The Angel of History is the main protagonist in my research.
Her journey through the realms of digital image processing is illustrated in Destitute Vision.
At the end of her journey, the Angel embraces her role as Media Archaeologist (from the future),
and compiles her insights on image processing into Resolution Studies.



︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  


[ INTRODUCTION TO ] RESOLUTION STUDIES

Over the past decade, engineers and users have increasingly recognized that image resolution is more complex than a traditional quantitative or qualitative metric.

Resolutions emerge from the consolidation (the forging of an interaction between) various technological materialities, ecompassing standards, interfaces, and protocols. According to Galloway, these standards are embedded within standardized encapsulations, each offering specific, pre-designed affordances designed into the technology.
The cost of media resolutions is that we have gradually become unaware of the choices and compromises they represent.

Resolution studies is a theoretical framework that not only examines the quantitative standards but also explores compromised, other (qualitative, speculative) modes of operation. It occupies a space connected to protocol, the interface effect, materiality, habit and media epigraphy / genealogical media theory.
Studying resolutions inherently involves the analysis of compromises made suring standardization, which are influenced by genealogical, political, financial, and ethical judgments and biases. For instance, decisions about resolution standards may prioritize certain commercial interests (profit, defined by the market) over others, shaping the technological landscape in subtle ways.

Resolutions not only consolidate the ways by which we use our technologies, but also how we do not use them or how certain functionalities are excluded (an effect that is often overlooked). The standardization of resolutions is a process that generally imposes efficiency, order and functionality on our technologies. It doesn’t only involve the creation of protocols and solutions, but the obfuscation of compromises and black-boxing of alternative possibilities, which are as a result in danger of staying forever unseen or forgotten. As resolution theory continues to grapple with forming an ontology of image resolution, the field of digital image processing has already evolved into more complex space. With the advent of AI, these realms are facing a new era marked by challenges not only of fidelity but also of worth, obsolescence and legibility.
>>> See the crisis of the image at the end of Destitute Vision                                                     


Why Study Resolutions?  
Our (digital) cultures are becoming more and more complex. From deep fakes to post-uncanny or neo-crapstraction - it is hard to stay on top of the dialogue and keep a grip on the new problems or to even find ‘the contemporary discourse’. Is there still a dialogue? What is really happening now? There is of course not one ‘now’ in a landscape that has as many fractures as it has participants. And there is also not one truth, past, or future to our digital cultures; they vary as much as the diversity of the perspectives of its users.

Resolutions exist on all levels of the engineering process, and involve procedural trade-offs. The more complex a technology is, the more compromises its renderings involve. However, these actors and their inherent affordances and complexities are increasingly positioned beyond the fold of everyday settings - or: outside the afforded options of the interface. This is how resolutions do not just function as an interface effect but also as a hyperopic lens, obfuscating some of the most immediate stakes and possible alternative resolutions of media. Unknowingly, both user and audience suffer from technological hyperopia; a condition of ‘farsightedness’ that does not allow them to see what processes they are taking part in, or that they trigger while clacking on the a keyboard underneath their hands. Rather, they just focus on a final ends to a means.

As an artist, I am responsible to not only critically engage with the new materialities of the digital, but also - and I believe that this is where the ‘new’ (of new media - if you still want to use that term) or the contemporary comes in - to develop a certain fluid literacy of these constantly developing and mutating material languages that impose constraints and qualities on the technologies we work with. To truly engage with digital culture means to be able to formulate or take a critical point of view, involving analysis and active change through building (speculative) alternatives. A process that requires both literacy and training, which is not readily available or accessible for everyone.

Through this research, which is both practice based and theoretical, I wish to uncover these speculative, anti-utopic, lost and unseen or simply "too good to be implemented" resolutions -- to produce new ways to perceive through and use our technologies. To shed a light on the shadow side of resolutions. Whatever is not captured within the framework of our resolutions remains invisible - but these alternatives solutions may still be lingering the realm of alternative possibilities, waiting to be implemented.

