Oliver Grau - Works

Works

Oliver Grau is Professor of Image Science and Head of the Department for Image Science at the Danube University Krems.

His books include:

• Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (MIT Press/Leonardo Books, 2003)
• Mediale Emotionen (Fischer, 2005)
• MediaArtHistories (MIT Press/Leonardo Books, 2007).
• Imagery in the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA: MIT-Press 2011.

He has conducted international invited lecture tours, received numerous awards, and produced international publications in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Korean, Chinese. His main research is in the history of media art, immersion (virtual reality), and emotions, as well as the history, idea and culture of telepresence and artificial life.

Grau's book Virtual Art, which received more than 50 reviews, offered for the first time a historic comparison in image-viewer theory of immersion as well as a systematic analysis of the triad of artist, work and viewer on conditions of digital art. The research is linked to the novel model of an evolutionary history of illusionistic which results on the one hand from a relative dependence on new sensual potentials of suggestion and on the other hand from the variable strength of alienation of the viewer (media competence)(Grau 2000).

Using an interdisciplinary approach Grau also analysed methods which elicit or heighten the impression of immersion in digital image spaces for the viewer. He found that this is primarily induced by interaction; reaction of the images in real-time to the viewer’s movements (Grau 1999–2007), the utilisation of evolutionary image processes — for example, genetic algorithms — (Grau 1997 and 2001), haptic feedback, the natural design of the interface (Grau 2002), the impression of telematic presence (Grau 2000), and particularly the dimensions and design of the image display, which must fill the viewer’s field of vision completely and extend up to 360° both horizontally and vertically (Grau 2001 and 2003). These studies sought to transcend customary single media approaches in research on perceptual illusions and to introduce concepts such as polysensuality, suggestive potential, image space, disposition of the individual observer, and evolution of the visual media as well as to expand the theoretical work on distance by Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky, amongst others. In addition Grau undertook studies of innovative linkages of architecture and immersive moving images (Grau 2003,etc.), as well as of immersion in the history of film (Grau 2006 and 2007). The majority of these publications resulted from two research projects of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG — German Research Foundation): Art History and Media Theories of Virtual Reality, 1998–2002, and Immersive Art, 2002–2005.

Emotion Research

Several research projects conducted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German Academyof Sciences Leopoldina and two summer academies supported by the Volkswagen Foundation gave rise to an interdisciplinary study on the history of managing feelings through images and sound (Grau 2005). Building on the work of Antonio Damasio, Joseph LeDoux, and Wolf Singer, and using the examples of Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheimer Altarpiece, Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will, and the computer game “America’s Army”, it was demonstrated how emotional experiences with images can forge a sense of community; in this way a contribution was made to research on a problematic key concept of image science.

History of Media Art

Since 2002 Grau has initiated interdisciplinary meetings of scholars working on media art and its history (cf. Grau 2007); the first conference on the history of media art was held in Banff, Canada, in 2005. Further conferences were organised in Berlin (2007), Melbourne (2009), and Liverpool (2011); the series continues with a conference in Riga in 2013.