Manovich’s “Eight Propositions” are a guideline to his definition of new media art. Manovich’s sixth proposition,“New Media as Faster Execution of Algorithms Previously Executed Manually or Through Other Technologies,” relates most to my experience of using embedded hyperlinks while reading. Within his sixth proposition he states,“new media, in particular, is a massive speed-up of various manual techniques that all have already existed.” This proposition explains the benefit of media as it allows us to do things at a much faster rate. Having to use the hyperlinks within the readings is a prime example of Manovich’s point.
In the past, if you can across an unfamiliar term in a reading you would have to either ask someone else what it was or refer to an encyclopedia. Nowadays, when wanting to find information people will refer to the Internet. Through search engines loads of information is available within a few keystrokes while manually searching multiple terms in an encyclopedia takes a lot more time. The inserted hyperlinks also made understanding the reading much easier by giving a direct source for the reader to uncover information regarding the unfamiliar term. By understanding the term the reader comprehends the material so it is no so much the media itself that matters but instead what it allows us to do.
In “New Media Art and the Gallery in the Digital Age” Gere’s asserts that “The gallery has an important role to play in making this art visible, not just now but also in the future, when such work will be apart of history.” From one standpoint, the gallery does remain a valuable space for art. The gallery possesses a tangible nature that could never be achieved by the Internet. Within a gallery the artwork’s texture can be viewed in relation to space and touched as opposed to the Internet space were it can only be viewed through zoom-in features if even available. I am a firm believer that nothing can compare to viewing an original artwork in person as opposed to digitized reproduction. However, these points only holds true to the more traditional art mediums such as painting, drawing, photography or sculptures.
Often times, art defined by electronic and digital media must stay within the realm of the Internet. Art that is produced digitally is best viewed within the Internet environment. Net.art is a prime example of this as its entire existence is dependent of the Internet being its medium. These types of work cannot be experienced in any other way so a gallery setting would not be necessary. However, new media art that is installation based, such as robotic art can, can be shown within the gallery. As always there are exceptions, such are those installations that are too grand in size to be confined in a museum and as a result take place outside. The gallery does have an important role in making art visible and will remain to, but only in regards to certain forms of art. New media art can be collected and displayed via the Internet or a museum. How it is displayed in determined by what source is more suitable for said art piece
