This is the research blog for the PhD trajectory of visual artist Alexandra Crouwers. The Appeal of the Unreal is part of the research proposal title, and concerns, amongst other things, the emotive quality of dead things, simulations, screen culture, and virtual nature.
Alexandra Crouwers is member of the Deep Histories Fragile Memories research group, part of the Lieven Gevaert Research Centre (KU Leuven) and the Intermedia research unit of Luca School of Arts, Brussels.
This blog is here for several reasons: the posts collect all that has to do with the research, it functions as a reminder, and as a way to communicate progress and findings. Please keep in mind this blog is a work in progress.
Research update, February 2020.
The research has taken a new turn, shifting its focus. The main research project will investigate ways to deal with solastalgia, or ecological grief.
Solastalgia has its own sub-site. Find it here.
Latest posts
Introducing: The PhD team
Meet my PhD team: Wendy Morris (promotor), Jan Verpooten (co-promotor), Theun Karelse (advisor), and Agnieszka Gratza (advisor).
The Compositor collaboration
The Compositor: reading the tunnels by turning them into a font.
Emoji proposals
Attempting to make artistic additions to the internet and consumer technology: the emoji.In June 2020, I submitted two proposals for emoji, to be added to the expanding digital pictogram vocabulary.
195.1 million views
Preface What are GIF animations and stickers? What is GIPHY? What is an Instagram Story? Why are GIFs used? An overview. GIF animations & Stickers GIF is the abbreviation for Graphic Interface Format,…
Mistakes: the artist talk
HD, colour/sound, 20’20”, 2020 Wednesday, April 29, 2020 anno covidii, I was supposed to give a talk over lunch at the end of my two months involvement with Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New…
AMNH part 1
March, 9, 2020. First visit to the American Museum of Natural History. We’re about 6 weeks into the Covid-19 corona virus frenzy, which became global right before I traveled to the U.S. as…
solastalgia.theappealoftheunreal.com
The Solastalgia project now has its own subsite: www.solastalgia.theappealoftheunreal.com.
Meet Solastalgia
A shift in research focus from visual illusions to something more relevant. Meet Solastalgia. More on this soon.
Skeuomorphism
A skeuomorph object wants you to believe it’s made of another material: it’s an imitation-look. This post will expand.
The Three Motions of Loom: Shuttles
The Three Motions of Loom: shuttles. An experimental non linear text on weaving as animation and time-traveling as a research method.
Epilepsy warning! A tapestry gif animation.
An experiment in animating a double sided tapestry.
A life-sized doll house.
Château de Breteuil near Paris, houses a collection of automata and period room dioramas, depicting historical events that may or may not have taken place in the castle. Visited Oct. 2019.
A Brief History of Visual Trickery.
Work in progress: an overview of visual illusions and illusionist effects: suggestions of depth and/or movement.
‘Choir of a gothic church’ by Daguerre & Bouton.
Daguerre and Bouton’s only remaining diorama at the church of Bry-sur-Marne: a piece of religious high-tech theatre. Visited October 2019.
Are prehistoric caves dioramas?
This is part of a text, published in April 2019 on my portfolio site. It talks about the boundaries of the diorama, and Lascaux III as a simulation.
Fiction dioramas: a rant on an Efteling theme park dark ride
This text was first published in April 2019 on my portfolio site. It takes a closer, critical look at one of the ‘magical’ animatronic dioramas of Dutch theme park Efteling.