Flickering  and delay: materiality in digital installation

This paper proposes that an aesthetics of noise introduces a new approach the shifting materialities of digital  installation. A focus on noise highlights the often-silent spaces of a gallery, and makes us acutely aware of the acoustic environment. With installation works where the phenomenon of sound is closely tied to the space, sound’s ability to travel through space connects directly with the temporality of the visual. Through the digital, noise transforms the materiality of the visual by foregrounding flicker and delay. This is both a transformation of the digital as media and within the boundaries of the digital experience. In examining specific works, this paper demonstrates the ongoing persistence of noise as an affective and differential materiality that emerges within the spaces of digital installation.

Susan Ballard, School of Art History and Theory, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales