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Title: PAINT FX

Artists: Parker Ito, Jon Rafman, Micah Schippa

PAINT FX is both a creative party and collection of different art pieces created by Parker Ito, Jon Rafman, and Micah Schippa. Each piece of work that is featured on paintfx.biz is not credited individually but instead by Paint FX, similar to the functions of a brand. This collection of work was first inspired by the ability to create gestural marks through computer programs such as Art Rage, Photoshop, Corel Painter, etc. PAINT FX favors quantity over quality, focusing more on the functions of the software. Also interested in materials and materiality, these pieces value the potential for these types of "paintings" to be transformed into objects.

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Title: A Sequence of Steps

Artist: Niko Princen

A Sequence of Step is an automatic web-browsing tool created by Niko Princen where the power of the world wide web is first established by the viewer, and is later controlled by the internet. For instance, the viewer inputs whatever they choose into a search bar, and the website delivers results all based upon your search, much like the functions of Google. However, once the search results are given, you are automatically redirected to another website chosen by the web-browsing tool, and this process is repeated until you decide it stops. Each website you are redirected to after your initial search has a different relation to the remaining websites you see. Along with redirecting you to a plethora of websites, the web-browsing tool takes snapshots of each website you have visited that you are able to view at the end of your search. A Sequence of Steps displays the infinite space of the internet through both an unset direction and departure. Its unconscious decision to lead you to a number of different websites represents our relation to technology and our unconscious decisions that lead us travelling from website to website. The photos allow for a phsyical representation of all the websites the viewer has visited. This tool represents our experience with the effects of technology, while also critiquing the our relationship to the internet and sense of powerlessness we have when interacting with it.

Samantha Cauguiran

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A Revolutionary New Media Art Museum

1. A New Media Art Museum should showcase art created with new media technologies, such as internet art, computer animation, digital art, virtual art, interactive art, computer robotics, and computer graphics.

2. A New Media Art Museum should produce meaning, which is the product of participation and interaction between spectator and spectacle.

3. A New Media Art Museum should be a virtual space and provide access to anyone in the world though the use of the computer and internet.

4. A New Media Art Museum should take advantage of the accessibility and benefits of hyperlinks, allowing viewers the ability to be redirected several times and gain more information on a subject.

5. A New Media Art Museum should have a sense of order, organizing each piece by medium and in chronological order of when the art piece was created.

6. A New Media Art Museum should posses a feature which tracks and remembers what each viewer has viewed, then suggesting similar artworks based on those views.

7. A New Media Art Museum must be social network-friendly, allowing viewers to share artworks through popular social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. 

8. A New Media Art Museum must preserve all artworks, never deleting old or dated pieces from this virtual space.

9. A New Media Art Museum, like the Adobe Museum, should want to celebrate art that can revolutionary be showcased and shared by all, and is dedicated to the media.

10. A New Media Art Museum should take museum experiences familiar to all people and transfer them to a digital space.

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Lauren Brick

I Stopped 'Cause I Had Enough

This image is a 24" by 19" 4-color lithograph on Kromekote gloss paper. Before reaching its final state, it went through several levels of visual degradation. First, it was Michael Jackson's music video, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," shot on film, then digitized and uploaded to Youtube where a screen shot of the still image was taken. Michael Jackson was then digitally removed from the image and was later blown up and printed as a halftone lithograph. The artist uses this process in order to convey the idea of levels of separation that create a decay of an image over time. Brick states that the media can preserve the idea of someone long after their body is already dead and gone, therefore, we use these visuals and historical accounts in order to reference, remember, or inform ourselves about a person. Brick questions that with all the technology and information being recorded and archived, is a memory of a person more likely to be prolonged, or lost with the rest of the massive rush of data and information? This particular piece is also meant to question the differences between memory cataloguing in the digital realm as opposed to naturally in our own minds. The different layers and levels of manipulation and distortion that this piece went through symbolizes how memory also distorts and loses detail as time passes.

This piece was also found through researching the internet, more specifically a website called The State. The State is an online exhibition platform that exhibits works from artists who use the internet at their main medium. The site has a list of several artists and links to their works, similar to my Manifest suggesting that online sites such as these are the best ways to document New Media Art.

