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Museum of New Media Art Theses

1. A museum of new media art should be open to everyone.

2. A museum of new media art should be open at least 5 days a week, 8 hours per day. Only exceptions are major holidays.

3. An online museum of new media art should be accessible at all times.

4. A museum of new media art should promote the use of technology in art.

5. A museum of new media art should promote all kinds and forms of new media art.

6. A museum of new media art should exhibit works of all artists, whether they are new media artists or not.

7. A museum of new media art should provide information about artists whose works are being exhibited, and include ways to contact the artists.

8. A museum of new media art should also include works that are not new media art by definition.

9. A museum of new media art should include its own definition of new media art.

10. An exhibition displayed in a museum of new media art should focus on a certain theme or aspect of new media art.

#arts12theses #new media art #museum of new media art

Instagram

Title: Instagram

Creator: Burbn, Inc.

Location: Instagram Official Site

Date of initial release: October 6, 2010

Instagram is a currently popular mobile application or software that allows you to take pictures, add filters on the pictures, and share those pictures online. Instagram takes the forms of three distinctive functions: photography function of a camera, editing function of “Photoshop,” and sharing function of interaction between computers and users, or between users and users through technology. Instagram was originally created for Apple products, such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. However, it was later added for Android phones also. With the aid of Facebook, which is determined to build and grow Instagram separately, the program has grown immensely popular, with more than 30 million users announced in April 2012. Instagram clearly shows its aesthetic qualities as it allows photography, a form of art. Additionally, the ability to add filters to the images captured permits transformation and creativity, which are among the characteristics of art. Moreover, Instagram enhances interactivity between technology and artists as users are required to have a mobile phone and they have the option of posting the captured photos on the online world.

Related Links: Instagram Wikipedia; Instagram Apple App Store

#arts12gallery1 #instagram

Vocaloid

Title: Vocaloid

Creator: Kenmochi Hideki

Location: Vocaloid.com (Japanese); Vocaloid.com (English)

Date of release: January 2004

Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer that was “developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain in 2000.” This software is mainly used for producing digitalized vocals, but users are also allowed to create their own songs just by inputting in the lyrics and melody. This program is widely known and used among Japanese fans, although there’s also an English version of Vocaloid. Although the appearances of these Vocaloid “characters” are purely “anime” style, these characters certainly have their own voices. The most popular and successful Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku, a female virtual idol, who had many “live” concerts by projecting her image onto the screen(s) on stage. These digitally made idols show how technology has enhanced the creativity, imagination, and invention of artists. The program not only develops more ways for artists to express themselves, but it only gives musicians a chance to transform music. As a program, Vocaloid proves that technology can also be artistic, as Vocaloid allows self-expression and creativity that art requires.

This is the first song I've heard sang by a Vocaloid named Rin Kagamine. Even though there are different "versions" of appearances (and sometimes voices) for each Vocaloid, the basic qualities (hair style/color, clothing, etc.) are the same.

Related links: Pixar; Toy Story;

#Toy Story #Pixar #arts12gallery1

Wacom Cintiq

Title: Wacom Cintiq

Creator: Wacom Co., Ltd.

Location: Otone, Saitama, Japan / Vancouver, Washington

Date of creation: November 2007 (12WX – 12-inch and 20WSX – 20-inch models released); 2010 (21UX); September 13, 2011 (24HD)

Wacom Cintiq is a graphics tablet/screen hybrid, which includes a LCD monitor for its screen. What makes the Cintiq different from other graphics tablets is that it enables direct activity onto the display screen, meaning you can draw directly on the screen. Just like all drawing tablets, the Cintiq also comes with an interactive pen with sensitive touch. The Cintiq comes in different sizes and different qualities to each model. The newest one, 24HD, like its name suggests, is a 24-inch graphics tablet with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 (very high definition compared to the 12-inch 12WX, which has only 1280 x 800 for its resolution). As mentioned in my manifesto, technology is art. Therefore, the Cintiq creation is one of the greatest pieces of new media art today. Not only it is a piece of artwork itself, but it allows artists to create artworks that express creativity and self-expression with digitalization.

