New Media Art

Abstract

New Media Art is a comprehensive term that encompasses art forms that are either produced, modified, and transmitted by means of new media/digital technologies or, in a broader sense, make use of “new” and emerging technologies that originate from a scientific, military, or industrial context. Along with its emphasis on the “new,” New Media Art signifies an explicit difference—or différance—with art practices that make use of traditional, in other words, “old,” visual media. Hence, much of New Media Art indicates a concern with and reflection of new media 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, glitch art, 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. Given that the technologies, practices, and discourses of New Media Art are in a constant flux, the understanding of New Media Art and its affiliated genres is constantly shifting, as its—somewhat scattered—history implies. Evidently, much of New Media Art challenges the very foundations of an object-centered understanding of art, in particular with regard to its characteristics of interactivity, nonlinearity, immateriality, and ephemerality, and its intricate interrelation between artist, artwork, and spectator. It is important to note that these features are shared with other strands of contemporary and modern art and are not equally inherent within all genres of New Media Art. Nevertheless, digital technologies exceptionally allow artists to develop interactive artworks, as in Internet art and virtual art, which provide the spectator with a specific freedom of (aesthetic) choice. In other words, the aesthetic object is—in a majority of New Media Art—ultimately created by the spectator as a “user,” even though the artist assesses the framework and specific context for the action and participation of the spectator. 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.