Lauren Brick's Website

Main Image

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Katja Novitskova

sunny n shiiite (2011)

This piece was a week long live stream which consisted of the artist creating different arrangements of found and created objects, resulting in mostly static images. The geographic location of the objects was never revealed, thus the objects remaining in a "virtual" space. Through irregular intervals, the artist enters the space and develops the environment further, usually once a day. Any breaks throughout the stream were only due to possible technical problems.

This piece was also found through researching the internet, more specifically a website called The State. The State is an online exhibition platform that exhibits works from artists who use the internet at their main medium. The site has a list of several artists and links to their works, similar to my Manifest suggesting that online sites such as these are the best ways to document New Media Art.

Katja Novitskova's Website

Livestream

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Sara Ludy

Otha

Otha is a piece that is part of a series of "space portraits" created by Ludy. It is a space portrait of a prefab house in Second Life, an online virtual world where Second Life users can interact with other users through avatars. This particular house is one of 11 house models located on the island called "Botha Architects." Ludy states that because the houses tend to have little to no furniture, the architecture becomes the seduction of investigation. These space portraits are also connected to Ludy's Tumblr project, entitled, Projection Monitor, which contains field recordings and photographs of domestic spaces in Second Life. Ludy became interested in these space portraits due to the resonating sense of familiarity they carried, although they were places she had actually never been. She began taking screen shots of these "familiar" places and then later re-photographed them. Otha was created by re-photographing the screen shots, and act as memory based images about the investigated spaces.

This piece was found through researching the internet, more specifically a website called The State. The State is an online exhibition platform that exhibits works from artists who use the internet at their main medium. The site has a list of several artists and links to their works, similar to my Manifesto suggesting that online sites such as these are the best ways to document New Media Art.

Sara Ludy's Website

Video Link

Projection Monitor Tumblr

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Brian Knep

Drift Wall (2007)

Drift Wall is the largest piece in a series, entitled, Drift. It is a 20ft by 8ft wall of drifting panels which reacts to the gazes of viewers. The shapes on each panel drift upwards, while their shape is being slowly altered as they pass through the borders of each column. When it detects the a viewer's gaze, the shapes begin to shift downwards instead of moving upwards, and then continue upwards once again once the gaze is lost. The shapes in each column start off identically and are only morphed and altered through the gazes and participation of the audience.

Brian Knep's Website

Video Link

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Lanier, Ranciere, & Foucault.

Jaron Lanier's article, "The Unbearable Thinness of Flatness," focuses on the notion that today's internet creates a "flat global structure" due to all the tiny programs being created and in order for our software to start creating anything useful, a painful plunge into large code must be taken (Lanier, 2). Lanier argues that even with all the advancements in our technology the internet still remains in the same place it was when it was first created, also stating that most it has just been extensions or replications of what has already been made (Lanier, 2). Claiming that our present kind of work is "embarrassing" and "more nostalgic than reaching," he states that our Generation X was supposed to invent more fundamental types of expression and interactive virtual worlds with the software that was already started and created for us (Lanier, 9). However, instead of creating notable originals, we have only produced the same kinds of "schlock" that has been available to us in the predigital world (Lanier, 4). What started as a belief that Generation X was either in the process of creating something amazing or a calm before the storm, therefore some sort of software that would soon be created, turned out to be false, blank, and inert (Lanier, 7). The article then states that in order for something to be fully real, it has to be completely impossible to represent, using oil paintings to support his claim (Lanier, 11).

In Jacques Ranciere's "The Emancipated Spectator," a claim is made that spectatorship is a bad thing, using the topic of Theater as his main example. Being a spectator is bad for two reasons: looking is deemed the opposite of knowing and looking is deemed the opposite of acting. Ranciere claims that looking and standing before an appearance results in not knowing the history of that specific appearance, therefore by not knowing those conditions, one remains motionless and lacks power of any kind of intervention (Ranciere, 2). A downside in being a spectators means being passive due to the separation from the possibility of acting (Ranciere, 2). He suggests that a new theater must be created where "spectators will no longer be spectators and they will learn things instead of being captured by images and become active participants in a collective performance instead of being passive viewers" (Ranciere, 3). The spectator remains fascinated by the appearance before him/her, instantly identifying with the characters on the stage. This is why Ranciere says the spectator must be released from this kind of "passivity" (Ranciere, 3). In order to get rid of this passivity, we must give the spectators their self-consciousness or self-activity back, therefore the theatrical performance becomes the "vanishing mediation between the evil of the spectacle and the virtue of the true theater" (Ranciere, 5). The spectators then become performances of a collective activity (Ranciere, 5).