Finally, I believe that working as an artist is as much about creating and developing modes of thinking as it is about nurturing and sharing that knowledge acquired through this practice. Let me put extra emphasis on the importance of sharing: all art I create is available online, even after it has been acquired by a third party. Besides, I share the curriculums I develop, presentations and papers I write here. COPY <IT> RIGHT! 
A longer introduxtion to resolutions studies: Refuse to let the syntaxes of (a) history direct our futures. [PDF]



Resolution studies classes and seminars


RESOLUTION STUDIES - for now - INVOLVES 7 DISPUTES:

RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0000 : HOROLOGY
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0001 : MATERIALITY 
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0010 : GENEALOGY
        1. A GENEALOGY OF THE COLOUR TEST CARD
        2. A GENEALOGY OF MACROBLOCK / FROM ARTIFACT TO A/EFFECT.
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0011 : SCOPE (SCALING AS VIOLENCE)   
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0100 :SCALE (OR HOW HABIT DELINEATES IM/POSSIBILITY AND IN/VISIBILITY)
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0101 : CRISIS (THE ADDITIVE CRISIS OF THE IMAGE)
        0. THE OBSOLETE ANALOG IMAGE
        1. TRANSITION FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL
        2. PLATFORMED IMAGE
        3. CRISIS OF THE SYNTHETIC IMAGE
RESOLUTION DISPUTE 0000 : ATLAS


Publications:  
︎ Vernacular of File Formats (2010)
︎ Glitch Moment/um (INC: 2011)
︎ Beyond Resolution (i.R.D.: 2020)
︎ IM/POSSIBLE IMAGES READER (i.R.D.: 2022) HQ // LQ
MORE PUBLICATIONS HERE


Video lectures:
︎A Collection of Collections inside a Library for the INC (2023)
︎ Resolution Studies Lecture for MIT (2021)
︎ Destitute Vision Lecture for NCAD (2021)
︎ It takes more than the past to understand the archive video essay for Stedelijk Studies (2020)



︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  

Rosa Menkman is a Dutch artist and researcher of resolutions. Her work focuses on noise artifacts resulting from accidents in both analog and digital media.

The journey of her protagonist, the Angel of History—inspired by Paul Klee’s 1920 monoprint, Angelus Novus, and conceptualized by Walter Benjamin in 1940—functions as a foundational framework for her explorations of image processing technologies. As the machines upgrade, the Angel finds herself caught in the ripple of their distortions, unable to render the world around her.

Complementing her practice, she published Glitch Moment/um (INC, 2011), a book on the exploitation and popularization of glitch artifacts. She further explored the politics of image processing in Beyond Resolution (i.R.D., 2020). In this book, Rosa describes how the standardization of resolutions promotes efficiency, order, and functionality, but also involves compromises, resulting in the obfuscation of alternative ways of rendering. 

In 2019, Menkman won the Collide Arts at CERN Barcelona award, which inspired her recent research into im/possible images, consolidated in the im/possible images reader (published by the i.R.D. & Lothringer, with support from V2, 2022).

 From 2110 - 2112 the GLI.TC/H Bots facilitated a festival/gathering in Chicago, Amsterdam and Birmingham. Shoutouts to my fellow bots: Nick Briz, Jon Satrom, William Robertson and Antonio Roberts.

From 2018 to 2020, I worked as Substitute Professor of Neue Medien & Visuelle Kommunikation at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Since 2023, I have been running the Im/Possible Lab at HEAD Geneve. Some class materials can be found here; please copy <it> right!.

Recent work can be found in this pdf portfolio.
I believe in a Copy <it> Right ethic:

“First, it’s okay to copy! Believe in the process of copying as much as you can; with all your heart is a good place to start – get into it as straight and honestly as possible. Copying is as good (I think better from this vector-view) as any other way of getting ‚’there.’ ” – NOTES ON THE AESTHETICS OF ‘copying-an-Image Processor’ – Phil Morton (1973)

This means that copying as a creative, exploratory, and educational act is free and encouraged, provided proper accreditation is given. However, when copying transforms into commodification and profit is anticipated, explicit permission must be sought, and compensation may be requested.
This website was made possible with the financial support from the Stimuleringsfonds.nl (2018)

I am grateful to have received a basis stipend from the Mondriaan Fund (2018-2021) and just recently: 2023 - 2026!
︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎  ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎ ︎