With the purpose of reflecting on the origin of communication problems, this Master thesis delves into Communication theory and presents the ideas and conclusions of psychologists and scholars who have studied our communicative process and its limitations in depth. These theories are brought together with the artworks of contemporary media artists and with my personal projects. One main question is formulated: are we as artists able to avoid interferences and to create interfaces which will improve our social interactions?
The selected artists have reflected on the error and its presence in our interactions with other humans. In some cases their purpose is to create an interface which will mediate between us and will provide a solution; in other cases their artworks reflect on the problems of communication from the perspective of Media Arts. In order to organise the theories and artworks, the communicative act is divided into three constitutive parts: the individual, the message and the medium. These three sections are connected to the practical part of the thesis, which consists of three personal projects, each of them focusing on one specific aspect related to the presence of errors in our interactions: the anxiety of the individual and the power of scents in a social exchange in relation to the project Anxiume; the existence of dead words in the dictionary and the possibility of recycling a word which has lost its meaning in relation to the message and the project 1914 - 2014; the problem of starting a conversation with someone we do not know, avoiding small talk, in relation to the medium and the project BullShut App.
The selected artists have reflected on the error and its presence in our interactions with other humans. In some cases their purpose is to create an interface which will mediate between us and will provide a solution; in other cases their artworks reflect on the problems of communication from the perspective of Media Arts. In order to organise the theories and artworks, the communicative act is divided into three constitutive parts: the individual, the message and the medium. These three sections are connected to the practical part of the thesis, which consists of three personal projects, each of them focusing on one specific aspect related to the presence of errors in our interactions: the anxiety of the individual and the power of scents in a social exchange in relation to the project Anxiume; the existence of dead words in the dictionary and the possibility of recycling a word which has lost its meaning in relation to the message and the project 1914 - 2014; the problem of starting a conversation with someone we do not know, avoiding small talk, in relation to the medium and the project BullShut App.