The new dynamism of art

For us to define new art, we must first be able to have a definition of what ‘old’ art is, or what art was initially referred to as. Wikipedia defines art as “a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media” (Wikipedia).

Initially, art was used as a way for artists to express their feeling and/or opinions to the world. Famous artworks include Leonardo Da Vinci's, Mona Lisa and Sistine Chapel as well as artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh. It was about an artist outing paint to canvas and through the brush, expressing their feelings to the world.

Today, with the aid of new technologies and advanced types of media, new art has developed into an online trend for users of new technologies to create different ways of expressing these ideas and emotions. While the reason people create art has stayed the same, the way in which art is produced and the aesthetics of it is the difference, which is why we have (old) art and new art.

The most interesting thing I understood from the links of the readings was how all the sites had visually appearing images that constantly moved. When computers were initially created, we were presented with many 2D objects that would lead us to other 2D objects. Today, we are constantly viewing these 3D images online that are constantly moving and are interactive. As well as this, new art tend to be higher produces of transduction, referring to the energy used to produce certain things and the transformations between different energy types (Whitelaw, 2009). This is commonly found in digital media as well as how patterns shift through time and space.

The aesthetics within new art is what has led it to become such a popular part of people’s everyday life today. Even if you look at Google today, the Google logo is an interactive one, as it celebrates the birthday of Julius Richard Petri, “a German bacteriologist who is credited with inventing the Petri dish” – Google. It is because of these types of technologies and ways that people can create visually appearing image that has led to the success new art has today.

Screenshots from Google - 31st May 2013

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art

Whitelaw, Mitchell (2009) ‘Transduction, Transmateriality and Expanded Computing’, The Teeming Void < http://teemingvoid.blogspot.com/2009/01/transduction-transmateriality-and.html >

The Future

If we were to ask ourselves, what the future would look like in 20 years, it would be almost impossible to imagine how far technology will have advanced. If we look back 20 years ago to 1993, the difference between technology and media use then to now is incomparable. No mp3 players, cd diskman or iTunes. No flat screen/ digital tvs, no wifi, no iPods, iPads or iPhones. No online banking or shopping and no Facebook, Bebo, MySpace or YouTube! The list goes on and on. Yet today, these items and platforms are what form the basis of how we live our lives. It almost seems impossible to think how we could live without them. So in saying this, how far can technology progress in the future?

It is almost as if technology is moving too fast. New devices and forms of technology are produced regularly making it very difficult to keep up to date with the latest goods on the market and the platforms in which they are used. Keller Easterling describes the fact that, “ while accepting that a technology like mobile telephony has become the world’s largest shared platform for information exchange, we are perhaps less accustomed to the idea of space as a technology or medium of information.”

There is no doubt that we are becoming more familiar with the idea of how information and data can travel from person to person via the use of space around us. However it is this feeling of hauntology that makes us skeptical not only about what the future holds, but also the thought of being haunted buy the ghosts of the past. An article by Gallix (2011), it refers to hauntology as “the priority of being and presence with the figure of the ghost as that which is neither present, nor absent, neither dead nor alive”. It originated in France from Jacques Derrida where it appeared first in Spectres of Marx (1993).

With this thought in mind, it is evident that although we are constantly evolving with new technology and media platforms, there is still an element of fear that we possess of the unknown and what the future may hold. With the rapid rate that technology is progressing it is only fair that we have these questions and fears about the future of media and how we will be dealing with them as time progresses.

References

Andrew Gallix (2011) ‘Hauntology: A not-so-new critical manifestation

The new vogue in literary theory is shot through with earlier ideas’

guardian.co.uk

Keller Easterling (2011) ‘An Internet of Things’, e-flux journal, < http://www.e-flux.com/journal/an-internet-of-things/ >

The Generosity of New Media—Science, Technology and Innovation

While science, technology, innovation and invention are the main factors that have led our society to where it is today, it is the link these issues have with media that will contribute to the path our future will take.

