Thinking digital by Art Consulting

Copyright © Re-Design Class Fall 2021 New York University Abu Dhabi All rights reserved. This book has been designed as part of an NYU Abu Dhabi class exercise. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. For more information, please contact: Goffredo Puccetti gp56@nyu.edu Thinking Digital Designed and written by the students of the class Re-Design at New York University, Abu Dhab; fall 2021. Students:

Professor:

Adilbek Tursynbek Amina Al Mulla Amna Hadzic Aysha Al Dhaher Farah Elmowafy Khaled Aldhaheri Maria Korotkina Mariam Abdelrazek Maryam Albahar Razane Sakhi Rebecca Huang Rim Yahia Priyanshu Mishra William Mlekush

Goffredo Puccetti Instructor: Lucy Choi Special thanks to: Prof. Nizar Habash

Conception and brief by Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio, Edixion, Milan, Italy. Website: https://artconsulting.net/edixion/thinking-digital-2/

Content

Premise

Foreword

What is an art book?

What could an art book be?

What are the limits?

About the Re-Design Class

Premise September 2021. To be continued... Thinking digital How technologies (will) shape the art book

The result of a gradual evolution of writing and printing systems, the book has always been considered the site where knowledge is conserved. The printing should mark the milestone reached by any scientific research or writing until that date. The format of a book is the result of current printing methods, which are conditioned by printer and sheet size, folding and binding procedures, and so on. Since it is currently impossible to avoid these technical constraints, books continue to be designed for printing, even when the digital version is also planned. When we talk about textbooks or books in which images are secondary, this is not a problem, because the digital version, the eBook, then allows you to adapt the texts to the format of the display system, also offering the possibility to choose body and font. But what happens in the case of art books, where the images (which have fixed proportions) are essential? And what problems does the digital-only art book pose, and what perspectives does it open up? And even more, the augmented digital book, designed to contain multimedia content? The digital revolution is still in progress. The rapid and continuous evolution of devices, after a series of failed attempts, is about to include wearable devices, which will involve a total revision of the display modes. Today, we cannot predict what the impact of these new devices will be on the contents to be displayed. But it is right to start exploring the different scenarios. As well as trying to answer ethical questions, for example, the responsibility of the author, implying the possibility of the continuous updates that the digital book allows.

If the art book ceases to exist as a physical object, the time has come to start thinking about a book designed to be digital only. Is this the dawn of digital graphic thinking for art publishing? Thinking digital collects the work of an international community that is addressing some of these questions. The answers that will follow in the years to come will be the echo of their questions. Marina Pizziolo, Romano Ravasio Milan, September 2021

Foreword How an impossible brief from Edixion fostered the perfect journey into creativity

My Teaching Philosophy stems from my education in Italy, my international professional background and from the training and mentoring I had in my first semester at NYUAD as a guest lecturer in the Engineering Class taught by professor Ramesh Jaganatthan. If one wants to put it in one motto, that would be: ‘Experientia Magistra Rerum’: Experience is the teacher of things.

qualities, fate and role of the Art Book in our times. Is there a future for the art book as we know it in a metaverse art world? What are the ethical questions to be addressed when contemplating the dematerialization not only of the artwork itself but of all its copies and its values. How would a NFT gallery function on a global scale? And at what cost to the environment?

The real-life briefs and scenarios presented to my students through the years have been perhaps the most salient characteristic of my design classes. A practice-oriented pedagogy has been instrumental in delivering truly interdisciplinary perspectives to our students, in line with the core value and mission of NYUAD, with the goal to provide them with a set of skills to carry with them always, no matter what discipline they would end up taking in the future: a designer mind-set; a cross-cultural problem-solving mentality; nurtured by team work and real-life practice, and built on critical thinking, open mindedness and scientific rigor.