Related Links: Wacom official site; Wacom Cintiq; wacomwcl (YouTube user);

#wacom cintiq #arts12gallery1

The Unbearable Thinness of Flatness, The Emancipated Spectator, and Panopticism

The Unbearable Thinness of Flatness:

Lanier’s idea of a “flat global structure” defines a “happy world” where every new program or software will be based off a past creation. Flatness here refers not to the voluptuous amount of a physical object, but to the “blandness and meaninglessness” where creativity and originality remain under surface (Lanier, 2). Lanier complains of how many contemporary inventions are “second-order expressions,” which are made up of fragmentations of the original, “genuinely new in the world” first-order expressions (Lanier, 3). The reason for his complaints towards the re-creations of the innovative inventions is due to his exceptionally high expectations for the internet. Lanier goes on to prove his point by discussing music in the online world – though there exists creativity and originality in contemporary music, it no longer meets his criteria of satisfaction. He longs for creations of new-media forms, where ideas can be explored in direct experiences and displayed as personal expressions, such as Will Wright’s The Sims and Spore, the iPhone, and Pixar movies. Towards the end of the article, Lanier expresses his concern for the “genuinely creative, struggling, experimental web designs [which] become less visible and less appreciated” when search engines dominated the web, “often leading to a death spiral” (Lanier, 20).

The Emancipated Spectator:

In his so-called “The Emancipated Spectator” talk, Jacques Ranciere reveals that “there is no theater without spectators” (Ranciere, 2). However, his view of a spectator is of a negative view, which leads to theater also being a bad thing. According to Ranciere, “Being a spectator means being passive,” and the spectator is separated from both “the capacity of knowing” and the “possibility of acting” (Ranciere, 3). Ranciere looks for activity in spectators. One way of achieving that involves action in the theater, where live performers and spectators present an active spectacle. However, Ranciere does not require spectators of turning into actors or performers. Instead, he declares that “every spectator is already an actor in his own story.” Ranciere explains the intellectual emancipation as the process in which the spectators to interpret and transform the spectacle. To Ranciere, emancipation means “the blurring of the opposition between those who look and those who act, between those who are individuals and those who are members of a collective body” (Rancier, 10). In other words, there are no differences between spectators and performers, only the level of equality. As a result, an emancipated community, as Ranciere describes, is “a community of storytellers and translators” (Ranciere, 11).

Panopticism:

Foucault’s idea of panopticism portrays an architectural building that provides a complete view of the interior. The Panopticon is compared to a royal menagerie, which is a place where wild and unusual animals are kept or exhibited, but “the animal is replaced by man” (Foucault, 5). It is also a place where power is exercised and effects of power are produced, “for it automatizes and disindividualizes power,” as the central tower allows surveillance to be in effect at all times. As Foucault describes, “in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen” (Foucault, 4). The Panopticon serves many purposes, such as education, medical treatment, experimentation, production, and punishment. Likewise, its habitants include many different types of humans, including schoolchildren, the ill people, experimental subjects, workers, and prisoners.

#The Unbearable Thinness of Flatness #The Emancipated Spectator #Panopticism #arts12paper3

Manifesto for New Media Curators

Before even stating what would be the best way to organize, display, and archive new media art, we first must define what new media art is. In Lev Manovich’s article, The New Media Reader “re-defines new media as parallel tendencies in modern art and computing technology after the World War II.” To put simply, new media is the modern technology. Art, on the other hand, has been seen as a form of expression, used to convey an artist’s feelings, emotions, ideas, or concepts. So how does something that is constructed by artificial intelligence such as technology is used to express art? The answer is straightforward: technology IS art, just as Manovich has mentioned, “these technologies themselves have become the greatest art works of work.” Therefore, going back to our main concern, the best way to organize, display, and archive new media art is through technology.

In the past and even now, many have seen art as physical objects, such as paintings, sculptures, and performance art, in which the artist uses his or her own body as the object of the performance. If that is the case, how can new media art be art? Art created with technology is not physical. We cannot touch digitally-made paintings and we cannot feel the texture of digital sculpting, also known as 3D sculpting. Nonetheless, these pieces of “artworks” still display expressions just like all artworks do. As long as you create with imagination, intention, invention, transformation, or self-expression, it will be art. As supported by “Manifesto of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar,” “The ultimate goal of all art is the building!” Additionally, as Charlie Gere stated in his article, “the relationship between art and computer technology was mostly conceptual.” In other words, artists use technology to discover new ways to make art, as seen in collaborative works between artists and engineers of 9 Evenings.

