Mnemonic Notations: A Decade of Art Practice within a Digital Environment

Abstract

The author's work Mnemonic Notations represents the evolution of one computer graphic file, first generated in 1990. The author has modified the file for over a decade in response to exposure to many ideas and influences. The Mnemonic Notations file has been output and visually represented as paintings and prints. Mnemonic Notations files were also used as the basis of the Mnemonic Notations CD-ROMs and interactive installations, as well as digital photographic works dealing with fictional documentations.

Mnemonic. 1. aiding or meant to aid one's memory. 2. of or relating to memory or mnemonics. 3. something, such as a verse, to assist memory.< Gk mnémonikos, < mnémøn mindful, < mnasthal to remember

Mnemonics. 1. the art or practice of improving or of aiding the memory. 2. a system of rules to aid the memory.

Notation. 1. a representation of something by a system of marks, signs, symbols, figures, characters, or abbreviated expressions [1].

The year 1990 marked my entry into the world of digital media in my art practice; that same year also marked a revision of my artistic routine. Studio space became less of an imperative when I was using a computer to construct imagery, and consequently post-studio practice became a possibility. The computer hard drive became my site for storing diverse and disparate iconographic elements that melded into a "final" or "complete" image. The imaging interface became the toolset I used to combine stored imagery. Digital media was a methodology by which I could finally produce work that I could visualize but found difficult to manufacture. It became easier to express complex issues and develop continuity within my thought processes.

Prior to utilizing digital media methodology, I had employed cross-media activities that extended and developed areas within color-photocopier technology, photography and painting. My move into digital media not only consolidated an innovative production process but also was to have a major theoretical effect upon the imagery in my work.

Essentially, I have used the Mnemonic Notations series to digitally, diaristically inscribe current ideas, thoughts and notions as they come to mind. With this work I have attempted to place an idea in varying configurations within time and space—this space being integral to the work itself. At the commencement of Mnemonic Notations, I questioned the idea of the "final" or "complete" image (can an image ever really be complete?). The fluid manner in which digital media operates meant infinite possibilities and potential within the evolution of imagery. The Mnemonic Notations body of work attests to the possibility of using digital media's ability to endlessly create hybrid visual mutations existing as digital paintings/prints, as an interactive CD-ROM and as a live interactive musical performance.

The introduction of the computer imaging system (CIS) [2] into my practice meant that my canvas (a visual space) was always "wet"; I saw the canvas/graphic file as a continuum. The CIS facilitated developing the work within a continuum that I perpetually edited and modified. The computer acted as a fluid diary, denotating the time at which the work was done. Instead of writing a diary, I inscribed images onto the computer hard drive. These images acted as a visual notational manuscript. Often the resulting image looked quite cluttered, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for the "typical" mental process. Mind is hyperactive. Mind wanders. Mental wandering is the "natural state" of all conscious people. Therefore, capturing an image onto the hard drive was analogous to gathering a wandering thought into storage for later use. Within the work that was to follow, I found reinterpretation of stored imagery to be important. In fact, reinterpreting, reassessing, recontextualizing, re-positioning and navigating the interface of imagery that is "history" became a pivotal aspect of my later work.

The memory/storage function of the computer allowed me to work on numerous images simultaneously. The canvas/ graphic file could be reworked and painted over any number of times as fragments were combined into the work. These visual

Fig. 1.

Tim, mixed media on paper on...