Provoked by Romano and Marina’s questions, and moved by Wim’s reflections on the state of the art, the students dived into the project, researched intensively, sketched ideas while considering the vast ramifications of ‘thinking digital’ about the arts: It is hard to predict in which form we will continue to enjoy the arts. Maybe we will meet for a virtual opening in a metaverse gallery by Marina and Romano to enjoy an augmented reality piece by Wim Delvoye available for NFT purchase or different degrees of controlled access? Maybe we will meet in a letterpress workshop, casting metal letters.

As a designer I often praise to the students of my classes the extraordinary opportunities for broadening their horizons offered by NYUAD: what can be experienced only under exceptional circumstances in impossible-to-organize focus groups by design agencies in London, Paris or Shanghai, that is what they can experience every day when they enter the cafeteria on our campus.

Maybe both. Maybe neither as something completely new will emerge. But for sure the arts will not leave us.

This semester, world renowned Art curators Marina Pizziolo and Romano Ravasio gave to my students the exemplary brief along those pedagogical lines: in the first weeks of the semester our students participated in a Zoom conference with Romano, Marina and the artist Wim Delvoye as special guest; they discussed how the digital realm is affecting the contemporary Art scene and the

What you have here is the summary of fourteen students’ few weeks of brainstorming and analysis. Filled with more questions than answers, here is a book that promises to spark ideas and conversations on this universal and paramount aspect of the human experience: how we approach, know, understand and enjoy art. And why we will always continue to do so. I hope you will enjoy it. Goffredo Puccetti, NYU Abu Dhabi, December 2021

What is an

Art Book

What is an art book today? Where art books live and the challenges they pose

How is an artist’s book different from an ordinary book? Or a work of art? The artist’s book is not an art book or a book about art; it is a work of art. It is one of the many mediums of expression explored by artists along with painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance, or installation. Its relationship with the book remains through its form, the text, and the relationship between artist and author. The multidisciplinary nature of contemporary artists offers new approaches in which the artist’s book fully participates by bringing artistic practices of all kinds into conversation. The artists’ book is now recognized as an art form in and of itself. Let us remember that art allows us to rise above material necessities, like two wings carrying us toward a greater humanity. As we have observed this multidisciplinary

“It is in large part because books are successful objects everyone has dealt with−at home, at school, at church, in phone booths or in the washroom, that the evaluation of book artists pose a problem.” Ulises Carrión shift, we have also witnessed a democratization of access to art. We can now Tweet a work of art. An art lover should no longer follow a certain dictat, for diversity is the key to creativity. In this context, this medium of art book responds to the problem of the democratization of art as a chance for discovery and curiosity to foster among readers who might not otherwise encounter the art and artists contained within.

Subsequently, all movements and artistic tendencies explored the resources of this medium. Today, immersed in technological revolution, the digitization process does not seem so foreign. Even the essence of knowledge, books, cannot escape the seeming inevitability of this process. Rather than regard this as repulsive, we must recognize that digitization adds value to art which innovates and adapts to its time. Books are intertwined

with our lives, as the store our work and reflect our lives. From this concept, the EduXion project was born: “unlimited unique editions. . .a symbol of opportunity which gives a voice to those who are silent.” In short, a dynamic and unusual book−between thought and representation−a book that raises questions with no defined answers and offers an opportunity for a more authentic experience. Experientia Magistra Rerum. It’s all about experiences. Updating modifies the essence.

Twitter is just one of many technologies that has enabled the democratiziation of art by allowing for anyone to reach a previously unimagineable number of people.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to forget those conservative opponents who protest, “What about flipping pages? What about the experience of touching, of holding the weight, of smelling the age of a book?” These ethical opponents remind us as we adapt, we must not lose ourselves. Even if we do not take the book into our hands, we cannot deduce that the authentic experience has disappeared. On the contrary, another form has emerged, one of digitization and visualization. It is this experience that we want to share through this project. We not only offer an artistic platform but also an opportunity to the audience. A new discovery that will immerse them in the sophistication of contemporary art.

