Making a Human Mark: Bridging the Gap Between Traditional and New Media

Lynn Faitelson, MFA ’05

thesis abstract

My interest in the field of new media, and the subject of my thesis investigation, is to attempt to synthesize tactile, material objects and electronic technology into discrete new media objects using sound, light, video, and the human form as mediating tools.

The principles of new media design are discrete representation, numerical representation, automation, and variability, and these precepts make manifest the human condition. Coming from the field of traditional graphic design, where static images deliver a two dimensional message, I have been encouraged to explore space, volume, time and dimension using tools that take advantage of, and emphasise all of our human senses. Communication design has become a hybrid of complementary technologies and media, and designers are uniquely positioned to create work that reflects life, and humanity.

In this thesis investigation, I have tried to bridge the gap between traditional graphic design and new media design, bearing in mind that while the visual dialect and idiom may change, there is always unity across diverse fields.

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