<nettime> An Infinite Seance 2

[olia lialina <olia@profolia.org>]

An Infinite Séance 2

As the New Media arts evolved, we have seen many different ideas
dominating the scene at different times: it used to be interactivity,
randomness, networking, virtuality, and so on. The attention of artists
working with the New Media has been focused primarily on studying the
new possibilities offered by computers, algorithms and networks, and on
the effect they had on everyday life and art, on the relationship
between a viewer, an artist and a piece of art itself. The meaning of
most artworks -- some of them great, and some rather mediocre, -- revolved
around the new art forms and the new technologies that inspired them.

Making sense of new technologies became a driving force behind artistic
practices. Some artists were charmed by it and others seemed
disappointed. Both sides, however, felt that this situation could not
last long. By the beginning of the new millennium, computer technologies
were changing at such a pace that no artist nursing media-specific
aspirations could remain consistently up-to-date. As a result, we were
left with underdeveloped fields, New Media languages that were never
fully learned, and immature aesthetics, all of which have become the
characteristic features of New Media. Every season, yet another area of
practice was declared dead and buried, and replaced with a new hero of
the hour (a new medium, not a new artist), instilling panic and fear of
imminent doom.

However, in the last two years the situation has gradually calmed down.
Artists stopped being jittery and collectors became more active.
Exhibitions have shaped up and became more eye-pleasing. New media has
switched to pictures, to moving and dynamic images. Besides the obvious
market interest in eye candy, there are three more reasons that
encouraged this switch.

Processing gave birth to a new line of graphic generators and inspired a
new wave of interest in generative forms. YouTube invaded the Web and
turned video into a standard way of expressing thoughts and feelings.
And last but not least, video projectors have become substantially
cheaper, while the quality of the image has grown significantly better.
Moreover, we now have computers that are completely flat, and it seems
like white walls are now forever married to digital culture (which is
the new politically correct term for new media). It's all about video
and projection today. It looks neat, and yet there's something missing --
we miss the special relationship that used to exist between an artist
and a chosen medium.

Now, let's talk about projects that can satisfy that thirst for
media-specific art and still fit perfectly into the current trends:

Gebhard Sengmüller
Slide Movie - Diafilmprojektor

John Michael Boling
20 years ago

Dennis Knopf
Bootyclipse

Сory Archangel
Two Keystoned Projectors (one upside down)

full text at http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/infinite_seance_2/

yours
olia


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