What could an Art Book be

User profiles Personalizing the dynamic book experience

Personalization features for the dynamic book; top-to-bottom: Find Art, The Archive, My Gallery, My Collection

The digital capabilities of the dynamic book allows the experience of users to be fully personalized. Such personalization amounts to the creation of individual profiles where those who encounter the book can customize their experience with it. Each account offers access to two digital spaces for encountering art. The first space is a communal art space where people can view and interact with art pieces and artists. They can search for and discover artists featured in the dynamic book at any point in time. We call this the Find Art feature. The dynamism of the art book allows it to grow and change over time, with its “pages” updating and changing with each curatorial experience. Rather than having to rely on documentation and artifacts to record this evolution through time, we can leverage the

archival power of digital tools to create a longterm storage space that allows audience and artist to access all art before and after any curation occurs, regardless of their geolocation. We call this feature The Archive. Furthermore, with the emergence of NFT technology, individuals can buy pieces of digital and digitized art, as well as the rights to own and reproduce such art. We are witnessing the democratization of art collection, and the dynamic art book is uniquely poised to participate by connecting artists with audience. In these spaces, both audience and artist would be able to collect and respond to art by liking, commetingon , buying, and displaying art. They could even become patrons of artists who they want to support. The My Gallery and My Collection features

would allow for audience members and artists to store and manage the artwork to which they own rights. My Gallery would allow for artists to display works they want to put up for purchase or otherwise share with their patrons. Audience Galleries would be places to show off work by artists they support or art they own. My Collection would allow for all users to manage the privacy of the works they own. These personalization features fully realize the dynamic nature of this book. Each user has the opportunity to build and navigate their personal space in the dynamic book.

Monetizing art How to collect art and support artists

An art piece saved in “My Gallery”, virtually viewed through the phone in one’s room.

With a dynamic book, we must release our attachment to the form of a book and embrace the diversity of mediums to which digitization lends itself. This does not mean we must remain in any sort of separate “digital space.” On the contrary, new technologies allow EdiXion to work with artists and curate exhibitions embedded in physical space as geolocated Augmented Reality objects. EdiXion might place artworks as three dimensional virtual objects at different points in a particular area. Patrons and collectors can interact with the artworks in two different ways: either buying the art work itself and owning it as an NFT, or paying for a digital copy of the artwork that they can view virtually on their devices.

A view of “My Collection” which shows engagement with the art.

digital work privately. When the patrons buy and own an art work, they also earn certain privileges and rights to that art work, including projecting the artwork as a painting. Donating to the owner of an artwork would allow the patron to virtually view that artwork whenever they wish as a painting without the right of adding it to their collection, selling it, and presenting it on their own. Patrons could also choose to publicly upload their owned art works on their profile. With this, they can receive more attention and clout from other platform users which will then possibly raise the value of the artwork.

Collectors can choose what pieces of their collection are public or private. They can also view and project their

Discovery of the unknown Increasing accessibility across languages, space, and time

The dynamic book can be brought into physical reality through technologies like projection mapping.

A dynamic book also offers the possibility for multilingual engagement. By offering different languages, the dynamic book reaches more people, encouraging more interaction and participation. From its outset, the international, the dynamic book could offer Italian, English, French, Arabic languages, and a sign language in the form of a pop up video.

The book could also reach more people by being translated in form to physical venues as a digital projection or touch-screen installation. Rising artists would display their work to a larger audience as a result of this. It would also introduce iconic pieces of art to individuals who are unable to access them digitally.

The dynamic book can offer multilingual viewing to readers by leveraging efficient digital translation tools.

Audience contribution Audience members could create flip books like the one pictured below. This would leave with a unique digital-physical artifact to engage with and remember the exhibition.

Interaction through drawing

Audience members might react to abstract paintings like the one shown on the left through drawings like the one on the right.

