Talking about New Media Art!

Dada and New Media art both describe "reactions". What did they react to?

     Dada was in part a reaction to the industrialization of warfare and the mechanical reproduction of texts and images, New Media art can be seen as a response to the information technology revolution and the digitization of cultural forms.

What are some similarities of new media art to Dada, Pop, Video Art?

Pop art, Dada and Video art influence the conceptual and aesthetic roots of New Media art.


Similarities of new media art to Dada:
     Many Dadaist strategies reappear in New Media art, including photomontage, collage, the readymade, political action, and performance -- as well as Dada artists' provocative use of irony and absurdity to jar complacent audiences. Some dadaist also served as important precedents for new media artist in blurring the boundaries between art and political actions.


Similarities of new media art to Pop art:
     Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. Many works of New Media art also refer to and are engaged with commercial culture.


Similarities of new media art to Video art:
     Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. New Media artists saw the importance of Internet as much as Video artist: as an accessible artistic tool that enabled them to explore the changing relationship between technology and culture.

When was Net Art first included in a major exhibition: Documenta X (Kassel Germany)

From 1994 until 1997,  Net art was first included in the Documenta X exhibition in Kassel, Germany.

Is new media art focussed in one country? Why or why not?

No. In fact, because of its close connection to the Internet,  New Media art is a worldwide movement. The international nature of the New Media art movement reflected the increasingly global nature of the art world as a whole, as evidenced by the proliferation in the 1990s of international biennial exhibitions, including the Johannesburg Biennial and the Gwangju Biennial.

Why were many artists drawn to new media art from other disciplines?

     The first reason is the globalization of cultures and economies caused by the widespread use of the Internet, wireless telephones, and other information and communication technologies. Such advance technologies facilitate international trade, multinational partnerships, and the free exchange of ideas.

     The second reason is the advances in personal computing hardware and software. Until the mid-1990s, personal computers were powerful enough to manipulate images, render 3D models, design Web pages, edit video, and mix audio with ease.

     The last reason is that young artists were as comfortable with new media as they were with more traditional cultural forms. It is because the first generation of artists have grown up with personal computers and video games (in the 1980s) was coming of age.

"UMBRELLA-NET" by Jonah Brucker-Cohen & Katherine Moriwaki (2005)

     Umbrella.net is a project with 10 Bluetooth and PDA-equipped umbrellas which make up a mobile network. The artists lodged in wireledd devices in umbrellas, made it into a daily object which fluctuates weather conditions. This is a network platform for the people to connect others from all over the world through the internet when people are in need under an unpredictable situation. This work is typical of much digital art because it is an artwork that places importance on:

1) FORMAL INSTRUCTIONS

- With the use of mobile ad-hoc computer networking, the net shows illuminations of LED umbrellas. When it rains, participants can open the umbrellas and initiate the network connection. There are three kinds of LEDs which represent 3 kinds of status : Pulsing Red if searching for nodes, Pulsing Blue if connected to other umbrellas, Flashing Blue if transmitting data between umbrellas.

2) THE CONCEPT RATHER THAN THE ART OBJECT

- The art objects in this project are just umbrellas. Yet, according to Umbrella.net, their concept is to focus on the theme of "Network's Coincidence". By this intention, they use this system to discover new types of connections amongst strangers or friends of individuals in public space.

3) THE EVENT AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

- The illumination allows people around the site to engage in the project. When there is a sudden rain and everyone opens their umbrellas, the relations between those umbrellas will create a network. It's just like forming a community by the individuals by connecting with each others.

4) AN INTEREST IN RANDOM EVENTS / CHANCE

- The network only appears with the "Coincidence of nedd" which occurs with the first drop of rain. Rainfall is unpredictable and unexpected, so this project works under random events.

5) BORROWING OR APPROPRIATION

- The project borrowed the idea from Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Umbrella Project (1984-1991), in which blue and yellow umbrellas are used to sketch landscapes.

