New media art

 

1. Dada and New Media art both described as "reactions". What did they react to?

 Dada reacted to "the industrialization of warfare and the mechanical reproduction of texts and images". And new media art reacted to "the information technology revolution and the digitization of cultural forms."

 2. What are some similarities of new media art to Dada, Pop, Video Art?

The similarities of new media art to Dada:
- Emphasize the use of irony and absurdity.
- Using the same strategies, such as photomontage, collage, the readymade, political action and performance to jar complacent audiences.
- Fragmented justa-positions of borrowed images and text in work.

For example, Raoul Hausmann's Elasticum (1920) and Shu Lea Cheang's Brandon (1998-99).

The similarities of new media art to pop art:
- Refer to and engaged wih commerical culture.
- However, thereis a difference. Pop art reproducing pop culture such as images from comic books, advertisements and magazines into art; new media art tend to borrow new media such as games  rather than transform them into forms that fit with their art.

The similarities of new media art to video art:
- The emgerence of accessible artisitic tools for changing the relationship between technology and culture
Video art was contributed by the intoduction of portable video camera, or PortaPak. And New media art was contributed to the introduction of web browser.

 3. When was Net Art first included in a major exhibition: Document X Kassel, Germany ?
From 1994 until 1997.

 4. Is new media art focused in one country. Why or why not?
No, media art is world wide and its nature is international and globalized. Because of the close connection to the Internet, people who can access to the internet can get in touch with the new media art, no matter where they are.

 5. Why were many artists drawn to new media art from other discipline?

It is because of the globalization of cultures and economies, this historical trend brings along with the widespread use of the internet, wireless telelphones and other information and communication technologies. The emergence of these technologies has drawn many artist to new media art form.

Mark Napier,"Shredder",1998.

Here is an image of my blog generated by Shredder. It is a work of art that reinterpret websites by decomposing the code to compose an abstract image. Shredderis typical of much digital art because it is an artwork that places importance on the following five features.

Firstly, the formal instructions. Shredder has rules for people to follow. We have to follow the short instructions that have mentioned on the homepage, and insert the url of a website in order to create an image in Shredder.

Secondly, the emphasis of concept. It emphasize the concept rather than the art object. Shredder do not show the real interface of websites but distorted images and fragments of text. It placed a refined awarenss of colour and line (Tribe and Jana, 2007), all of these elements, including text, images, and code, formed an abstract and chaotic composition, which is differ from the original website.

Thirdly, the participation. As stated by Mark Napier, "The user is an integral part of the design"(Tribe and Jana, 2007). Every audience that are accessible to the internet can participate in this work. All people can enter different links freely and generate different outcome.

Fouthly, an interest in random events and/ or chance. When the audience are entering the website address, they cannot predict how the outcome will be. And be curious to find out the distorted images of different websites. In other words, "The vistors shape the piece, causing it to change and evolve, often in a unpredictable ways." (Tribe and Jana, 2007).

Lastly, borrowing or appropriation. The work has to borrow the interface of the original websites in order to generate a distorted one.

The Ethics of Digital Games

Review on the "Gamer revolution" (CBC documentary, 2007)


1. What are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

Pros:
In terms of individuals, firstly, players can be entertained by the attractive visual world. Secondly, players can release their pressure, for example, they can find a way to let off emotions in shooting games gain. Thirdly, players can gain knowledge, for instance, they can learn how to plan a future life by playing the Sims. Fourthly, players can train their strategic intelligence and reaction ability.

In terms of society, firstly, prosperous game industry can advance the economic development since the annual consumption of video games is enormous, and the related activities such as game competition brings along lots of profit. Secondly, a new kind of career,professional game players, is emerged, being a victorious game player in Korea can gain a rich prize and establish a reputation. Thirdly, video games can be a medium of advertisment and promotion, for example, the US army using video games to attract teenagers to join them.

Cons:
In terms of individuals, firstly, the relationship of family may be badly affected. Secondly, the problem of addiction, teenagers may be plunged into the visual world, and spend most of the time on playing games. Thirdly, the violent massage may affect the mental health of the players.

2. Is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

The film have mentioned several examples on this. A scientific research has showed that violent video games will arouse aggressive values and violent ideas. Also, there are news that teenagers deliberately killed someone in the real world, and considered as being affected by the violent video games.

In my opinion, if game players devoted too much time on playing digital games that contain excessive violent and bloodly scenes, they may find it difficult to distinguish the reality and the visual world, and therefore increase their chance of behaving aggressive and anti-social actions.

3. Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

I think governments should not have the right to ban certain games, because it would restrict the freedom of creating video games. But I think an age restriction or a labeling scheme is a better way to protect children and teenagers to stay away from excessive violent messages, in order to have a healthly mental development.