Topic 8
New Media
Defining “new media” “New Media Art is a comprehensive term that encompasses art forms that are either produced, modified, and transmitted by means of newmedia/digital technologies or, in a broader sense, make use of “new” and emerging technologies that originate from a scientific,military, or industrial context. Much of New Media Art indicates a concern withand reflection of newmedia and its ever-changing, complex modes of expression. A list of genres that are related to New Media Art showcases the large spectrum of this term—among others, it (commonly) includes virtual art, software art, Internet art, game art, glitchart, telematic art, software art, bio art, computer animation, interactive art, and computer graphics, as well as practices in the field of art and activism, such as hacktivism and tactical media.” - Grau, O. (2016). New Media Art. Oxford Bibliographies. DOI: 10.1093 OBO/9780199920105-0082
Japan Dreamed – Images of the Floating World, Atelier des Lumières, Paris, 2018
Defining “new media” Noll describes how he used an IBM 7090 computer and StrombergCarlson 4020 microfilm plotter to produce “an exploratory series of design-producing experiments”. He called the resulting images “Patterns” and stated that they were “obviously conceived without forethought for their artistic merit”. However, Noll went on to speculate that “experiments might be attempted to try to determine just what qualities make a picture pleasing or even artistic.” - (A. Michael Noll. Patterns by 7090, Technical Memorandum, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1962).
New media art Dealing with the artist’s intent can be quite different with new media-based site-specific work since there can be many more potential variations of artist’s intention in relation to the viability of the piece: the artist intended and continues to intend the work to be temporary; the work was intended always to be presented in the same way and remain permanent in its original form and place; the artist’s intent was originally not flexible but later conformed to prolong the viability of the artwork ; and a hybrid of the other options.
SymbioticA Research Group, 2006. MEART: The Semi-Living Artist Robotic drawing mechanism wired to lab-cultured rat neurons via the Internet.
New media and science New Media Art was coined by the interrelation of art and science from its very beginnings, because the sciences often acted as an engine of innovation and a reservoir for (aesthetic) inspiration in various art practices—conversely, New Media Art repeatedly served as an innovator for new technologies, for instance, in computer graphics, computer animation, and virtual art. In more recent years, art practices have emerged that prolong the art-science connection (as well as the notion of the artist as engineer, and vice versa) with the use of biotechnologies and biological and living material; such artistic endeavours are usually referred to as “bio art,” with proponents including Eduardo Kac and Joe Davis. A multitude of annual festivals and biennales dedicated to New Media Art—specifically to digital art—can be considered forums and catalysts for current developments regarding topics, technologies, and discourses of New Media Art.
Tissue Culture and Art, Victimless leather, 2004. Created through the resources of SymbioticA (the Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory, School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia) in conjunction with Prof. Arunasalam Dharmarajan and Verigen (a private tissue-research business based in Perth), and funded by ArtsWA.
Characteristics of the digital medium Paul identifies four main characteristics of the digital medium: 1. Digital technologies are interactive. Any experience of an artwork is interactive, relying on the complex interplay between contexts and productions of meaning at the recipient’s end. In regards to digital art, interactivity allows different forms of navigating, assembling, or contributing to an artwork that goes beyond a purely mental event. 2. Digital art is often participatory. It relies on multi-user inputs; viewers often interact within the parameters that have been set by the artist, or create the parameters themselves. 3. Digital medium is dynamic. It can respond to the changing data flow and the real-time transmission of data. 4. Digital medium is customisable. It is adaptable to a singleuser’s needs or intervention.
Ouchhh. POETIC_AI_ (2018) for the Atelier des LumiĂŠres in Paris 2-minute video: https://vimeo.com/266856933
The interplay between virtual and physical structures Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw created a variety of influential projects in the field of digital installation art and addressed issues of navigation in connection to architecture in his landmark piece The Legible City (1988-91). The project allows visitors to navigate a simulated city, consisting of computer-generated three-dimensional letters that form words and sentences, by riding a stationary bicycle. The architecture is based on maps of actual cities, thus entirely consists of texts, which are projected onto a large screen in front of the viewer. Jeffry Shaw, The Legible City, 1988-91
The separation between artist and viewer Interactivity provides the opportunities for artists to actively involve viewers in heightened ways into their artworks. Paul Garrin’s White Devil (1993) places viewers in the midst of an imagined ‘neighbourhood’. As the viewers pass through the gallery space, surveillance cameras track their movements and vicious dogs appear on the video monitors to scare them away. Artists can rely on pre-recorded video footage to reduce the separation between artist and the viewer. Paul Garrin, White Devil, 1993
Hsin-chien Huang New technologies usually are considered as means to change the future. New media art is the genre in fine art that explores new aesthetics and concepts. However, I want to use new media to explore my past instead of my future, and find new ways to document my private memory with new and meaningful technologies. I believe that the future can only be changed if we could invent fresh and sincere ways to understand our past. The new media art performing project “The Inheritance” uses motion capture and 3D printing technologies. It was sponsored by the Crossover Fund between Digital and Visual Art from National Taiwan Fine Art Museum. It is produced by Ms. You-Chiou Chen of White Egret Foundation. The Choreography Adviser is Le Gend Lin of Legend Lin Dance Theatre, and the director is Hsin-Chien Huang of Storynest. It was presented in the Chiang Kai-shek Auditorium of the old Taiwan Air Force headquarter in Taipei. The project transforms the director’s private memory into a surreal dance performing.
Hsin-Chien Huang, The Moment We Meet, 2014