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New media art

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New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including computer graphics, computer animation, the Internet, interactive technologies, robotics, and biotechnologies. The term differentiates itself by its resulting cultural objects, which can be seen in opposition to those deriving from old media arts (i.e. traditional painting, sculpture, etc.) This concern with medium is a key feature of much contemporary art and indeed many art schools now offer a major in "New Genres" or "New Media." New Media concerns are often derived from the telecommunications, mass media and digital modes of delivery the artworks involve, with practices ranging from conceptual to virtual art, performance to installation. The term is generally applied to disciplines such as:

History

The origins of new media art can be traced to the moving photographic inventions of the late 19th Century such as the zoetrope (1834), the praxinoscope (1877) and Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope (1879). During the 1960s the divergence with the history of cinema came with the video art experiments of Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell, and multimedia performances of Fluxus. More recently, the term "new media" has become closely associated with the term Digital Art, and has converged with the history and theory of computer-based practises.

Some important influences on new media art have been the theories developed around hypertext, databases, and networks. Important thinkers in this regard have been Vannevar Bush and Theodor Nelson with important contributions from the literary works of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Julio Cortázar and Douglas Cooper. These elements have been especially revolutionary for the field of narrative and anti-narrative studies, leading explorations into areas such as non-linear and interactive narratives.

Preservation

As the technologies used to deliver works of new media art such as film, tapes, web browsers, software and operating systems become obsolete, New Media art faces serious issues around the challenge to preserve artwork beyond the time of its contemporary production. Currently, research projects into New media art preservation are underway to improve the preservation and documentation of the fragile media arts heritage (see DOCAM - Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage).

Methods of preservation exist, including the translation of a work from an obsolete medium into a related new medium (see Digital Rosetta Stone (PDF)), the digital archiving of media (see Internet Archive and File), and the use of emulators to preserve work dependent on obsolete software or operating system environments (see Preserving the Rhizome ArtBase, a report by Richard Rinehart for Rhizome.org). See also Cultural Heritage as a Mediation of Digital Culture, a report by Nina Zschocke; Gabriele Blome; Monika Fleischmann for netzspannung.org.

See also

New Media Artists

Further reading

  • Ascott, Roy (2003). Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness (Ed.) Edward A. Shanken. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520218031
  • Barreto, Ricardo and Perissinotto, Paula “the_culture_of_immanence”, in Internet Art. Ricardo Barreto e Paula Perissinotto (orgs.). São Paulo, IMESP, 2002. ISBN: 85-7060-038-0.
  • Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media Cambridge, Masschusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-63255-1.
  • Paul, Christiane (2003). Digital Art (World of Art series). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20367-9.
  • Fleischmann, Monika & Reinhard, Ulrike (2004). Digital Transformations, München: whois. ISBN 3-934013-38-4
  • Fleischmann, Monika & Strauss, Wolfgang (eds.) (2001). Proceedings of »CAST01//Living in Mixed Realities« Intl. Conf. On Communication of Art, Science and Technology, Fraunhofer IMK 2001, 401. ISSN 1618–1379 (Print), ISSN 1618–1387 (Internet).
  • Grau, Oliver (2003). Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-07241-6.
  • Grau, Oliver (2007). (Ed.) MediaArtHistories. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0262072793.
  • Shanken, Edward A. Selected Writings on Art and Technology http://artexetra.com
  • Tribe, Mark and Reena Jana. New Media Art. https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/x/Wkg
  • Whitelaw, Mitchell (2004). Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-73176-2.
  • Wands, Bruce (2006). Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-23817-0.
  • Youngblood, Gene (1970). Expanded Cinema. New York. E.P. Dutton & Company.

List of New Media art organizations

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