During most exhibitions, audiences walk in and silently appreciate the artwork. They keep their feelings to themselves or share only with their companions. Online curation can provide a platform for documenting these flashes of inspiration and emotions. EdiXion could allow the

audience to share their reactions to artwork through drawing. Other visitors could even react to these reactions, generating collective meta-art around the original piece. Just as how artists have to submit their artworks to EdiXion for potential curation, the audience

would also have to submit to EdiXion their drawings of reactions toward the art. Only the approved drawings would be displayed. EdiXion could also structure the reactions by offering entertaining formats, such as a flip book. Visitors might draw into a rectangle

area at the bottom of the dynamic book to create a digital flipbook. Online, the flipbook could be displayed as an animation, and it could also be printed out and assembled by visitors, demonstrating the unique bridge a dynamic book builds between the digital and the physical.

Interactive artist avatars The future of artist bios

TOIA stands for Time-Offset Interaction Application. It is a bilingual interactive human avatar dialogue system. The developers describe how “it simulates face-to-face conversations between humans using digital human avatars recorded in the past. TOIA is a conversational agent, similar to a chatbot, except that it is based on an actual human being and can be used to preserve and tell stories.” Moreover, while “the system currently supports monolingual and cross-lingual dialogues in Arabic and English,” it “can be extended to other languages.” The process involves someone recording videos of themselves answering certain prompts. These are compiled by TOIA and presented to a user. A user can then ask any of the prompts and the TOIA system will respond with the corresponding video. The user can speak in

Arabic or English, and the TOIA system will be able to find the correct response. In this way, one can use TOIA to create an avatar of themselves that lives on as long as the digital space can be maintained. Individuals for years, decades, or perhaps centuries would be able to encounter that avatar and learn about the person behind it. While it is under ongoing development, TOIA could be used by EduXion to bring an unprecedented level of interaction between artist and audience with much less need to consider the constraints of time and space.

As it exists today, users can choose to interact with any of these four avatars created through the TOIA system. TOIA can be used to develop more of these avatars for artists.

In the dynamic book, TOIA could facilitate conversation between audeince members and an artist without the need for the artist to be present. Artists would record answers to questions the audience might be interested in. These might be about the artists biography, their artistic inspiration, or specific questions about each artwork. The avatars could be embedded in any of the

forms the dynamic book might take. It could be installed as an interactive piece of a physical installation. It could be included on the artist bio page of the book itself. It might even be included in the artist’s Gallery section, described earlier. The avatars could even be used to facilitate workshops, such as “learn Arabic with Professor Nizar Habash.”

TOIA was developed in the CAMeL Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi directed by Nizar Habash, Associate Professor of Computer Science TOIA team: Alberto Chierici Tyeece Hensley Wahib Kamran Kertu Koss Armaan Agrawal Erin Collins Goffredo Puccetti Nizar Habash

What

are

the

limits 19

Not always the best solution The balance of quality and waste in the digital age

Many hearld the transition to digital forms of art for the novel ways artists can now convey their ideas to millions. However, this alternative is not necessarily the better one. While traditional artworks are scrutinized to the finest detail by art connoisseurs, such detail simply cannot be conveyed through the screen. Centuries have perfected the classic art styles and methods, and while digital media can provide high resolution, no resolution can express the real feeling and impression of such artworks. Moreover, tangible artworks are more difficult to recreate or falsify. Despite the rise of NFTs, piracy is still a wide-reaching problem. Digital artists’ works are hard to monetize and easy to plagiarize. Museums, exhibitions and galleries will suffer from the effects of digitization. While digital works are still presented in traditional spaces, audiences are moving online.

Aside from these challenges unique to the art world lies the more ubiquitous one of sustainability. While using physical books leads to deforestation, creates tangible waste, and increases the carbon footprint associated with transportation and storage, digital technologies have significant impacts on the environment. We often don’t think about the waste we produce digitally. Data is growing at unsustainable rates. According to a 2019 UN report, the world currently produces 50 million tons of electronic and electrical waste every year, and only 20 percent of it is recycled. Data centers also make a massive contribution to the carbon footprint of the digital world. A recent study found these physical centers that store and backup data used more than 2% of the world’s electricity in 2019, and generated as much carbon

emissions as the global airline industry. NFTs also have their environmental implications. Mining of the cryptocurrency Ethereum that is used to buy and sell NFTs requires massive amounts of energy to power the computers that run the algorithms. The electricity necessary for mining is mainly produced by burning coal and fossil fuels.

