Submissions

Número especial sobre educación, Junio 2019

Número especial sobre Educación, financiado desde el Ministerio de Educación (MINEDUC)

Dossier: Digital Spaces

Digital Spaces. The new scenographic spatiality

Guest editors:
Pablo Llamazares Blanco (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5159-3817)
Fernando Zaparaín Hernández (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9659-2906)
Jorge Ramos Jular (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4213-0060)
E.T.S. of Architecture of the University of Valladolid, Spain

"In the last ten years, a whole series of rather surprising things have been called sculptures: narrow corridors with television monitors at the ends; large photographs documenting country excursions; mirrors placed at odd angles in rooms; or lines drawn on the surface of the desert.¹

This is how Rosalind Krauss began her 1979 manifesto Sculpture in the Expanded Field, with which she questioned a sculptural tradition in which the artistic object had reached its highest level of development. A reality to which the minimalist proposal of authors such as Donald Judd and Robert Morris contributed, in the re-establishment of the perceptive relations that would mediate an experiential space shared by the work of art and the spectator. This would have propelled the overflowing of the limits between disciplines that Krauss recognised, and which had been brewing since the Avant-Garde, to the greatest heights of expression. Spatiality, from its broadest creative reality, has since undergone a rapid evolution towards new phenomenological realities, in which an experience arising from the subjective apprehension of sensorial stimuli takes precedence. Undoubtedly, the art installations that emerged as a format in the late twentieth century were very significant in the adoption of new immersive and multisensory strategies. But nowadays, and because of the great prominence given to the digital, it is worth reflecting on the role of digital media in the gestation of a new spatiality in art and architecture.

The new digital media, present in all spheres of contemporary society, are exemplifying a renewal of current creation in its different manifestations: artistic installations, performing arts, events and shows, video games, urban video mappings, architectural applications, etc. Thus, this new multimedia positioning, based on the adoption of the multiple and immeasurable possibilities of digital software, has become a new scenographic expression, generating spatial configurations with a great innovative potential. A fact that would favour the new transformations that are taking place with regard to the perception of space, as a consequence of these technical and aesthetic possibilities of the digital. Andrew Darley states that contemporary visual culture has evolved to focus on an aesthetic, based on "the dimension of appearance, form and sensation".2 A fact that would lead to getting rid of the prejudices of previous approaches, which considered these new manifestations to be empty and too obvious to constitute a true object of study. For Darley himself, the aesthetic takes on even more importance than meaning, since this type of production eminently addresses the senses, in an attempt to decipher the processes by which these digital proposals are configured. A position sustained by Jean Baudrillard's statements, when he affirms that "assembly and codification require, in effect, that the spectator reconstructs and deciphers it by following the same process by which the work was assembled".3 This is an active position to which the proposals of authors such as Bill Viola, Bruce Nauman or Rafael Lozano-Hemmer who, from artistic creation, propose a new perception of space with the digital montage they present. Something that happens in the same way in other creative fields such as the scenographic design of opera, theatre and dance, historically familiar with the production of stagings and sets, of great surprising power for the spectator. References such as Robert Lepage or Klaus Obermaier were pioneers in the digital adaptation of these formats, paving the way for new proposals such as those of Adrien M & Claire B or Random International, which have opted for an interactivity that, once again, speaks of the limits of contemporary space. Other big events and musical shows, such as those designed by Es Devlin, have also opted for an application in the space of digital media and resources, in the search for an integrating experience on a sensorial level. In short, all this seems to point towards a predominance of immersive and multisensorial strategies that, based on the digital and applied from a transversal or interdisciplinary approach, is resulting in an interesting reflexive action around contemporary spatiality itself.

Based on the above, this call welcomes proposals for original articles that deal with transcendental milestones in this creative evolution that is based on the digital, or specific case studies that have contributed to this development. With regard to the focus of the research, it is proposed that it should pay special attention to some of the characteristics that define this new spatiality: dematerialisation, kinaesthesia, three-dimensionality, augmentation, immersiveness, interactivity or connectivity. At the same time, approaches to the subject from the fields of art, architecture, theatre, dance, cinema, etc. will be accepted. A call to reflect on this new scenographic space in different fields, at a time when the presence of digital media has become absolutely essential in contemporary creation.

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¹ KRAUSS, Rosalind. “Sculpture in the Expanded Field”. October. Boston: MIT Press, 1979, p. 30.

² DARLEY, Andrew. Cultura visual digital. Barcelona: Editorial Paidós, 2002, p. 24.

³ BAUDRILLARD, Jean. Simulations. Nueva York: Semiotext(e), 1983, pp, 119-120.

Authors interested in contributing can send their articles until 29 July 2024, via: https://publicaciones.ucuenca.edu.ec/ojs/index.php/maskana/envio

Contributions may be submitted in Spanish or English, and will follow the template for articles and author guidelines established by the journal itself at the aforementioned web address.

Dates of interest:
- 16 May 2024: launching of the call for papers
- 29 July 2024: deadline for the receipt of articles
- December 2024: publication of the Digital Spaces dossier.

For more information: maskana.diuc@ucuenca.edu.ec | pablo.llamazares@uva.es