While I am a student of Media, Society and the arts, I feel as though art always seems to escape me. Art in the classic sense has never really been something that has captured my attention or given me any special feelings inside when looking at it. Even when I am trained to think of some things as classic art, I still can't understand why people believe so and find them to be more often then not pretentious.
However, with New Media Art, I feel as though I finally understand some of it and can appreciate it much more than something by pollack or picasso. The lecture given to us last week made me realize even moreso how I can connect with New Media Art on a much better level than I can with classic art. I also feel as though with New Media Art, its a broader spectrum of things, so even if you don't appreciate one aspect, you may be able to appreciate another.
I found some of the experiments to be quite interesting. In one of my other classes we actually saw a movie with the two actors pretending to be members of an indigenous tribe. While in my other class I hadn't thought of that as art, I could see how in another context it can be looked at as performance art, and through the use of video, it becomes new Media Art. Another one of the experiments that caught my eye was done by Brooke Singer. The idea of studying people and how they react to having their information shown at the swipe of a card was interesting.
I think what fascinates me most about New Media Art is the idea that it doesnt need to be art in the typical sense. It doesn't have to be a beautiful or artistic photograph. It doesnt need to be some amazing theatre performance to be considered art. The ideas can range from photographs to experiments to interactive sharing (such as the dream message system).
I have continued to tell mysef to make trips to the Neuberger to check out the artwork there and to take advantage of something so close. My first trip was for this lecture, where I didn't get to do much looking, but I think in march when the Off the Grid exhibition comes around I may spend some more time there. I'm looking foward to seeing Loius Hock's work on illegal immigration (it's something that hits close to home as my boyfriend is here purely on a visa though him and his family came illegally), as well as Brett Blooms showing of prisoner inventions.
I feel as though Brett Blooms showing of these such things are a similiar idea to Duchomp's ready mades. Bloom is taking something that is already made, recreating it, and showing it to those outside of a prison cell. I find this similiar to Duchomps idea of taking something and placing it on display and calling it art for others to see.
Perhaps New Media art is a continuation or a spin off (in a very loose sense of these words) of the dadaist movement. These things are not our idea of classic art, some may even look and say these things are not art at all, however they are slowing gaining recognition, as did Dadaism. Perhaps today our New Media Art is the Dadaism for this generation. One day, perhaps in museums worldwide we'll see a lot more New Media Art placed on display or recognized as high Art.
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6 comments:
I like that your attraction to new media art is its non conformist classification form. I think that’s one of the main hidden under tones expressed through new media art. I strongly agree with you that art doesn’t have to scream art in order to be art. I think this was a key point that was not necessarily mention in the Neuberger talk but was clearly apparent through parts of the slide show. On the other hand part of art is the subtle aura that is unconsciously discovered which was talked about in the Berger book. I think new media art just happens to have a lot of subtle components.
One thing I find really interesting about new media art, such as the Brooke Singer bar installation you mentioned are the political messages that may not be as apparent in more "traditional" art. This kind of activist art may rile people up to action- whether it is to rise up against privacy issues (there was an article in the ny times a while back about the ID scanners at bars and how the owners were using the information they collected to mail flyers to peoples houses and collect demographic data) and it allows audiences to actively participate in the making of art, which is different than simply looking at a painting in a museum.
First off, since you and Robin seem to be interested in Brooke Singer’s work I would recommend that you take her Internet As Public Art course. While I have not personally taken in (yet) I think it sounds interesting and she goes in depth about some of things you have a spoken about. I also think it would applicable to your major. You are correct in your belief that New Media is a spin-off of Dadaism. In all of my New Media courses when discuss art history and its relation we always seems to come back to the Dadaist and in particular its German artists. I think that like Dadaism, New Media is becoming recognitized. It is starting to appear in “real” art galleries and museums (not just made ones that were created to solely exhibit New Media “art”). There was two (three?) summers ago a small exhibitions in MoMA with some of the better New Media. So, I think slowly but surely getting there.
~Dan Mahoney
i have kind of a reverse reaction to new media and classical art. When i see a classical painting somewhere i know it is art, i can see it on a canvas and think to myself that this is art, it looks like art. Then when im showed new media im not exactly sure what to think about it. I know it's art, i know people went through simular things with this than classical painters did, but it doesnt give off the same aura to me. everyone feels differently about everything though, so this is just me. i do appreciate new media, i just dont get the same feeling seeing a painting, then see a scewed reproduction of the same painting.
Glad to know New Media art has interested other people. New Media art is a lot easier to understand (most of the time) then classic art because it's mostly modern and pretty self-explanatory. New Media is so diverse and I feel like a lot of people don't realize that most of the time and I'm delighted more people are starting to understand that. I'm also interested in seeing Off The Grid, exceptionally after the free103point9 lecture.
The fact that you describe New Media as the new dadaism is awesome. I never really thought of it like that but a lot of New Media art do carry dadaist concepts with them. I thoroughly agree with your statement.
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