For years now, science and technology have been the reason life progresses at the rapid speed it does. Science publishing is not just an industry, it’s also the core factory for knowledge transfer in the world (Wilbanks, 2011). While at the time when print media was at its peek, it consequently had been the main source of spreading such vital information, although it was a costly process. Now it does not have the same power it did when it initially was used.

Thanks to the speed and progression of technology, we are at a point in time where media has the power to spread the use and relevance of science any where around the world. One example of this is, as written about by Elizabeth Pisani (2011), is science researchers sharing data between them in order to speed up the process of finding cures for diseases. By sharing each others findings and working together, researchers will not only have access to more material, but also good quality data. Without new media, this accessibility and distribution of this type of information would not be possible.

As a result, this change of the use of technology is fundamental in understanding the shift in publishing today (Wilbanks, 2011). We are now at a point where networks of data can be accessed online and for minimal or no cost. It is this cheap and accessible distribution of common knowledge that has contributed to the current success of science and technology in the world today.    

open science

References:

Pisani, Elizabeth (2011) ‘Medical science will benefit from the research of crowds’, The Guardian, January 11, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/11/medical-research-data-sharing >

Wilbanks, John (2011) ‘On Science Publishing’, Seed, < http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/on_science_publishing >

Big politics – the fate of the state

It is no surprise that, just like very other aspect of our lives, education is now a large part of the online world. As everybody is constantly online, it is only fair to say that a new way of being educated has developed on this media platform as well. Not only do children have access to programs such as Mathletics - “the next generation in learning”,  but have the freedom to be able to search anything and have results in seconds. This technological development has given us the opportunity to learn more from being able to access information online. This can also be said in regards to the government and how live broadcasting has given us an insight into what we may not have known about before.

The readings this week link specifically to the governments and how having online access to information has led to people having a greater understanding of important issues. An example of this is Gov 2.0 as a way of having digital interactions between a government and citizens. The Australian government website for Gov 2.0 suggest that “agencies can use Government 2.0 tools to engage with the public and publish more data online”. (http://www.gov2.com.au/about-gov-2/). Having accessibility to such vital information in regards to the government has been linked to the idea of a ‘transparency movement’, whereby personally and once private data is published online and can be viewed by the public. This transparency is what has pushed people into an era of not just being a by standing, but being someone who can have complete coverage of a particular idea ( http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/against-transparency?page=0,0# ).

 

Another example of the media giving light to issues that may not have otherwise been seen by the public is when protests and rallies are broadcasted by the media for the world to see, eg the protests and political unrest in Egypt. Without live broadcasting or online video streams, the general public would not have complete access to who is protesting and what they are protesting about. If there was not this online presence, the only way we would hear about it would be via the news or newspaper, which not doubt has less of an impact that if we were to be watching live either online of on a television broadcast.

This type of ‘media event’ has been used by communications scholars Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz as they “argued that certain events depart from news events, and instead become ceremonial occurrences that are treated with reverence by broadcasters (and by, today, the online community)”. As well as this, while media events are cast so that we are more aware of what is happening, Dayan and Katz argue that media events “intervene in the normal flow of broadcasting and our lives…Television events propose exceptional things to think about, to witness, and to do.” With the broadcasts of networks such as Al Jazeera and CNN, the images of protests like the ones in Egypt have led to it being portrayed to the public as an ‘historic moment’ (http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/02/how-egypts-uprising-is-helping-redefine-the-idea-of-a-media-event/ ).

There is no doubt online media and live broadcasts have led us to be a more active public in regards to how easy it is to be in contact with world issues that are happening around us. It is a way that we can educate ourselves without even leaving the comfort of our home. As technology progresses, it will incorporate every remaining aspect of our lives. Whether we choose to embrace it or not is entirely up to us.

Transversally

References:

http://www.gov2.com.au/about-gov-2/

Lessig, L, 2009, Against Transparency

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/against-transparency?page=0,0#  

Usher. N, 2011, How Egypt’s uprising is helping redefine the idea of a “media event”

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/02/how-egypts-uprising-is-helping-redefine-the-idea-of-a-media-event/