The Systemic Image: A New Theory of Interactive Real-Time Simulations

by Inge Hinterwaldner

Overview

A new conceptualization of the relationship between the systemic and the iconic in real-time simulations that distinguishes among four levels of forming.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262549646
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Series:	The Information Society Series
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Inge Hinterwaldner is Associate Professor for Modern and Contemporary Art, in the Institute of Art and Visual History at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
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

What People are Saying About This

James Elkins

The Systemic Image brings a welcome level of analytic precision to a subject that has often been treated either merely technically or in the unhelpfully abstract language of phenomenology. Hinterwaldner's aim is the production of 'the rudiments of an aesthetic' of the visual nature of the image in real-time simulations of all kinds. The book begins with an unusually sharp series of conceptualizations of terms such as form, model, reality, schema, and image, developed from Niklas Luhmann, Brian Massumi, Henri Bergson, Jean-Louis Boissier, Gottfried Boehm, and others. Hinterwaldner then works through a series of case studies in medicine, art, and gaming, showing how iconicities both participate in and elicit interactions, and how senses of time and image need to be fundamentally rethought in order to understand real-time simulations. By comparison with The Systemic Image, the existing literature is diffuse and impressionistic. This is an exemplary book, and it will set the standard for some time to come.

Endorsement

Inge Hinterwaldner's book The Systemic Image radically challenges previous work on simulation and the digital image. She enables us to abandon now antiquated discussions of reality, virtuality, and authenticity for a novel concept of systemicity. In doing so, the book opens a new space for art historical and media studies to engage with a novel set of technical objects and processes, such as game theories, mathematical models, and cybernetic networks, that are of increasing centrality and importance to our contemporary digitally networked world. It is an invaluable text for scholars and practitioners working in art, art history, visual culture, and digital media.

—Orit Halpern, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University; author of Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945

From the Publisher

The Systemic Image brings a welcome level of analytic precision to a subject that has often been treated either merely technically or in the unhelpfully abstract language of phenomenology. Hinterwaldner's aim is the production of 'the rudiments of an aesthetic' of the visual nature of the image in real-time simulations of all kinds. The book begins with an unusually sharp series of conceptualizations of terms such as form, model, reality, schema, and image, developed from Niklas Luhmann, Brian Massumi, Henri Bergson, Jean-Louis Boissier, Gottfried Boehm, and others. Hinterwaldner then works through a series of case studies in medicine, art, and gaming, showing how iconicities both participate in and elicit interactions, and how senses of time and image need to be fundamentally rethought in order to understand real-time simulations. By comparison with The Systemic Image, the existing literature is diffuse and impressionistic. This is an exemplary book, and it will set the standard for some time to come.

—James Elkins, E. C. Chadbourne Professor in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Inge Hinterwaldner's book The Systemic Image radically challenges previous work on simulation and the digital image. She enables us to abandon now antiquated discussions of reality, virtuality, and authenticity for a novel concept of systemicity. In doing so, the book opens a new space for art historical and media studies to engage with a novel set of technical objects and processes, such as game theories, mathematical models, and cybernetic networks, that are of increasing centrality and importance to our contemporary digitally networked world. It is an invaluable text for scholars and practitioners working in art, art history, visual culture, and digital media.

—Orit Halpern, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University; author of Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945

Orit Halpern

Inge Hinterwaldner's book The Systemic Image radically challenges previous work on simulation and the digital image. She enables us to abandon now antiquated discussions of reality, virtuality, and authenticity for a novel concept of systemicity. In doing so, the book opens a new space for art historical and media studies to engage with a novel set of technical objects and processes, such as game theories, mathematical models, and cybernetic networks, that are of increasing centrality and importance to our contemporary digitally networked world. It is an invaluable text for scholars and practitioners working in art, art history, visual culture, and digital media.