In the early days of Internet, the term “New Media” describes digital publishing forms during the process of communication and distributing contents. It indicates the emergence of multimedia. New Media Art refers to the art generated by new technologies and concerned with the cultural, political and atheistic possibilities of these tools. For me as a reader reading this work 15 years later, I think the forms of New Media Art expands a lot with the development of technology. In my understanding, it becomes more interactive and more engaging. And artists definitely feel more comfortable using these tools. I really like the statement “by deploying these technologies for critical or experimental purposes, New Media artists redefine them as art media” in this work. I think New Media artists utilize the technologies in creative and innovative way, and are not limited by the technology. AI generated works can also be counted as New Media Art as well. But it also brings along the problem of intellectual property.
Work before 2000:
Reference: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/89204
In Brillo Boxes, three Brillo boxes are positioned in slightly different angles, but the name of the product can be easily read. Other famous pieces created by this artist, Andy Warhol includes the painting and the photograph Campbell’s Soup Cans. The forms of his art works include canvas painting, photography, video art, and filmmaking. In my understanding, Andy Warhol uses his art pieces as commentaries on mass production, commercialization and capitalism. His pieces pose the questions that can everyday, mundane items be art? How can they be art? Where is the boundary? How do we define the artistic value of a certain object?
Work after 2000:
Reference: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/284985
Every Shot, Every Episode by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy is definitely a very new form of art to me. The video player and the screen are displayed in the briefcase, and the collection of labeled CDs are stored somewhere next to the briefcase. The McCoys use thousands of individual shots from Starsky & Hutch to create a fictitious world, and classified them based on the structural technique, stock character or action. In this way, they expose the repetitive patterns in making so-called successful films and TV shows. For audience to view the contents, they have to pickup one CD and put it in the CD player. In this sense, this art piece is very interactive.
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