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.