The crystal world: executing a new media materialism

179 Pages·2013·194.355 MB·English

by  Kemp, Jonathan

WestminsterResearch
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/westminsterresearch

The crystal world: executing a new media materialism

Jonathan Kemp

School of Media, Arts and Design

This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of
Westminster. © The Author, 2013.

This is an exact reproduction of the paper copy held by the University of
Westminster library.

The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of
Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a
wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or
copyright owners.
Users are permitted to download and/or print one copy for non-commercial
private study or research. Further distribution and any use of material from
within this archive for profit-making enterprises or for commercial gain is
strictly forbidden.

Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden,
you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch:
(http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/).

In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail
[email protected]
The Crystal World: Executing a New Media Materialism
Jonathan Kemp
School of Media Art & Design, University of Westminster
Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
March 2013

Abstract
This thesis presents practice-based research to establish new forms of social and artistic
production through examinations of the materiality of the technical media, namely the
computer, that underpins new media art.
Contemporary new media art practice has tended to focus attention on software or
hardware interfaces, interactivity and network communications. Whilst explorations of
these specific affordances of computational media have been important they have generally
avoided a more informed engagement with the material structures that frame, underpin,
and ultimately shape the works produced with these media.
The hypothesis of the research is that a richer understanding of the creative potentials of
computational media as a form of practice can accrue from an active engagement with
these material foundations in which any computational device employed in a media art
practice is embedded.
Thus the research presents a novel methodology for approaching new media art, driven by
an imperative to engage with the computational, not from some abstract and universalised
point-of-view, but up close with a focus on the materiality of its media and thus on matter
itself.
Hence a second assumption in the research is that this lacunae has impacted on the
geology of ideas around new media theory and practice, and includes a failure to account
for the intractable difficulties around the material production of the technical media that
underpins new media art.
Following Karen Barad, the research employs, a diffractive methodology - a practice of
presenting computational materiality through insights and traditions while paying attention
to their differences, including the material effects of their constitutive exclusions .
Using this methodology, new forms of production have been achieved with the
participation of diverse groups of people in workshops, “open laboratories”, and two
exhibitions. It is intended that the methodology can be adapted, used and developed by
practitioners in new media art, philosophy, media archaeology, museology, ethnography
and anthropology.
Cover illustration, “Geometry”, 2011, courtesy of Soizig Marie Carey http://soizigmarie.com/
Table of Contents:
List of Figures i
List of Accompanying Material vi
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
Declaration ix
Introduction 1
1.1Research Scope 2
1.2Methodology and Methods 3
1.3Research Thesis 5
1.4Summary 6
Chapter One: Computational Materiality 7
2.1Introduction 8
2.2Theoretical Strains 11
2.3Media materialism 14
2.4Understanding Media: Computational Materiality 17
2.5The Non-Human Turn 37
2.6Mediations 41
2.7Diffractions 45
Chapter Two: Executing a New Media Materialism 47
3.1Introduction 48
3.2Decrystallization 54
3.3Recrystallization 65
3.4Chemical-material live performance system 76
3.5The Suffolk Psychogeophysics Summit 77
3.6The Crystal World v.01 82
3.7The Crystal World v.02 90
Chapter Three: Methodological Diffractions, Perverse Confluences 104
4.1Introduction 105
4.2Whose cooking? 106
4.3Fork Off 118
4.4Ergo argot orgnet 126
4.5Lab Oratory 130
4.6Lords of Misrule 136
Summary: What computer? 141
Bibliography 146
List of Figures
Chapter Two: Executing a new media materialism
Figure 1. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Nihal Yesil.
Figure 2. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse
Figure 3. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Nihal Yesil.
Figure 4. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Nihal Yesil.
Figure 5. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 6. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 7. Decrystallization Workshop, Day One, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 8. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 9. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 10. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Fabi Borges.
Figure 11. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 12. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two, London, May 2011: Detail. Image by
Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 13. Decrystallization Workshop, Day Two Salon, London, May 2011: Detail. Image
by Fabi Borges.
Fig. 14. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Martin
Howse.
Figure 15. Recrystallization Workshop, Day One,Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Ryan
Jordan.
i
Figure 16. Recrystallization Workshop, Day One, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Ryan
Jordan.
Figure 17. Recrystallization Workshop, Day One, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 18. Recrystallization Workshop, Day One , Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Ryan Jordan.
Figure 19. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 20. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 21. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Ryan
Jordan.
Figure 22. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Ryan
Jordan.
Figure 23. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 24. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Two, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by Ryan
Jordan.
Figure 25. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Three, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 26. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Three, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image by
Martin Howse.
Figure 27. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Three Salon, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image
by Martin Howse.
Figure 28. Recrystallization Workshop, Day Three Salon, Berlin, July 2011: Detail. Image
by Ryan Jordan.
Figure 29. Chemical-Material live performance system, Rio de Jainero, Brazil, May 2012.
Image by Bruno Vianna.
Figure 30. The Suffolk Psychogeophysics Summit, August 2011: site of prepared artificial
fulgurite lightning pole. Image by Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 31. The Suffolk Psychogeophysics Summit, August 2011: Publicity board, Grimes
Graves - aerial view of Grimes Graves, Norfolk. Image by Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 32. The Suffolk Psychogeophysics Summit, August 2011: Preparing Artificial
Fulgurites, Grimes Graves. Image by Martin Howse.
ii
Figure 33. The Suffolk Psychogeophysics Summit, August 2011: Artificial Fulgurite.
Image by Jonathan Kemp.

Figure 34. The Crystal World v. 02, London, July - August 2012: Artificial Fulgurite.
Image by Jonathan Kemp.
Figure 35. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 36. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 37. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 38. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 39. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Hye Joo Jun.
Figure 40. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Martin Howse.
Figure 41. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Rachael Ward.
Figure 42. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Martin Howse.
Figure 43. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Martin Howse.
Figure 44. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Jonathan Kemp
Figure 45. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 46. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Kim Joon.
Figure 47. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Martin Howse.
Figure 48. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 49. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 50. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
Figure 51. The Crystal World v. 01, Berlin, January 2012. Detail. Image by Tamami
Iinuma.
iii