The Systemic Image
Description
Computer simulations conceive objects and situations dynamically, in their changes and progressions. In The Systemic Image, Inge Hinterwaldner considers not only the technical components of dynamic computer simulations but also the sensory aspects of the realization. Examining the optic, the acoustic, the tactile, and the sensorimotor impressions that interactive real-time simulations provide, she finds that iconicity plays a dominant yet unexpected role. Based on this, and close readings of a series of example works, Hinterwaldner offers a new conceptualization of the relationship between systemic configuration and the iconic aspects in these calculated complexes.
Hinterwaldner discusses specifications of sensorialization, necessary to make the simulation dynamic perceivable. Interweaving iconicity with simulation, she explores the expressive possibilities that can be achieved under the condition of continuously calculated explicit changes. She distinguishes among four levels of forming: the systems perspective, as a process and schema that establishes the most general framework of simulations; the mathematical model, which marks off the boundaries of the simulation's actualization; the iconization and its orientation toward the user; and interaction design, necessary for the full unfolding of the simulation. The user makes manifest what is initially latent. Viewing the simulation as an interface, Hinterwaldner argues that not only does the sensorially designed aspect of the simulation seduce the user but the user also makes an impact on the simulation—on the dynamic and perhaps on the iconization, although not on the perspectivation. The influence is reciprocal.
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Content
Introduction 1
1 Approaches to a Concept of Simulation 11
1.1 Simulations and Their Contested Representational Capacity 11
1.2 Missing Links: Simulations and Simulacra 15
1.3 Computer Simulations in Relation to "System" and "Dynamic" 21
2 The Perspectivation of Simulations 27
2.1 Central Perspective in Discussions on Contemporary Image Production 27
2.2 A Structural Comparison with Central Perspective 30
2.3 The Special Case of Interactive Real-Time Simulations 40
2.4 A Critique of the Simulation Dynamic 43
2.5 Perspective and Schematism 51
2.6 Systems Aesthetics 53
3 Modeling and Iconization 57
3.1 On the Position and Role of Models 57
3.2 Semiautonomous Iconization 72
3.3 Sources of Design 91
3.4 Two Types of Models 107
4 Iconicity and Dynamic 113
4.1 Figurative Displays 113
4.2 Movement as a Design Element 126
4.3 An Increase in Movement 145
4.4 Designing the Experientiability of Events 154
4.5 Excursus: The Rhetoric of the "Alive" 166
4.6 Temporal Components and the Modulation of Experiential Time 169
5 Characteristics of the Iconicity of Simulations 181
5.1 Approaches to the Iconicity of Simulations 181
5.2 From Results to Events 183
5.3 Building Actions and Situations 184
5.4 Manifold Variations 187
5.5 Degrees of Freedom, Calculability Problems, and Levels of Description 190
5.6 Cuts below the Surface 192
5.7 Cuts on the Surface 199
5.8 Reforming Forms 208
6 Iconicity and Interactivity 215
6.1 For an Interweaving of Iconicity and Interactivity 215
6.2 Prefabricated Paths versus Designed Situations 218
6.3 Approaches to Iconicity in Computer Simulations 225
6.4 Iconic Modes of Control 227
6.5 Avatars Astray 253
6.6 (Unstable) Image as Variable Interface 269
Conclusion 273
Notes 277
Interviews 323
Bibliography 325
Index 365
