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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Software-Cinema Cinema in Software Art: Visual Tactilism, Remediation, Code Aesthetics 
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Projects & Abstracts
2007-10-01
2023-10-09
2007-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Cristiano Poian
2007/10/01
Università degli Studi di Udine
2036-461X
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Ph.D. Thesis Abstract - Software-Cinema Cinema in Software Art: Visual Tactilism, Remediation, Code Aesthetics 
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/21364/18970
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SOFTWARE-CINEMA
CINEMA IN SOFTWARE ART: VISUAL TACTILISM, REMEDIATION, CODE
AESTHETICS
Cristiano Poian / Ph.D. Thesis Abstract
Università degli Studi di Udine




   Software-Cinema represents the final result of a doctoral research on the specific interactions
between cinematic forms and contemporary digital art conducted at the University of Udine in the
Ph.D. program in Audiovisual Studies (2003-2006). In examining the concepts of "digital mate-
rialism" of computer code, de-virtualization of digital information and "realism of software," my
dissertation investigates the relationship between digital code and pre-digital computational and
algorithmic codes, and affirms the emergence of a new aesthetics of software and new media art,
that is procedural and based both on the process (series of translations) and on the significant out-
put (surface).
  The aim of the thesis is not to analyze the impact of digital technology on cinema. On the con-
trary, it strives to underline the modalities, through which film becomes a set of elements used as
rough matter by new artistic practices, and to investigate and trace the flourishing of new audiovi-
sual forms that use the network as a privileged place of production, distribution and consumption.
   The historical analysis of the inclusion of the concept of "software" into contemporary visual
arts gives rise to a series of considerations about the role of the so-called historical net art (1994.
1998) and of the contemporary "software art" in art markets and cultural systems. Within this
broader framework, special attention will also be given to the concept of "network" as the origin
of a new production, reception and distribution system.
   Software-Cinema focuses on the concepts of remediation, meta-remediation and re-contextual-
ization of filmic form and structure by digital works and interactive installations. At the same
time, it underlines the necessity of a new hermeneutic for the interpretation of digital artworks
and the re-evaluation of the role of the image, which would allow for a better understanding of
the working logics of intermediation processes.
  By focusing on particular case studies, the thesis also highlights and emphasizes the points of
contact between software art and avant-garde audiovisual forms and discourses, as well as the
relationships between digital artwork and pre-cinematic forms.
  The third chapter of Software-Cinema focuses on the role of output in the art of software. Even
in software artworks, which base their peculiar aesthetic value on procedurality and on the pro-
cessing of codes, the final output is still the only place that can be actively explored by the view-
er/user. The so-called cybertexts (according to the definition of ergodic literature given by Espen
Aarseth) can be interactive, if they permit the user to enact the interpretative function, and also
 to act on the message and not just on the channel of a me dium - configurative function, or sim-
 ply dialogic (only the interpretative function can be activated. In this sense, not all software art
 is interactive, but it is always dialogical.
                                                                                                  157
CRISTIANO POIAN


  The image still plays an important role in audiovisual software
user meets the creative and machinic process that lies under the surface of the
Software images never completely hide the procedurality of code: they are neith
transparent nor completely opaque. Images in software art enable a code to emerge in dif
ways. Taking its cue from this assumption, the essay proposes a taxonomy of images in software
art, according to the modalities in which a code is allowed to emerge: image diagram, im
image body, image system and image sound.
