New Media Introduction 2: New Media from Borges to HTML

Timeline:
1989 - 1990: European institutions devoted to support/development of New Media
- ZKM in Karlsruhe (1989). Directed by Jeffrey Shaw and focused on visual media
- New Media Institute in Frankfurt (1990) Directed by Peter Weibel
- ISEA (Intersociety for the Electronic Arts) in the Neterhlands (1990)
1990: Intercommunication Center in Tokyo
- New Media Art
2001: Whitney Museum in NYC and SF Museum of Modern Art mount survey exhibitions of new media
- Bitstreams at Whitney and 010101: Art in Technological Times in SF

Summary:

• Took appx 10 years for New Media to move from underground ("cultural periphery" pg 13) to visibility in the public and academia
• Late 1980's - New Media begins to gain exposure
• 1990's Japan and Europe are the leading locations of the emergence of New Media
• Slow U.S. engagement with this movement for 2 primary reasons: 1) US quickly assimilated due to low cost and easy access. This rapid transition led little time for reflection or academic intrigue. 2) Little appreciation/government funding for New Media Art
• Late 1990's - a shift occurs within US and its acceptence of New Media. This shift began with US Universities and Art Schools (West Coast particularly) and then took hold in Museums like NYC's the Whitney and SF Museum of Modern Art.
• Soon, conferences and workshops create buzz and mainstream publishers start coming out with books on the subject --> establishment of an academic and artistic field
• Historical parallelism (texts by artists and computer scientists) - and intersection art/history/technology
• Parallelism exists not just in ideas but also in form.
• HCI = Human Computer Interaction. Computer Scientists that created HCI should be treated/respected like artists.
• 8 Propositions (What is New Media?):
• 1. New Media vs Cyberculture - Cyber culture focuses on the social aspect of the Internet
• 2. New Media as Computer Technology Used as a Distribution Platform - i.e. Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, computer games, DVDs etc.
• 3. New Media as Digital Data Controlled by Software - New media reduced to digital data that can be manipulated (multiply, edit, delete etc.) via Software.
• 4. New Media as the Mix between Existing Cultural Conventions and the Conventions of Software - for traditional media to change to digital data it takes time and, like most things, is not linear. Ex: Software is not used to control all aspects of film production, just some. This can be contrasted with Computer Games BOTH use a combination of more mature cultural forms and conventions of computer software.
• 5. New Media as the Aesthetics that Accompanies the Early Stage of Every New Modern Media and Communication Technology - Some authors suggest that New Media shouldn't refer to the current condition of computer-based technologies but rather see New Media as a modern form of technology that media passes through.
• 6. New Media as Faster Execution of Algorithms Previously Executed Manually or through Other Technologies - Algorithms which operate computers can technically be done manually, just slower. Ex digitally sorting files vs physically filing paper.
• 7. New Media as the Encoding of Modernist Avant-Garde; New Media as Metamedia - tracing New Media heritage to 1920s Avant-Garde art movement - qualitatively extension of technique as well as change. Manovich also relates "meta media" to postmodernism in terms of aesthetics as well as ideology.
• 8. New Media as Parallel Articulation of Similar Ideas in Post WWII Art and Modern Computing - 1960s cultural imagination and artwork as an open system