Overall, data produced and stored mindlessly contributes to climate change. However, the use of renewable energy to power data centers and a more sensible attitude towards data can make the digital world truly eco-friendly.

Inaccessible and inappropriate Increasing inclusivity does not mean our job is done

The dynamic book might significantly increase access to the artwork it brings and help connect lesser-known artists with new audiences, but it will still be inaccessible to many people and inappropriate for many works. When it comes to increasing accessibility, the dynamic book brings itself to people who have access to digital mediums. Hence, those who cannot access traditional art books or electronic technologies will not be served by this dynamic book. They are excluded from the outset, for thinking digital is to think outside of the realms to which these people have access. This issue does not only affect potential audiences. Many local artists in different parts of the world also do not have access to such technology, and, thus, this dynamic book cannot make access to art universal. However, this

does not mean that we should stop trying. A similar issue arises when considering all forms of art. The dynamic book specifically focuses on rising and established visual artists whose work can be well-represented by digital mediums. Artists who make digital art would be included, as would artists who paint, sculpt, write, make music, or perform theater, as long as their work can be represented well by digital mediums. Hence, some artists’ work will always be left out. Some artists will not be able to afford the translation of their work, so EduXion must work to reduce such barriers.

Some works are just not made to be encountered in the digital realm. Much of the point and power of Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” would be lost if it were to take place in virtual reality, not to mention that David Datuna’s “Hungry Artist” would have been rendered impossible.

But sometimes, you must be there to understand.

About Re-Design, Fall 2021

This book serves as the culmination of weeks of discussion and deliberation on the ideas associated with the principles of design learned through the class Re-Design at NYU Abu Dhabi in the term of Fall 2021. As a class, we covered several aspects of design, from a visual, technical, and even a philosophical perspective, while learning the core concepts and limitations associated with the many facets of graphic design, visual communication, and artistic value. This book aims to explore and showcase each one of those learning outcomes from our course and display our progress as designers envisioning the future of art books, not just by having a visual piece, but by portraying it with our accompanying thoughts on the ideas, limitations, and ethical conundrums on the same. Instead of trying to create a prototype of the ever-growing future of the aforementioned,

‘Thinking Digital’ serves as an example of what the first step in that process of re-imagining and re-designing the ecosystems surrounding artists, art books, experiences and art (in general) might look like as we move onto a more technically connected world than ever before. That being said, none of this would have been possible without the instruction and guidance provided by Prof. Goffredo Puccetti and the invaluable insights provided by Prof. Nizar Habash throughout the semester. We hope our efforts to understand and showcase re-designing the future of artists and art books proves to be an inspiration for artists and readers alike, as we look forward to witnessing the future of art, artists and art books. Best regards, Re-Design Class, Fall 2021

Thinking digital How technologies (will) shape the art book Designed to be a dynamic book and created by a diverse international group, ‘Thinking Digital’ is the culmination of several weeks of contemplation of ideas that explore the concept of the future digital art book, especially going beyond the technological and cultural conditioning dictated by traditional printing processes. Dictated by its theme of ‘Thinking Digital’, this book carefully navigates the idea of a dynamic digital book, moving away from its traditional ‘coffee table book-like structure and appeal’ to a more modern and cross-platform design. This book aims to showcase the status-quo of art books (and the presentation of art), the limitations of the current design(s) when translated to the digital medium, and some key ideas on designing and executing the digital art books of the future.

Thinking Digital Conceived, written and designed at NYU Abu Dhabi Fall 2021 (to be continued) Re-Design Core Class New York University Abu Dhabi EduXion – Enhanced educational tools, EdiXion, Milan