New media art (also known as media art) is a generic term used to describe art related to, or created with, a technology invented or made widely available since the mid-20th Century. The term differentiates itself by its resulting cultural objects, which can be seen in opposition to those deriving from old media arts (i.e. traditional painting, sculpture, etc.) New Media concerns are often derived from the telecommunications, mass media and digital modes of delivery the artworks involve, with practices ranging from conceptual to virtual art, performance to installation. The term is generally applied to disciplines such as: The 1950s was the decade spanning the years 1950 to 1959. ... Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). ... A digital system is one that uses discrete numbers, especially binary numbers, or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system). ... A concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. ... Internet art is art or, more precisely, cultural production which uses the Internet as its primary medium and, more importantly, its subject, much like video art uses video as its medium - but is also very much about video, although many artists working with the Net view video as only a... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Installation can be used to refer to Installation (computer programs) of an operating system or program. ...

• Cell Phone Art
• Computer Art
• Digital Art
• Electronic Art
• Finance Art
• Generative Art
• Hacktivism
• Information Art
• Interactive Art
• Internet Art
• Media Technology Art
• Performance Art
• Robotic Art
• Software Art
• Sound Art
• Video Art
• Video Game Art

Computer-generated image created by Gilles Tran using POV-Ray 3. ... Electronic art is art which makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. ... Hacktivism (from hack and activism) is often understood as the writing of code, or otherwise manipulating bits, to promote political ideology - promoting expressive politics, free speech, human rights, or information ethics. ... Internet art is art or, more precisely, cultural production which uses the Internet as its primary medium and, more importantly, its subject, much like video art uses video as its medium - but is also very much about video, although many artists working with the Net view video as only a... Performance art is art where the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time, constitute the work. ... Software art refers to works of art where software, or concepts from software, play an important role; for example software applications which were created by artists and which were intended as artworks. ...

History

The origins of new media art can be traced to the moving photographic inventions of the late 19th Century such as the zoetrope (1834), the praxinoscope (1877) and Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope (1879). During the 1960s the divergence with the history of cinema came with the video art experiments of Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell, and multimedia performances of Fluxus. More recently, the term "new media" has become closely associated with the term Digital Art, and has converged with the history and theory of computer-based practises. Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... A modern replica of a Victorian zoetrope. ... The Praxinoscope was an animation device, the successor to the zoetrope. ... Muybridges The Horse in Motion. ... Zoopraxiscope is a contraption that was important in the early technological development of motion pictures. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Pre-Bell-Man, statue in front of the Museum für Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. ... Wolf Vostell was one of the most important German artists after the Second World War. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Fluxus (from to flow) is an art movement noted for the blending of different artistic disciplines, primarily visual art but also music and literature. ... Computer-generated image created by Gilles Tran using POV-Ray 3. ...

Some important influences on new media art have been the theories developed around hypertext, databases, and networks. Important thinkers in this regard have been Vannevar Bush and Theodor Nelson with important contributions from the literary works of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Julio Cortázar and Douglas Cooper. These elements have been especially revolutionary for the field of narrative and anti-narrative studies, leading explorations into areas such as non-linear and interactive narratives. In computing, hypertext is a user interface paradigm for displaying documents which, according to an early definition (Nelson 1970), branch or perform on request. ... A database is an information set with a regular structure. ... A computer network is a system for communication between computers. ... Vannevar Bush (March 11, 1890 – June 30, 1974) was an American engineer and science administrator, known for his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and idea of the memex—seen as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web. ... Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 - June 14, 1986), was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. ... Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923 – September 19, 1985) was an Italian writer and novelist. ... Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914 – February 12, 1984) was an Argentine intellectual and author of several experimental novels and many short stories. ... Douglas Cooper (born 1960 in Toronto) is a writer who lives in Manhattan. ...

Preservation

As the technologies used to deliver works of new media art such as film, tapes, web browsers, software and operating systems become obsolete, New Media art faces serious issues around the challenge to preserve artwork beyond the time of its contemporary production. Undeveloped Arista black and white film, ISO 125. ... For the meaning of cassette in genetics, see cassette (genetics). ... An example of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox running under Microsoft Windows). ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Conservation is the profession devoted to the preservation of cultural property for the future. ...

Methods of preservation exist, including the translation of a work from an obsolete medium into a related new medium (see Digital Rosetta Stone (PDF)), the digital archiving of media (see archive.org, LA Freewaves and web.archive.org), and the use of emulators to preserve work dependent on obsolete software or operating system environments (see Preserving the Rhizome ArtBase, a report by Richard Rinehart for Rhizome.org). The LA Freewaves logo LA Freewaves is a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that advocates for and exhibits uncensored independent new media from around the world. ... This article is about emulation in computer science. ...

See also

• Digital Art
• Electronic Art
• Intermedia
• New Media Art Festivals
• Interactive Multimedia Culture
• New Media

Computer-generated image created by Gilles Tran using POV-Ray 3. ... Electronic art is art which makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. ... For the hypertext system, see Intermedia (hypertext) Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. ... New Media is a relatively new field of study that has developed around cultural practices with the computer playing a central role as the medium for production, storage and distribution. ...

Further reading

• Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media Cambridge, Masschusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-63255-1.
• Paul, Christiane (2003). Digital Art (World of Art series). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20367-9.
• Grau, Oliver (2003). Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-07241-6.
• Whitelaw, Mitchell (2004). Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-73176-2.
• Wands, Bruce (2006). Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-23817-0.