Virtual Art Anthropology

The thesis aims at studying Virtual Art from the perspective of Anthropology and elaborating Virtual Art’s internal relations with human beings and their mutual impacts in the digital life,so as to reflect on Anthropology from Virtual Art’s various aspects such as noumenon,types,aesthetics and cultural characteristics,and study on Anthropology of art forms,art phenomenon and artistic behavior by combining virtual art field work and ethnographic writing.Basic concepts and academic frameworks of Virtual Art Anthropology are expected to be established.Virtual Art is an inter-acted art form based on digital media and the media of virtual images.In essence,Virtual Art is an art interacting with people,especially underlining the perception factors of audiences’ behavior experience.With the introduction of multi-centered,multi-channeled and multi-interfaced internet media,Virtual Art’s narrative changes from linear to non-linear,Virtual Art’s form changes from block to open,and Virtual Art’s aesthetic model changes from appreciation to experience.Virtual Art focuses on many social prospects including bodies and media,space and existence,gender and identity,technologies and arts,democracy and power,and ethic and religions;and it reflects the interrelationship and macrocosm relevance between people(artists and audiences),objects(artistic works)and events(artistic behavior and artistic events).Anthropology is a science focusing on the study of human beings.Virtual Anthropology studies on “the second life” of human beings in the digital space,while Virtual Art Anthropology,in a micro-universe constructed by “artists-artistic works-audiences-artistic world”,carries out a systematic study on “human’s thinking about themselves.” Within which people participate,observe and experience Virtual Art’s basic forms,virtual life’s way of existence and virtual religion’s mortality and ethics.While anthropologists study the virtual arts in the virtual field work and elaborate virtual arts in the writing of Ethnography,artists are also involuntarily expressing themselves in the social languages of anthropology in their artistic creation.Joseph Beuys holds that artistic creation is not artists’ monopolization and artistic works are not artists’ works.Artistic creation is the creation of all men’s vitality,creativity and imagination;and its social sculpture is related to various aspects including world,history,ideology,arts,philosophy and generalized anthropology.And the internet extends the view of “everybody is an artist.” “Connecting”,“surfing” and “cruising” make ordinary people knock down the barriers between reality and virtual world,re-interpreting or re-sculpturing the multi-dimensioned society by visiting every corner of the world and reaching the edge of the culture.It also enabled people to actively reflect the digital information of “the human world as a large field work” and spontaneously fulfill the tasks of thick description,deep elaboration and deep immersion in the writing of virtual Ethnography.In this sense,the saying “Everybody is an anthropologist!” becomes possible.With the coming of the post-human era of robots,bionic men,intelligent-men and virtual-men,the definition of man and the object of anthropological study will have a fundamental change.The pure anthropology centered on man will come to an end,within which concepts need to be re-established,knowledge re-written and theories re-constructed.Anthropology will finally surpass itself by constructing new methodologies and views of mankind.Those early seemed-impractical insights and heterodox criticism might become the focus of the 21 st century anthropological study.