Visual Arts’ Accessibility in the Digital Realm
(working title)
Within the scope of my doctoral research project, I am conducting a comprehensive examination of the digital accessibility and availability of visual content, contextualized within the landscape of digitality and the ongoing process of digitization since the 1990s.
Informed by the origins of internet culture and activism and extending to the commercialization of digital services, this investigation places particular emphasis on the emergence of Web 2.0 and the ongoing development of Web 3. Situated within the broader context of surveillance capitalism, a socio-economic backdrop that significantly shapes discourse, the research project delves into the multifaceted influences that govern the digital accessibility and availability of visual content.
These influences intersect with a complex web of factors, including the intricate network of legal frameworks governing intellectual property rights, the interplay of economic interests shaping the digital market, questions of interpretive authority and power dynamics, and the omnipresent algorithmic infrastructures employed by technology companies to control the dissemination and discoverability of visual content.
By analyzing practice-oriented case studies, I specifically engage with the perspectives and strategies of artists, scholars, and the broader user community. This approach is intended to clarify the mechanisms underlying digital image dissemination and underscore the importance of critically engaging with these mechanisms.
