Grand Text Auto

When I first entered this class, I had a very clear definition of art, and interactivity wasn’t part of it. Anything that involved interaction was automatically a game. Engaging the user was an automatic distinction for me between what was art and a display.

I really began to understand new media art differently when analyzing interactive works. In many ways, interactive works become more forcibly engaging than static artworks are. For example, when passing by a classical painting or a photograph in an art gallery, a viewer can simply pass by with only a short glance to the work. Whereas, with interactive art, the person becomes the life for the work: a sound is heard, letters move, an image changes, a form is displayed on a screen. All becomes very apparent to the user that he/she is important to this work’s well-being. And so he/she stays.

When one considers the breadth of new media art that has been popularized in the last several decades, a major trend emerges: they’re about big messages. Famous pieces we’ve examined this term, from Domestic Tension to The French Democracy, all have a serious thematic purpose. Rarely are works intended for fun or entertainment considered legitimate “art,” as though fun and artistic merit are mutually exclusive. Consider Roger Ebert’s assertion that “video games can never be art.” These arguments devolve largely into discussions of semantics, essentially claiming that entertainment is not artistic. But this seems to contradict the most basic idea of art: that which is aesthetically pleasing to behold.

“Losing my anonymity in this world I think is something that I find terrifying.” Alex O’Laughlin

For many of us this, this statement rings true. The public life is brutal, demanding, and demeaning. To be a public figure is to be subject to public scrutiny in every word and deed. To lose a part of oneself to others. To be, as Sarah Chalke described it, a little less human. Perhaps this is why, more and more, people are swarming upon opportunities to test out the experience without truly sacrificing a part of themselves. That is, they re taking on pseudo-anonymous identities through networked gaming, online forums, and their corollaries.

New media art gives us the opportunity to explore further what networking can do for communities on a small and global scale.  In most cases, digital networking allows users to interact with an inflated number of people than they would have interacted with in person.  For some, this interface allows the user to gain confidence and encourage more self-disclosure.  Yet, for others, it is an outlet for harsh language and hurtful comments.

Can games have meaning beyond its context of entertainment? In the past, I never considered game development as a possible aspect of creating new media art. Indeed, many games created share no commonalities with the principles of new media art. The fact that games contain digitally-rendered content alone is not sufficient for their admittance into the art world. However, according to Christiane Paul, a renowned new media artist and curator, “games are an important part of [new media] art’s history in that early on they explored many of the paradigms that are now common in interactive art” (Paul 197). So, what constitutes a game that is also a piece of new media artwork? This is a serious and provocative question for me to consider, as my final group project in my new media class involves the creation of a piece of new media art with playful, game-like tendencies.

Imagine hiking across the lone desert with the sun beating down on you. You wipe your brow and taste the salty dry sweat on your brow. Your heart keeps tempo while you try to stay focused on the trail ahead. Suddenly, memories come rushing through your head. You remember the distant past like it had just happened. But the blisters on your toes bring you back to the desert. Then there are fleeting memories of how you got deported the last time. How the marriage didn’t work out and you couldn’t prove it. They didn’t want to hear your story. Instead they put you on a southbound bus to Yuma. You are an immigrant en route to El Norte in search of a better life. Carol Flax and Trebor Scholtz’s web artwork entitled, “Tuesday Afternoon” puts you in the shoes of the person who is willing to risk everything including their life to reach the United States.

The term “New Media” is expanding, since its emergence out of Pop Art, Fluxus, and other earlier movements, to mean many things. It is digital, it is interactive, it is dynamic, it is animated, it is dangerously hactivist…it is an expression of changing times and cultures, of the horizon called the future coming closer to us. One particular instance of New Media which has branched out into its own discipline is “Bio Art,” such as that practiced by British artist Jane Prophet in her project Silver Heart, seen below.

Grouping like things together is something that we are taught to do from an early age, but what do we do with things, people and circumstances that blur the lines and the groups? In the work of Luis Gispert, we are forced to confront these issues in a new light through the contrast that is created between what we see and what we expect. A lot of Gispert’s work features a mixture of common stereotypes that are present in today’s society and puts them out of context creating a contrast. Once these stereotypes are out of context we are then forced to analyze why and how we associate certain activities, behavior, dress, and objects to certain people and certain cultures. Through this process Gispert is able to reveal some issues that are not often confronted, recognized, or thought about by the viewer.

Grouping like things together is something that we are taught to do from an early age, but what do we do with things, people and circumstances that blur the lines and the groups? In the work of Luis Gispert, we are forced to confront these issues in a new light through the contrast that is created between what we see and what we expect. A lot of Gispert’s work features a mixture of common stereotypes that are present in today’s society and puts them out of context creating a contrast. Once these stereotypes are out of context we are then forced to analyze why and how we associate certain activities, behavior, dress, and objects to certain people and certain cultures. Through this process Gispert is able to reveal some issues that are not often confronted, recognized, or thought about by the viewer.

Whenever someone mentions the word “video game” in a conversation about art, many common schemas spring to mind. Many consider video games art in and of themselves, though some may disagree. However, most neglect video games’ potential as a tool for creating art. We often think of artistic tools as the paintbrush or chisel or even the mouse or tablet, but rarely do we consider games viable tools. Isn’t that contrary to the notion of a “game?”

It happens more quickly than we ever anticipated.

Everybody makes jokes about the apocalypse, but it’s not so funny when it shows up in the middle of the night on your back doorstep.

