– New Media is the umbrella term that refers to any Digital Art, Computer Art, or Net Art that is created and enjoyed through new emerging technologies, user interaction, and the connectivity of the global internet community. New Media Art is a method of exploration and experimentation within larger cultural, political, and artistic contexts. Moreover, its effectiveness relies on the fact that much of New Media art uses or “appropriates,” already created images, information, and software to tell its story; hence, New Media Art can be compared to a global conversation among artists, audiences, and any other creator whose work is visible in another artist’s work.
– The author asserts that the birth of the New Media art movement is a response to “the information technology and the digitization of cultural forms”. In other words, it contextualizes art within a digital revolution centered around accessibility and community, and the idea of sharing/distributing important messages through artistic imagery. I think that this core idea of New Media Art has somewhat changed since the early 90’s due to the increase of internet privatization. Moreover, because technologies have become so widely used, Media Art, under the restraints of global capitalism, has turned into more of a commodity rather than artistic expression. On the other hand, I think that while the author discusses how technology in the 80s and 90s allowed for accessibility for young artists, I think that the level of accessibility to, for example, smartphones and computers, has increased exponentially since then. Now, everyone has the materials and software needed to create New Media Art, not just artists. Further, while artists of the 90’s and early 2000s relied on emails and websites to advertise installations, this process can be done easily on social media.
– Every Icon (1997) is an art piece by John F. Simon Jr, created using the software Java Applet, which can be accessed through the Web browser, Every Icon is a 32 x 32 grid of empty white squares. Once the “program” begins, the grid begins to display every possible combination of patterns, where squares change from either white or black. It is said that just to display all combinations just manipulating the first line of the grid would take over a year, and to display all combinations of the second line would take over 5. Hence, the combinations possible are so large that one would never live to see Simon’s grid in its completed state. This project shows the infinite capabilities of computer technology; only a few lines of simple code are used to create this piece of art, yet it is able to generate new images every second, for almost an eternity. Similarly, each square and its changing state represents every existing icon (image) that we know to exist on the internet and in person, pointing to the great power the internet has at housing, searching for, and creating new images every second.
– Golan Levin’s Dialtones: a Telesymphony was created in 2001. It is a musical performance performed entirely by the audience members, who, upon entering the concert hall, have their phone numbers and ringtones entered into a database. Using software created by the artist, musicians then dial each of the numbers, resulting in a “symphony” of sounds coming from multiple cell phones and multiple seats in the concert hall. Levin’s Dialtones reveals the enormous extent to which New Media Art can utilize audience interactivity; the interactivity can be as limited to activity during the artist’s presentation of the artwork, or as hands-on as actually having the audience interact and participate within the production of the artwork.