A Brief History of New Media Art

A Brief Historyof New Media ArtMidwest UXJune 1, 2012Matt Nish-Lapidus, Design Director@emenel

Three Themes

Impact of technology onculture and behavior

Post / Trans-humanism

Interaction http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mesq/413104380/

What is New Media?

Old Media http://www.thinkkc.com/mediacenter/photolibrary/lib_arts.php

“All new media objects, whether created fromscratch on computers or converted fromanalog media sources, are composed of digitalcode...”Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (2001) http://solidwork.tistory.com/entry/Rosso-Restaurant-SO-Architecture-%EB%86%8D%EC%8B%AC-%EC%8C%80%EB%AC%B8%ED%99%94%EA%B4%80-%EC%B0%B8%EC%A1%B0

“... media becomes programmable.”Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (2001) http://bobbyrice.blogspot.ca/2009/11/in-game-scene-art-lotr-silent-hill-5.html

Five Principles:1. Numerical Representation2. Modularity3. Automation4. Variability5. Cultural TranscodingLev Manovich, The Language of New Media (2001)

Spimes? http://www.dietsinreview.com

Everything is programmablehttp://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/146358/

Everything is New Media http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/2786154526/

http://stuyspectator.com/2011/09/29/beauty-of-the-gadgets/moma-talk-to-me-by-dennis-rim/

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/87106931@N00/1432715400/

László Moholy-Nagy, Composition A.XX (1924)

Max Bill, Junghans Clocks (1924) http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/renespitz/4391184667/

Technology & Culture

“the work of art is often identiﬁed with thebuilding, book, painting, or statue in itsexistence apart from human experience. ...the actual work of art is what the productdoes with and in experience”John Dewey - Art as Experience, 1934 http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/was_guckst_du/5956728259/

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a workof art is lacking in one element: its presence intime and space, its unique existence at theplace where it happens to be.”Walter Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936

DadaMarcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel (1913, 1951) and Fountain (1917)

FluxusCage vs. Duchamp: Toronto Musical Chess Match (1968)

Nam Jun Paik, TV Buddha (1974)

http://see-this-sound.at/ﬁles/499/original/original.jpg

Nam Jun Paik, Exposition of Music-Electronic Television (1963)

Steve Mann, SeatSale: License to Sit (2001)

Steve Mann, SightLicense: License to Look (1998)

Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny/Alba (2000)

Post / Trans-humanism

“Your mind is downloaded out of your headand somehow spread across a millionfoglets. I get that. What I dont get is why. Ifyoure bored of your body, you could buy anew one, or temp, or even go transient.Why become dust?”Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan Issue #7 (1997)

Eduardo Kac, Time Capsule (1997)

Eduardo Kac, Natural History of the Enigma (2003 - 2009)

Stelarc, Third Hand (1980)

Stelarc, Third Ear (2007)

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Body Movies (2001)

Interaction andComputer Vision

“If culture, in the context of interactive media,becomes something we ‘do,’ it’s the interfacethat deﬁnes how we do it and how the ‘doing’feels.”David Rokeby, The Construction of Experience: Interface as Content (1998)

“Today digital art, —actually all art—, hasawareness. … Pieces listen to us, they see us,they sense our presence and wait for us toinspire them, and not the other way around.”Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, A conversation betweenJosè Luis Barrios and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (2005) http://www.visitpreston.com

“It is the vision of a computer, a cyborg, anautomatic missile. ... It is the vision of a digitalgrid. Synthetic computer-generated imagery isnot an inferior representation of our reality, buta realistic representation of a different reality.”Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (2001)

David Rokeby, Body Language (1984 - 1986)

David Rokeby, Reﬂexions (1983)

David Rokeby, Very Nervous System (1986 - 1990)

“The active ingredient of the work is itsinterface. The interface is unusual because it isinvisible and very diffuse, occupying a largevolume of space, whereas most interfaces arefocussed and deﬁnite. Though diffuse, theinterface is vital and strongly textured throughtime and space. The interface becomes a zoneof experience, of multi-dimensional encounter.The language of encounter is initially unclear, butevolves as one explores and experiences.”David Rokeby on Very Nervous System

David Rokeby, Very Nervous System (1986 - 1990)

David Rokeby, International Language (2011)

Norman White, The Helpless Robot (1987 - 1996)

Norman White, Telephonic Arm Wrestling (1986)

Steve Mann, Wearable Computers (1980’s - 1990’s)

Steve Mann, EyeTap (1980’s - Present)

David Rokeby, The Giver of Names (1990 - Present)

Design

BERG, Here and There (2009)

Acrossair, Nearest Tube (2009)

Microsoft Kinect http://www.gamingupdate.com/news/kinect

Path http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/11/path-version-2-smart-journal/

Q&AThanks! Further Resourcesmattnl@normative.com The Language of New Media (Lev Manovich)@emenel New Media in Art (Michael Rush) InterAccess ThingTank MIT Media Lab

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A Brief History of New Media Art

by Matt Nish-Lapidus on Jun 05, 2012

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