This is a forwarded message from SIMON BIGGS
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>Steve Dietz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Subject: definitions redux
>I wonder why it isn't appropriate to postulate a "new media" based on
>computation and networks--i.e. technologically-based. This doesn't
mean that
>new media art is or should or for ever has to be about the technology.
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Steve is touching on the ever bifurcating and infuriating nature of the
problem being discussed here, giving with one hand ("computations and
networks") and taking with the other ("technology"). Perhaps it would
be constructive to look at the general reasons why artists choose to
work with the systems they do rather than seek to refine language
distinct from practice.
It is problematic to generalise but it is the case that when theorising
this occurs. Creative engagement with things might be motivated by
political, philosophical, aesthetic or other positions. The commonality
is that many of the artistic practices being discussed here, directly
or indiectly, are concerned with the systems, instruments and
methodologies which manifest the materialist and largely
technologically determined culture we live in today. The artists
involved in these practises are treating as the media and "stuff" of
their work these infrastructural components of our society. This makes
what they do look like "media art", whether they are working with
bio-tech, digital systems or smart materials (for example). What is
also common in this practice is a literality of engagement and a mode
of abstraction in relation to the subject (society). We also see this
in the work of non-media artists, perhaps quite well expressed in a
Hirst vitrine.
Looking back to history we see artists similarly engaging with the
dominant instrumentalities and related institutions of their time. An
example would be architecture and the book in relation to the church.
History is never clear or linear. Nor are the motivations or means of
artists. What is apparent is that artists practice emerges from,
engages with and reflects upon context. How could this not be the case.
Artists, and their publics, are thus determined. It might be profitable
to place this nexus as that upon which taxonomies can be constructed.
Best
Simon
Note: I am on the road from August 23 to September 12 2004 and during
this period will have intermittent and possibly slow internet access.
It might take time to reply to your messages and it would be
appreciated if you could avoid sending attachments or large files as
bandwidth might be a problem.
Simon Biggs
[log in to unmask]
http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
Research Professor
Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cri/adrc/research2/
Senior Research Fellow
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
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Beryl Graham, Senior Research Fellow, New Media Art
School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland
Tel: +44 191 515 2896 [log in to unmask]
CRUMB web resource for new media art curators
http://www.crumbweb.org
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