#mark tribe

Mark Tribe provides a good summary of the history and developments in what is called New Media Art. He shows how the artists venturing into computer based media were inspired by methods commonly used by the avant-garde artists of Dadaism. Dadaists employed disjunctive images, sounds and texts; absurdity; appropriation; and the disregard for a distinction between high and low culture. Technology has allowed artists to expand their source material, tools, and audience.

Collage has played a significant role in modern and contemporary art. Whereas in the past an artist had to possess a physical copy of  an image to be incorporated in a work of art, new media allows an image to be digitally copied and endlessly reproduced. One failure is the lack of physicality of the artwork. The element of texture is lost in the digital translation. However, digital collage offers the ability to manipulate source material without physically damaging the original source. The digital artwork itself is also available to an expanded audience as it was meant to be viewed, as opposed to the need to be viewed in a gallery or museum.

New Media allows artists to create works which in the past would have required large productions. Artworks can incorporate time, motion, audio, visual, and interactive components. Music and sounds can be layered and reproduced without the use of musicians. Visual elements can move, change, and react to audience interaction. Interactive elements enable a narrative work to follow divergent paths, creating unique experiences with each viewing.

The lack of physicality challenges the idea of art as an object to be bought and sold. One can charge access to or sell digital copies of new media artwork, but new media artists tend to allow free access to their work. Artists can seek support for projects through funding. However, new media has opened the way for more artists to gain exposure and trade ideas across the internet. New media’s forms present challenges to preservation. While some images can be printed, others require particular technologies for presentation and preservation. Hardware and software quickly become obsolete, and those artworks requiring those technologies must be converted or the hardware and software maintained. Preservation, however, is a concern with all works of art. Traditional forms of art also fall victim to neglect, war, and deterioration.

          Specifically what stuck out to me about this piece was how surreal the descriptions for new media art felt. It was strange reading about modes and means that we just accept to be inherent to our existence today, in a way that presented them as the new innovations that they are. What really struck a chord with me, though, was when Tribe mentioned the fact that ‘94 was the year that the internet moved from being just a thing for “computer enthusiast” to being a household name. The reason this stood out to me was mostly the timing...I was born in ‘95. My entire life, the internet has been a household concept, so much so that his use of the phrase “computer enthusiast” actually made me laugh. It was even more amusing to read about New Media Artist exploring “identity” as what Tribe was describing was essentially a role-play blog. It was interesting to read about what I considered to be the norm in terms of the unfamiliar. Strange as it was to hear about a fandom-role-play blog referred to as a piece of New Media Art. Although I suppose essentially it fits the wide ever-changing definition of New Media Art.