Sensing and Making Sense

1. Why did you chose this topic?

I was intrigued on how the manifold misunderstandings around the field of media art and digital culture arise, which were frequently based on simplified dichotomous thinking, or on lack of knowledge on their scientific and technical basis. Therefore I chose an object of analysis – photosensitivity – that assisted me in deconstructing most relevant dichotomies and addressing core issues of media artworks, acknowledging simultaneously its materiality and the complex dynamics they belong to.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

It departs from issues arisen from the practice, which provides a fresh perspective regarding possibilities of consistent cross-disciplinary approaches, bridging the very technical and aesthetic layers of media artworks. It also presents an innovative method of merging theory and practice, using the creation of a performance as methodological tool, which included and acknowledged the researcher role as a subject in the research process.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

The book unfolds a fruitful dialogue with ideas from new materialism, presenting concrete examples of post-humanist practices within the media art field, and inquiring dichotomies such as material-immaterial, organic and machinic, theory and practice. Art has always been a significant reference in the history of culture to address the core issues of its corresponding societies.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

Only one person?! I would love to discuss my book with Donna Haraway, Karen Barad and, if he would be still alive, Vilém Flusser. In fact, it would be nice to discuss it with everyone who read it!

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

An immersion on the media and media art histories through the lenses of photosensitivity.