Manifesto for New Media Curators
There is a large spectra of what encompasses that which can be called art; from the theatre to paintings to now modern day new media art, people can express their true inner feelings with creativity. As centuries have passed, art has transformed along with time while adapting to society’s needs and culture. Now presently in the technological era, new media art has become widely popular as people all around the globe engage with some sort of technology in their everyday lives. The ubiquitous presence of cheap and affordable technologies, such as laptops and cell phones, has complemented the recent surge in the popularity of new media art.
The logic of the art world and the logic of new media art are exact opposites. While art is unique and one-of-a-kind, new media art is made into numerous copies that are all different from each other through author-user symbiosis. In the United States, it has taken over ten years for the cultural periphery of new media art to become “mainstream.” In fact, countries other than the US first engaged with the new technologies of the modern day computer and such, even though these devices were first released on our soil. This occurred because the slow assimilation and high cost of these gadgets in other countries allowed people to reflect on them much more. In other words, people in the United States did not give these new technologies as much credit due to its availability, compared to the rare amount of computers that were owned overseas. In addition, this new form of art was not given much attention here due to its lack of funding, while many countries in Europe spent a lot in this sector. New media conventions had been meeting around the world since the late 80s, such as ZKM in Karlsruhe and others.
As we look at the past and take a deeper look into different eras and societies, art is a big factor that defines a specific period of time. Not only does it define our past, but it presents a view into our future as well. Our current galleries show the older art and the transitions that were made over time, and those artworks are given so much respect because of its age and more. This is one reason why New Media Art is presently receiving a lot of criticism. This innovative work is not given as much credit due to its young age and its pressing transition into a new era of art. Over time, new media art will become much more accepted, and also respected once a new era of art takes over.
New Media Art brings forth a new era because this type of work does not require a physical gallery to be placed in. For the first time, artworks can be appreciated just as much if seen from a virtual space. Most of these works are created using computer technologies, so it is perfectly fine if they are presented in a virtual museum or gallery. This is especially true because the thousands of copies that are each different from each other in a minute way can all be seen without worrying about the limitations of physical space. By having these artworks curated on a virtual archive, a limitless amount of works can be uploaded. New Media Artworks such as memes, are created in gigantic numbers every day even though they are all slightly different. The popularity of new media art has also largely increased due to “sharing” across multiple social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.
http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
http://www.facebook.com/