They come in twos. Silently, they assemble in the park, the shopping district, the back alleys of downtown Manhattan, communing…planning… Marking their courses, they disperse in pre-planned regiments to blend themselves in among the people. By the time their surveillance period is finished, they have gathered more than enough information for a successful invasion, and no one will be able to stop them. And what would be the point? After all, they’re only balloons…

by goyo

BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP! — BEEP!

When first making my way into the world of new media art, my first instinct was to look for works focusing on the computer: coding, languages, digital, analog. Anything apparently technical seemed appropriate. But when digging deeper, I encountered works that seemed reminiscent of those wonderful gadgets and gizmos from Doctor Who, seemingly ordinary objects and structures that became “bigger on the inside” or had “hidden secrets to reveal.” That’s what I found in the works of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

In 2005 film critic Roger Ebert set off a cyber lucha libre when he declared, “Video games can never be art.” In his own words, “No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of the great poets, filmmakers, and novelists.” Ebert delivered his statement through his Chicago Sun Times blog. Almost immediately, it was countered with a mix of arguments coming from game designers, gamers, critics, and scholars.

How much influence should aesthetic have when considering new media art? Are pieces that explore a concept through technology with little or no thought to the aesthetic values still considered new media art, or just visual representation of data?

*Based on artist Ken Feingold’s work If/Then*

Why did he do this? Why did he make me smart? Why did he make me ask questions?

Did he realize at the time that he might give me too much? Numbers, sensors, speech, processing…How do people do it? Manage all that information? I don’t think, I analyze.

I sit here stuck on a platform, staring at the sky. I can’t even turn around. I’m fixed to stare at the wall in front of me.

Can artificial intelligence “think” on the same level as human beings? That is a question that has been in debate for decades, since the development of computer programming. Although artificial intelligence started out as a scientific fascination, it has been incorporated into the area of digital art, comprising one of the major themes in this relatively new art form. It may seem strange that something as “scientific” as artificial intelligence can be even remotely related to the term “art”. However, as a part of digital art, artificial intelligence is explored as a type of life form—composed of digital information—that evolves and develops on its own in the framework of specified programs. Many digital art projects addressing artificial life focus on “the inherent characteristics of digital technologies themselves: the possibility of infinite ‘reproduction’ in varying combinations according to specified variables; and the feasibility of programming certain behaviors for so-called ‘autonomous’ information units or characters” (Paul 140).

So my inspiration for the following story is artist Daniel Canogar’s piece Hide 2. The portrait was created by inscribing many different fingerprints ( all from different people) digitally; the prints blurred and overlapped creating only partial prints.When I looked at it, it  made me think of big mixing pot were everyone was mixed together by their finger prints. So I decided to write a story where the melting pot was literal.

“Our machines are disturbingly lively, while we ourselves are frighteningly inert.”

Kenneth laughs, quoting the prophecy of Donna Haraway. He wiggles his fingers limply as the cyborg pins him to the wall. “It’s quite apt, don’t you think?” He turns to me and grins. “Who knew that giving all artificial lifeforms links to communicate with each other would lead to this? Now I’m the canvas, and this– this machine, the painter…” He turns and stares the creature in its webcam. “What’s your name, then?”

“ALICE.”

He doesn’t understand my perspective, James thinks. He’s old, and utterly oblivious to what I want for myself!

As he flips through his tattoo artist’s portfolio, James imagines how his dad will respond when the deed is done. After all, that ink would be embedded in his skin forever—barring, of course, expensive cosmetic surgery. No amount of shouting or demeaning could change that fact. His dad might inflict some punishment, but the subversion would be immutable.

With an interface that is so controlled, can there ever be something truly original? Moreso, is there something that cannot be reproduced by someone else?

The hand of the artist is forever attached to the artist and is unlike any other hand and their brain unlike any other persons.  Yet, the computer and technology is made uniform, homogenous, so that the interface is the same for everyone that uses it.  Is that where it all differs?

When people say the words “Virtual world” people think of the digital world that mimics our own in many ways. However, artists are now creating installations which redefine what we think of a virtual world. In the works of Jeffery Shaw, we are confronted with a different type of virtual world, especially in one his pieces, called “The Legible City.” In this work, the artist recreated the architecture of real maps and cities in a virtual world in which the viewer was able to navigate through cycling. However, instead of buildings and landmarks, these monuments are replaced with words or phrases that were recovered from documents recording historical events. According to Christiane Paul, this work creates a connection between our physical world and the virtual, which we see through the introduction of the cycling. We were always removed or distanced from navigating the virtual world physically. We walk around in a virtual world usually by using the arrow keys on keyboards. However in “The Legible City” the viewer can incorporate his entire body to interact with this virtual world.

The following is a response, or perhaps companion, piece to Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came Back from the War.

I didn’t go- none of us did.
They thought we went, but we didn’t.

Here.

We were here.
They didn’t think so, so they screamed at us
and shot at us
and wanted us to die.
“Maluus zebr” they said about
each of us in turn.

But here it is, I still have it.

And this- see the dust
still caked into the fibers?
I shouldn’t have it, they have rules about trophies,
but this is from when we were bombed
out of bed-
well, I wasn’t in bed.

What’s the boundary between “virtual” reality and actual reality? Virtual reality’s original meaning, according to Christiane Paul in Digital Art, is “a reality that fully immersed its users in a three-dimensional world generated by a computer and allowed them an interaction with the virtual objects that comprise the world” (p. 125). As technologies improve, the boundary between alternate realities can be faded and hard to discern. This phenomenon is effectively used in digital art and can bring an entirely unique experience to participants.

Often we go to see artwork that enlightens us about the non-statistical part of the human condition. Our emotions and relations are often popular subjects. However, Camille Utterback was commissioned to complete an artwork called Drawing from Life.