As a researcher of both the arts and technologies, I am most interested in exploring the ways in which works of art can transition between states of being (physical vs. virtual) and how the signs or meanings change the relationships between the art object (or form), the message and the viewer.
For example, a water molecule moves from gas, to liquid and then to ice, but is still a water molecule by composition. It exists in the world through various states of being. The viewer comes to understand the water molecule through the different formats and as a result produces different outcomes, meanings, feelings and connections with each state. In theory, one could loosely apply this idea to visual art. How we experience the art object from one state of being to the next (physical-ness versus virtual-ness, similar to gas versus liquid) will result in different meanings and interpretations of the artwork as an object. However, unlike the water molecule’s composition that does not change through the states, I believe that the art’s conceptual content or message does changes through the transition process between states of being, and therefore results in different signs, symbols and meanings that should be viewed and understood separately from the object and the object’s signs.
Image Source: Photoshop graphic representation created by Jessica Pissini, October 2017.
Another attempt to understand (or further confuse) the relationship and difference between the physical and virtual states of being is to put them into a semiotic square (a structural analysis of opposing concepts like masculine vs. feminine, etc.). It may work to some degree, but in the end, I am left with more questions to explore.
I used additional terms (in parenthesis) to specify a more precise meaning of both terms real and virtual. When one reads a semiotic square from top to bottom, in theory they read as concept A is not concept B. In this case, Real is not Virtual or Physical is not Digital. On the right side of the square, it would read Virtual is not Real. I question this specific relationship because virtual experiences are most certainly real, as in they happen within our physical world. This is a strange relationship and dynamic between concepts and maybe the terms we use to categorize states of being.
Image Source: Photoshop graphic representation created by Jessica Pissini, October 2017.