1. Digital Media
Definition & Examples

2. Digital Media Art is:
Created with the help of digital technologies such as computers, digital cameras, GPS devices, mobile phones, etc.
Created by artists interested in the intersection between art & technology

3. Digital Media Artists: Use technology as a tool
Examples: digital photos, prints, etc.

4. Digital Media Artists: 2. Use technology as a medium
(art is being stored in digital format, uses interactive and participatory features of the medium) Examples: Game Art, Net Art, Interactive Video Installations, Robotics, Data Visualization Art, etc.
Data Visualization Art - C5 Landscape Initiative
Moving Painting

5. Digital Media - Brief History
Computers are “born” in the academic
and research environments
1) ENIAC (University of Pennsylvania)
2) UNIVAC 1st commercially available computer
3) 1960s - Theodor Nelson - 1st non-linear, branching hyperlinked environment: “hypertext”, “hypermedia”

6. Digital Media Art – Brief History
4) 1968 – Douglas Engelbart introduces bitmapping (“on” & “off” states), windows, direct manipulation through a mouse
5) Alan Kay’s invention of GUI
and the “desktop” metaphor
6) st APPLE computer

7. 2) Fluxus 3) Conceptual Art Digital Media Art – Strong Connections
to Previous Art Movements
1) Dada
2) Fluxus
3) Conceptual Art

8. Dada – emphasis on formal instructions
Ex: Marcel Duchamp,
“Rotary Glass Plates”,
1920

9. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Formulated by code (math. rules, functions)
Artists set up rules, than leave work
open-ended. Example: Sims
myData=myMondrian is an interactive computer program in which the personal
data provided by viewers is translated into Piet Mondrian-like composition
(Free Beer and Counter-Game Strategies)

10. Fluxus – randomness and chance
Ex: Nam June Paik,
“Random Access”,
1963
Visitors were able to use the sound
head, which has been detached from
the tape recorder, to interactively
run through the tapes glued to the
wall, and constantly vary the sound
sequence according to location
and speed. This random access to
the musical raw material enabled
visitors to produce compositions
of their own.

11. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Random access – basis for assembling
and processing data
“The digital revolution” is the revolution of
random access – a revolution based on the
possibilities of instant access to media
elements that can be reshuffled in seemingly
infinite combinations”
- Grahame Weinbren

12. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
(Color Field TV)

13. Conceptual Art – emphasis on the idea
Ex: Joseph Kosuth, “One of The Three Chairs”,
1965

14. Conceptual Art – emphasis on the idea
Ex: James Morgan & John Pierre Bruneau, Looks Very Tidy, 2007

15. Conceptual Art – emphasis on the idea
Ex: James Morgan & John Pierre Bruneau,
Looks Very Tidy, 2007
Ex: Eteam
Second Life Dumpster project

16. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Audience is part of the work – interactive and participatory
aspects of digital art

17. Digital Media Art – Characteristics

18. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Audience is part of the work – interactive and participatory
aspects of digital art
My work:

19. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Often open ended, in the state of flux
author is a co-creator along with the audience
Ex: Christa Sommerer
and Laurent Mignonneau,
A-Volve, 1994
(interactive, real-time environment)
laurent/WORKS/FRAMES/FrameSet.
html

20. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Ex: Christa Sommererand Laurent Mignonneau, Verbarium, 1997

21. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Author is a co-creator along with the audience…

22. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Collapses boundaries between disciplines –
art, science, technology, design, etc.
Ex: Natalie Jeremijenko:
Robotic Geese, OneTrees Project

23. Digital Media Art – Characteristics
Often requires collaboration with other
artists, scientists, architects, etc.
Ex: Eduardo Kac:
Transgenic Bunny

24. Digital Media Art – Main Points
Consists of binary data
Can be easily manipulated, changed, etc.
Process-oriented work is ephemeral
Often requires collaboration with others
Often requires audience participation
Often deals with art & technology
Often reflects upon digital medium, it’s language and aesthetics
Often blurs boundaries between various disciplines

25. Cool Digital Media projects to check out: www.rhizome.org
“A Global Festival of Art on the Edge”,
San Jose, California