"Panopticism" by Michel Foucault states discipline can then be taken over by ‘specialized’ institutions, such as the “house of correction” in the nineteenth century, institutions that use it as an important instrument for a particular outcome (schools, hospitals), or by apparatuses that have made discipline their most vital function to assure that discipline reigns over society as a whole (the police) (Foucault, 6). Jeremy Bentham, the creator of the Panopticon, is a circular building with an observation tower in the middle of the space. The cells in this circular building are designed so that light is always being flooded inside them, therefore they are always being watched and observed by the central tower. This feeling of always being watched; however, not knowing where, was designed to increase security through the use of surveillance. Those being watched in the cells, remain on their best behavior, straying away from deviance, because they are fully aware that they are being watched. The Panopticon therefore alters discipline, while also altering mechanisms in everyday society. 

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A New Media Manifesto.

THE INTERNET. IT WILL CHANGE OUR LIVES. IT WILL SAVE OUR LIVES. IT WILL DEFINE OUR LIVES. 

Where would we be without this unlimited database that continues to store, and store, and store? A link made five years ago is the same link, the same destination, the same information. A "new media" curator has to have the internet as their best friend. With a term that is changing and being manipulated every day, you have to have a database that can accommodate to all these shifts and changes. (HOWEVER, although I do find that a database as large as the internet is the best way, this does not mean to exclude the use of physical museums and galleries. Museums are GREAT. Galleries are GREAT. But the internet, that's GREATER.) Think of the internet and think of its possibilities. Think about Google. Think about Google Maps. Think about Google Books. Think about Google Images. A girl in Japan can access Google Books and find a book online that she may not have in her local library. A girl in California can access Google Maps and view the street view of some street in New York City...through the internet. Today you can find things online and then organize them online, making it even simpler for you. The internet allows a place to search and keep, all with a little click...and WiFi. Why can't art be like this? Why not create one site, completely dedicated to New Media. Completely dedicated to storing New Media, searching for New Media, learning about New Media. A site like Google where you can be redirected to many more sites. One site with links upon links to all kinds of New Media. As the V2_ Organization states, "instability is a creative force that is essential to the continuous re-ordering of the social/cultural, political and economic relations in society." A continuously evolving archive such as the internet is perfect towards accommodating an evolving art medium. As one of Lev Manovich's 8 Propositions states, "new media as computer technology used as a distribution platform," we must use these sources of technology (which can also be classified as new media) in order to exhibit new media.

To all the new New Media curators out there, the ones who were not alive during the time of Futurism, the start of mixed-media performance art, and performance art linked to computers, think about how in the future the internet could provide us with a way to view the art pieces we could not view before. How the internet can provide us with seeing Nam June Paik's Opera Sextronique (1967), when we weren't even there, or maybe even ALIVE FOR THAT MATTER. The possibility to see Chris Burden's Through The Night Softly (1973), and not just read about it, but to watch him crawl through bits and pieces of glass and actually hear the glass against his body. The possibility to see something when you couldn't physically be there. I think that is better than not seeing it at all.

Of course we cannot store it all. We speak about art having its own aura. Walter Benjamin describes this aura as "an event occurring at a certain focal point at a work of art, a space that the subject enters to view the work of art. It is produced when several factors are synthesized at this point relative to the original work of art." For example, the Mona Lisa. We have read about this painting. We have seen documentaries about this painting. Most importantly we have all seen this painting. We have seen it on postcards, magazines, books, and any other imitation that by the time we see the actual original painting, Benjamin claims that aura is already gone. This aura, or experience, is only present when a piece of work is not copied several times. With said, we cannot make up for lack of aura in every piece of art that is preferably meant to be seen first hand. We cannot make up for John Cage's 4'33' (1952) or Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (1965). We cannot make up for that lack of aura, experience, or as Johannes Birringer states, "interactive art that challenges the work between work and audience."

What we can do in the future is still continue to use the internet as our biggest archive for New Media. Most importantly, whether or not we lose Benjamin's notion of "aura" we can still store any information known on an art piece in an online database. Isn't it better to have some sort of access to an art piece from anywhere you are rather than no access at all?

