This document discusses media art software and its role in digital art. It begins by noting that artists have always created their own tools, and in the digital era some of these tools are considered "media art software." However, media art software is distinct from both artistic software and general media software. The document explores how media art software can be understood as a media, a form of digital subjectivity, and a "unit operation." It provides examples of media art software and discusses how software reflects culture and ideology. It concludes by proposing ways to document and categorize media art software.

1. On Media Art Software
Dr. Everardo Reyes-Garcia
Université de Paris 13
!
Slides available:
http://slidesha.re/1CqYHxa
UFRJ Rio de Janeiro, September 3, 2014.
CAC.4 | Organizers: M. Fragoso, T. Fraga, G. Nóbrega

2. Artists have always created and adapted their own tools.
In the digital era, part of those tools can be recognized as
‘media art software’.

3. • necessary for media artists to be considered as such?
• defines us as a community and field in front of other domains?
Are we perceived through the software we use?
• synonymous of multiple software and programming languages for
graphics and simulations (in the same way cinema has been
equated to Final Cut or photography to Photoshop)?
media art software

4. Media Art Software
as Media

5. media art software != artistic software
• “artistic software is, first and foremost, software created for
purposes different than traditional pragmatic ones (…) they
are works of art in their own right” [ Gourinova & Shulgin, 2002 ]
• Artwork in form of software
• Software art

6. • authoring tools, communication tools and social networks
• personal and professional production of media content
• the outcomes are expected to fulfill pragmatic purposes
media art software != media software

7. “software holds a unique position among artistic media
because of its ability to produce dynamic forms, process gestures,
define behavior, simulate natural systems, and integrate other
media including sound, image, and text” [ Reas & Fry, 2008 ].

8. • authoring systems where software applications and
programming languages interrelate and cooperate
• but also any software is a potential environment and
laboratory to create media artworks
• and immaterial and virtual technologies
Complexity of media art software

9. Media Art Software
and Culture

10. • Software: aesthetic principles, concepts, or programs
• Hardware: formal embodiment of the actual art objects
Software as metaphor for art
[ Jack Burnham, 1970 ]

11. • a series of ideological, historical, and political values
attached to the HCI
• power relations between the user and the way the software
acts as a model of action
Software as a form of digital subjectivity
[ Matthew Fuller, 2003 ]

12. • If software simulates ideology, then such simulations might
be interrogated. Speculative software would be software that
reveals its processes as it enacts them
• it is necessary to go further down the GUI
Speculative Software

13. Media Art Software
as Unit Operation

14. • the task would be to make evident its diversity: the multiplicity of
objects and the complexity of their interactions with other objects
(including humans)
• making ontographs [ Bogost, 2012 ]
Software as unit operations

15. some examples

16. Poèmes Stein
JP. Balpe, S. Szoniecky, E. Reyes, 2014
http://brooom.org/poemesStein/

17. Poèmes Stein
JP. Balpe, S. Szoniecky, E. Reyes, 2014
http://brooom.org/poemesStein/

18. Ontographs of Processing 2
E. Reyes, 2014

19. Conclusions and Proposals

20. • document the traces of our software
• reflect on why we choose a particular media art software?
Ethical, political, aesthetically speaking
• recommend the best suited ‘media art software’. But to do that
maybe we need first a pool of media art software

21. Should We Click ‘Save page’?
Wikipedia List of Media Art Software
~200 software applications and languages

22. it shows how software could behave differently, mainly through
ruptures of function. To understand such ruptures demands also
to understand how the software operates
Importance of software art

23. Not only it is appealing to see and to interact with its elements, it
also represents the vision of another artist: how she thought the
names, icons, functions, and which algorithms were implemented
!
When we discover new software the mere production of ‘Hello
World’ is satisfying, but it is also important because it embraces
engagement
Aesthetics of media art software

24. Obrigado
Everardo Reyes
Université de Paris 13
!
// ereyes.net