New Media as the Avante-Garde for the 21st Century
The timeline of events that led to the materialization of new media and its manifestation around the world provides a taxonomy, and in a way a justification for what New Media Art is, what it does, what it can do now in the future, and why it can be considered art. If New Media is the Avante-Garde of the twentieth century then anything that is based on a certain creative aesthetic derived from such media could be considered art.
The world of new media art began with the invention of the camera and the industrial revolution. With mass production, technology and new possibilities a new kind of thinking took place around d the world. Without the need for realism artists began thinking more conceptually and reacting these thoughts with new and spontaneous types of art. Marcell Duchamp is thought of as the father of conceptual thinking and creation with in the world of art, including that of New Media Art. Duchamp worked with other visionary artist in the field of music, dance and technology such as Merce Cunningham and John Cage in a time of new possibilities along with scholars of science, engineering, technology, philosophy and true visionaries such as Seymore Papert, Marchall McLuhan and Vannevar Bush who contributed to the conceptualization of the multitude of technological possibilities and their application in the realm of in the military to business, to personal use and the arts. The innovations of these visionaries and many others are the components which enabled New Media to exist as we know it today, and are what has presented New Media the option of taking so many diverse forms in today’s working definition of this new medium.
The term New Media Art is still relatively new and is somewhat vague. The creators and innovators working within these areas have a wide range of options in terms of application of New Media technology and New Media Design. In Japan engineers and scientists collaborate with designers to create New Media application in the field of Artificial intelligence. In the United states artists like Golan Levin who create interactive art which engages computer science, components of modern technology and engineering are leading their field. All around, New media is flexible and easily malleable to accommodate the needs of any modern creative process, including but not limited to the world of business, art, computer science and the creation of just about any kind of modern device, the entertainment world, and the lives of everyday citizens. Within the world of business and art it is the institutions that are most engaged with New Media that are the most relevant in their research, are most engaged with cutting edge creation and conversation and in turn are the most well funded and most recognized. The gallery is at the forefront of this New Media revolution, whether a physical gallery where one has to travel to see cutting edge work with in the new media field or an online gallery such as tumbler, it is up to the artist, the curator and the institution to showcase the new medium that is loosely described as new media Art.