 

ETHICS of Digital Games

1) What are some PROS and CONS of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

        One of the PROS is that videogames can increase children's engagement and interest in active learning since they can learn and play at the same time. For example, someone has invented a medical-themed game, which players can know about medical erudition and treatments by shooting down malignant cell inside a patient's body. I'm quite sure that such game provides young people the greater incentive to gain knowledge. Besides, videogames can also improve one's communication skills. Many games require team work and people who want to win must learn how to express themselves and inform others precisely.
      However, some action games often advocate violence and may cause bad influence to children's mental development. Yet I think the most serious problem is indulgence, especially for the teenagers.  They can be addicted to these games easily and mix up their real life with the virtual one. Videogames may influence one's daily life if that person doesn't have well self-control.

2) Is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social action in the real world? Do you agree?

        There are some military games which are used in training soldiers to shoot and kill, so the generation of young people who play such games may similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions. The tragedy of school massacre is a forceful example. Besides,  research has also proved the negative effects of violent digital games on players. For example, the result of MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) from a video game player. The result is,  the part of his brain which control the aggressive feelings is activating rapidly. 

        I agree aggressive values can be encouraged through these games, especially through First Person Shooting games such as Counter Strike. Players often feel excitement and extremely powerful in the virtual world, which cause them attempt in the real world. Yet, such cases usually only happened to teenagers who are mentally unhealthy. A mentally-mature player should know how to make correct choices.

3) Should governments have the right to ban a certain game or place age restrictions on it?

     Yes, they should have the right to do that. Since some violent or prono games have bad influences to young people's values, emotions and mental development, government has the responsibility to protect them by setting up certain restrictions.

 

Interviewing classmates:
      I've interviewed one of my classmates, Vivian, about her digital game experience. Her favourate game is the SimCity, which is an city-building and urban planning video game series.

  
     In SimCity, the player is given the task of founding and developing a city, while maintaining the happiness of the citizens and keeping a stable budget. Vivian likes this game because it has great design and creative elements. She also thinks it should be considered as an artwork. Since you can create whatever you like in the game, this game deals with people's imagination and creativity. Players can create a settlement that can grow into a city by zoning land for residential, commercial, or industrial development, as well as building and maintaining public services, transport and utilities.  You can make designs at your own. This game encourages communication as it provides network connections between players. Vivian likes the multiplayer, connected, collaborative SimCity experience where your city and others' were working together.

Can VIDEOGAMES be classified as art?

 

1) In your opinion, what are some key features of the kinds of things we call “art”?

To most students in our group, art has to be aesthetic and has expressions. Innovation is another important feature of art. Some students think art should also be able to express the artist’s feelings and views through different media. One thinks art may be something that cannot be easily understood and not close to our daily life.

 

2) How does Adams define art in your reading? Do you agree with his definition?

  Adams defines art as something with content, aesthetics and theme. He also claims that art should be able to last but should not be formulaic. Most students agree with his point of view. One student thinks there is no need for art to last.

3) Can videogames be classified as art? What does Adams say? What do you think?

  According to Adams, some videogames can be classified as art in the condition that they contain narrative elements and can express author’s ideas in an aesthetic way. To us, videogames can be called as art if they are meaningful, with content and aesthetic value. Innovative elements should be contained too. The combination of storyline, music and images in the videogames should be well-designed.

          I think videogames can be a kind of art because they have creative elements, such as graphics, storytelling and music. They have innovative combination of designs for backgrounds, settings and characters.
          

  

      For instance, Mary Flanagan's "domestic" is a well-designed videogame. It is a three-dimentional computer game and an oddly constructed domestic space has been shown. The space extends endlessly and conceptually. The environment of the game consists of confusing perceptions—large layered hypertexts on walls, and narrow hallways that look familiar but not completely. Throughout the maze-like game, the player experiences the flames of the fire and shoots at the flames  or different texts.  We can find  abstact designs, as well as a mix of photographic images and unstable texts throughtout the conceptual spacem, which are definitely elements of art. It seems that the artist is inviting the players to explore the world she has comstructed and experience with her memory. The artist creates the environment of the game, which the player creates the action in the game—a collaboration of collective memory and experience.

    The work approaches interactive storytelling conventions by loosely depicting a childhood memory of a house fire. She challenges the idea of how we interact with technology and asks viewers and participants to join in her quest to blend human narrative in all parts of our daily life. It contains elements of narrative --- as mentioned by Ernest Adam, their narrative elements can be subjected to the same criticism as other narrative art.