FCJ-148 Affect and the Medium of Digital Data

This paper examines the notion of affect in digital art, through a specific analysis of the technical medium, that is, digital data. A distinction is made between data-as-data and data-as-display. The process of modulation is suggested as a crucial process for artists, along with the establishment of parameter frameworks to govern the modulation between data states. Questions are addressed as to the nature of affect among immanently digital entities, and between digital and non-digital entities. The compositional relations involved are also examined, especially for artists working in the nexus of material and virtual networks. Specific examples of the writer’s own virtual art works are cited as case studies.