the work.  The presentation can also be an extension of the representation.  For instance, the concept of a painting can be reinforced with a contrasting background/framework or the painting can bleed onto the surface it is mounted on.  Therefore, the presentation will always affect the representation.  Even if the surrounding is a solid white wall, the painting will be presented differently than if it were presented on a chaotic or bold backdrop.

What do the words "presentation", "representation" mean?

To me, "representation" refers to the way in which a piece of work is created.  It is how the artist chose to portray whatever concept they intended.  Whether the media is paint, charcoal, or photography and whether the image is abstracted or not, the ultimate product is the "representation" of the mood, feeling, or idea the creator wanted to depict.  "Presentation," on the other hand, denotes how and where the piece is displayed.  Mounted or framed on a wall, encased in a glass box, sitting on an easel, or placed on a massive billboard overlooking the landscape are all basic examples of how a work of art may be "presented" to the public.  How something is presented, however, can change how it is represented.  A particular backdrop or lighting scheme may enhance the feeling or mood the author intends to portray.  Thus, these terms share an inevitable connection.

Karin Kuhlmann Digital Fine Art

Like the surrealists and some abstractionists in the early 1900s, Kuhlmann prefers to utilize Automatism (the hand is allowed to move 'randomly' across the paper) for her creative processes to release her inner pictures. Working in this tradition she usually generates for her spiritual, abstract expressionist works a series of inspiring and associative organic shapes on transpararent layers (in photoshop) and reworks and combines it to get this luminous, lucent and painterly quality. Her abstract digital art works are in the intent of those in the abstract expressionist movement, who played with color, edgy design and mixed media to produce art that benefit the process. It is not her aim to create realistic reflections of her surrounding environment. She would rather like to show the things between and behind and to make her thoughts and perceptions visible. Her works are frequently very strong related with personal and social conditions, experiences and emotions.

Digital Finger Painting?

Digital Perceptions

Cathy Treadaway trained as a textile designer and moved to designing ceramic surfaces.  She believes computers are a tool and a medium which help emulate other media.  The computer liberates the designer and allows them to explore different patterns and colors quickly with the option of stepping backwards.  However, utilizing computers is only one part of her process in design.  A purely machine manufactured product lacks aura and humanity or the maker's touch.  Treadaway always adds a touch of traditional mediums into her pieces in the initial stages.  The concept behind her work always involves a memory or experience she sketches in a sketchbook and digitally records through photographs.  The next step is to blend the two together.  The virtual image is thus the artifact rather than the printed product.  The printed product is a manifestation of the binary code generated within the computer.  The artifact resides within the virtual world.  She can create endless versions of the same piece.  It is interesting to question the authorship behind the piece because the maker of the software may have played into the making of the artwork too.  The creative process, however, is how you utilize the tool and the decisions you make.