The text is from 2007. Almost 15 years on, describe your (updated) understanding of New Media Art in comparison to how the author defined it back then.
How do you think the conception of what New Media Art is or can be has changed since the text was published? Think of new technologies, apps, dominant themes, and media that have come to be dominant in our lives after the text was published.
The author defined New Media Art as a “subset of two broader categories: Art and Technology and Media art. Art and Technology refer to practices, such as electronic art, Robotic art, and Genomic art, that involve technologies that are new but not necessarily media-related. Media art includes Video art, Transmission art, and Experimental Film.”
Over the past 15 years, the meaning of New Media Art has continued to evolve and expand, incorporating new technologies and pushing the boundaries of traditional art forms. The emergence of virtual and augmented technologies has enabled artists to create in a more creative and immersive way. In addition, the content of New Media Art has expanded as well. With the wide use of social media, people have a much freer space to voice ideas, and a lot of them have employed New Media Art to express their opinions on politics, cultures, technology, the environment, the future world, and so on.
Art Historical Antecedents, Themes, Tendencies
Before 2000
L.H.O.O.Q.(1919)
Description:
In 1919, Duchamp made a parody of the Mona Lisa by adorning a cheap reproduction of the painting with a mustache and goatee. To this he added the inscription L.H.O.O.Q., a phonetic game which, when read out loud in French quickly sounds like “Elle a chaud au cul”. This can be translated as “She has a hot ass”, implying that the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability.
Artist: Marcel Duchamp
Background information about the artist:
A French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. He has had an immense impact on 20th- and 21st-century art, and a seminal influence on the development of conceptual art.
The Context:
The Dada movement emerged in Europe during World War I and rejected traditional art forms and institutions and Marcel Duchamp was one of the leading figures. By adding a mustache and goatee to the famous Mona Lisa, Duchamp created the readymade to convey his doubts about the cultural and artistic values of his time.
After 2000
Access(2003)
Description:
Access is an interactive art installation that lets web users track anonymous individuals in public places, by pursuing them with a robotic spotlight and an acoustic beam system. The work is about our obsession with surveillance, control, visibility, and celebrity.
Artist: Marie Sester
Background information about the artist:
Marie Sester is a French-American decades-long artist,[1][2] and current Ph.D. student studying the nature of consciousness.[3] Her artwork involves cross-disciplinary practices and experimental systems in Interactive Art using tracking technologies, light, audio, video, and biofeedback, focusing on social awareness and the responsibility of personal commitments.
The Context:
Into the 2000s, people’s awareness of surveillance was significantly raised as their lives were more and more exposed to the camera with the development of Webcams and remote-controlled devices. The content of ACCESS calls for awareness of the implications of surveillance, detection, celebrity, self-promotion, and their impact on society.