The digital figural: the problems and potentials of the digital moving image in contemporary art of the 21st century

This thesis frames my ongoing artistic explorations into the potentials of digital moving image in the context of Contemporary Art. It outlines a critical appraisal of the last 20 years of artists' digital moving image practices, proposing that seemingly divergent trends - the 'cinematic' use of DSLR cameras and the 'post-internet' turn towards using 3D computer generated imagery (CGI) - have actually been united in their focus on criticality, abdication of formal innovation and avoidance of deeper engagement with technical questions related to their medium. I set this account of recent practice against a longer history of artists' moving image, tracing the shift from Modernist strategies, dominated by formal experimentation and medium reflexivity, towards the conceptual and 'political' frame of Contemporary Art. I argue that the supersession of Modernist formalism has in fact precipitated a crisis in Contemporary Art, evidenced in recent discussions in the field. I trace an alternative framework using the notion of the figural, as proposed by Jean-François Lyotard, Rosalind Krauss and David Rodowick. These thinkers refuse the 'conceptualism' at the core of Contemporary Art and instead highlight an approach to art focused on visuality and the unconscious rather than textuality and criticality. To conclude, I demonstrate how the contextual problems and potentials raised in the thesis are addressed through my artistic experimentation into digital and volumetric video and 3D tools. Focusing on questions of form, engagement with the medium and the semiosis of the digital image, I attempt to highlight potential new pathways out of the current impasse.