With that being said, how is technology the best way to organize, display, and archive new media art? Digital art – “art which applies electronic media” – is classified as unstable media. V2 claims that “unstable media present an image of a world that is inconsistent, heterogeneous, complex and variable.” That is what we need. We don’t need consistency. We don’t want homogeneity. Simplicity and invariability are the last things we look for. We want, need, and look for the exact opposite: instability. Instability promotes creativity, as it is “a creative force that is essential to the continuous re-ordering of the social/cultural, political and economic relations in society.” Instability explains why technology is the best way to organize, display, and archive new media art. First, as mentioned before, technology allows artists to “look at possibilities of computing for making art,” and that forms organization. Second, according to Lev Manovich’s Eight Propositions, the second proposal lists “new media as computer technology used as a distribution platform.” By acting as the distribution platform, technology not only puts new media art on display, but also stores an enormous archive for new media art, which clearly certifies technology as the best way to organize, display, and archive new media art.

Sources: New Media From Borges to HTML, Artificial Intelligence programming, 9 Evenings, Unstable Media, Age of Instability, Manifesto, New Media Art and the Gallery in the Digital Age

#arts12paper2

Arts 12 Paper 1

In his paper, “New Media From Borges to HTML,” Lev Manovich discusses on the definition of new media art and its concepts and its past through his “Eight Propositions.” As Manovich describes, “new media are the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition,” which is Manovich’s second proposition of new media, “New Media as Computer Technology used as a Distribution Platform.” As a result, I have come to see hyperlinks as parts of this “new media.” These hyperlinks can be seen as a quick way to gain access to information related to a specific term or a certain phrase of words that one wants to know more about. For example, Manovich has mentioned in his paper that “without commercial culture we would not have computer games using Artificial Intelligence programming [and] network-based multimedia.” In this case, it is normal for someone to be unable to understand what Artificial Intelligence programming means. If one does know of hyperlinks, he or she would expect the hyperlink of Artificial Intelligence programming to lead to a website where it would thoroughly define the term for him or her, such as Wikipedia. However, hyperlinks can be misleading and not what we would expect, simply proven by the fact that the hyperlink of Artificial Intelligence programming leads to the MIT website where Artificial Intelligence is being taught as a course in Fall 2010. This proves that hyperlinks can lead to anywhere, serving as a reference related to a specific term or phrase, and distributing information across the World Wide Web within the computer, as a new media.

I agree with Charlie Gere that “the gallery has an important role to play in making art visible, not just now but also in the future." Before art had become “technological,” or in better words, before the “new media art” evolved, museums and galleries served as physical locations where visitors can view live pieces of artworks right in front of their eyes. They may be able to touch them and experience the actual scales of the original works. However, after the Internet became “as commonplace… as the telephone,” the trend of creating new media art also grew. Consequently, online museums and virtual galleries came into existence. Users can look at an artwork as simply as to Google image search it, without having to put the effort into visiting museums/galleries. Likewise, hyperlinks are similar to these online museums and galleries. Because hyperlinks exist, we gain faster and easier access to the information we need. Similarly, because galleries and museums exist, where they are online, virtual, or not, art becomes (more) visible, not just in the present but also in the future.

#arts12paper1 #lev manovich #charlie gere #hyperlinks

"The Poultry World"

Finger gloves & flipping of page & writing in the top right corner.

Title: Poultry World, Volumes 2-4

Publisher: H. H. Stoddard., 1873

Original from: Cornell University

Digitized: Nov 3, 2009

URL: The Poultry World

#arts12gb1 #plastic chicken #poultry #animal husbandry

Laurie Anderson's O Superman, as displayed in MoMA, NY

#arts12bio1 #arts12uci #laurieanderson #osuperman

Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson (June 5th, 1947), born Laura Phillips Anderson, is an American experimental artist and musician. Though she earned a degree in sculpture at Columbia University, she continued her career in the arts as a musician, focusing on the violin and keyboards. Anderson gained inspiration in downtown New York where many young artists performed. She soon became one of them and put on street performances. Among these informal acts, one of her famous shows, Duets on Ice, involves Anderson playing her violin on a block of ice in her ice skates. As the ice began to melt, the ending approached. In addition to being a performer, Anderson is also the inventor of several experimental musical instruments, which she incorporated in many of her recordings. These include the tape-bow violin, the talking stick, and the “audio drag,” in which she uses to deepen her voice. Rising as a visual artist, Anderson released seven albums under Warner Bros. In 1981, the single “O Superman” not only helped increase Anderson’s fame outside the “art world,” but also placed her second on the national British pop charts. Now, married to Lou Reed, whom she had collaborated with, Anderson continues her works as a musician as she displays her aesthetic talents overseas.

Sources: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5

#arts12bio1 #arts12uci #crooks #laurieanderson

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