"From Here On"

"Dance And Media Technologies"

"Performance and Technology since 1960" 

"The Contemporary Aura: An Epilogue to Benjamin" 

Lev Manovich's 8 Propostions

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Manovich & Gere

After reading the articles, I found myself with a new appreciation for something that I have already been using for a good portion of my life after discovering the internet. It was not until after reading the article by Lev Manovich that I realized the accessibility and benefits of a hyperlink. Through using the hyperlinks, I found it very interesting that in a country where technology has taken over more than just the social aspects of our lives, the United States was one of the later countries to be introduced to New Media. I also found it interesting to read about how the United States rejected New Media for reasons such as a low support group for the arts, whereas in Europe, the government was providing more funding and support towards introducing the public to the Internet and focusing on new media art. With such a fast paced technology-based society, I found it hard to believe that it took several years for the United States to become fully involved with New Media, and even harder to believe that Education Institutions were one of the first to use it. With New Media now being largely incorporated into schools, museums, and work places, it was interesting to read about the few first places, such as the Walker Art Center or San Francisco Museum of Art (SF MOMA), to be introduced to it. With the use of hyperlinks, the article makes it easy to list names of places, people, etc that have contributed to New Media and easily be redirected to learn more about that specific item. 

Manovich's fourth proposition, "New Media as the Mix Between Existing Cultural Conventions and the Conventions of Software", is a good example of hyperlinks and their function. Manovich uses the example of active icons on the screen of a desktop, which both serve as a mix between two very different conventions--an image which represents its visual function as well as being a "set of hot spots" which can redirect you to some place new. This image serves as a hyperlink because although it is a still image, it is also connected to a plethora of different regions.

In the  article, "New Media Art and the Gallery in the Digital Age," Charlie Gere states, "Art made by using and reflecting upon new media and new technologies helps us understand how our lives are being transformed by these very media and technologies. The gallery has an important role to play in making this art visible, not just now but also in the future, when such work will be part of art history." I agree in this statement because I believe that a large reason why our society is not aware of New Media, is because of its lack of existence in galleries. Gere states that he is aware of its difficulties for museums and galleries in terms of collecting, curating, and displaying; however, just as he states, "what we choose to archive and thus preserve for future generations will help determine the future." Like most things we choose to preserve, they tell a great deal of how we came to where we are. I think that for all art, there is a different experience when viewing it from the comfort and accessibility from your computer, and viewing it in person. Some believe that there is some sort of "aura" that is experienced when viewing a piece of art through the accessibility of something similar to a hyperlink, and although New Media does provide several benefits, it is also argued to take away the experience of it being viewed in some sort of public archive like a gallery or museum.

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Title: 'Touch, and learn;' or, Typography for the blind, by a blind gentleman

Author: Touch

Published: 1856

Original: from Oxford University

Digitized: Jun 6, 2007

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ALLAN KAPROW

American Artist, Allan Kaprow, is known for his involvement in performance art, more specifically for coining the term, "Happenings." Happenings are based on nonlinear narratives and greatly depend on the involvement of the audience in order to make the audience a part of the art. Kaprow started his career as an abstract painter in the 1940s greatly inspired by Jackson Pollock's choreographic nature to creating a painting, rather than the physical outcome. He then began creating his own artworks called, "action collages" and "action paintings," which involved canvases being bulked up by different materials and movable parts which viewers were encouraged to manipulate. He focused on creating artwork that was interactive and involving the audience as much as the performers were involved.

Another great source of inspiration for Kaprow was John Cage and his ideas of chance being a key component in art used to organize, disorganize, and more importantly, using accidents to create different situations where the artists became objects and the audience became participants, thus being the artwork themselves. His early happenings involved a combination of movement, sound, scent, and light with instructions for both performers and viewers. One of his most famous happenings, 18 Happenings in 6 Parts,took place at the Reuben Gallery in New York in 1959 where the performances were divided into 6 parts, 3 happening in each simultaneously. The audience would move from room to room after a bell was sounded indicating that it was time to move on to the next performance. 18 Happenings in 6 Parts

Household Women Licking Jam Off of a Car

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/hael0002/alternativemedia5413/2011/02/allan-kaprows-18-happenings-in-6-parts.html

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/18-happenings-in-6-parts/

http://brooklynrail.org/2006/05/art/allan-kaprow-19272006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/arts/design/10kaprow.html