From the beginning of time, people all over the world have looked for ways to express themselves. Cave men expressed themselves with drawings on walls, and making the slightest of noises which depicted what they were feeling. Carvings in caves also displayed where people could display life stories or symbolic images.
To this day we continue to express ourselves through drawings which we call art. However, the way we express ourselves continues to evolve with time. Technology plays a large role in this fact. As art becomes more digitalized with each passing year, technology continues to influence the way people choose to express themselves and reflect the world around them.
Technology is public, and the media is able to portray cultures in ways never seen before. People are able to post advertisements to display upcoming cultural events. Art is a way for cultures to relate with one another, and create a greater understanding and appreciation for others. This exposure changes the way people express their art; new means of cultural production, communication, community and identity.
Art expresses the identity of an individual indirectly; people communicate their thoughts throughout the content of their works. They alter it to aspects of the world they see to give their work a purpose. Whilst creating art, artists look at the world and create an interpretation that can either show how they see the world today, or would like to see it in the future. This is where new media is active; as people begin to understand the world and all it has to offer, they embark on a journey. When creating media, technology allows for an interaction between the viewer and the art piece. This interaction creates a stronger connection with the piece and develops a greater comprehension of this particular piece’s purpose.
This day and age, much is being done to draw more positive attention to art; to look at the good in life and the opportunities within it. When studying or creating new media (art which incorporates technology that keeps a viewer intrigued ) one studies all contemporary media forms. It is a type of art form which shows no end, as long as technology continues to evolve and influence artists everywhere. At this point in the program, I believe new media to be the new form of art; combining technology and art which develops a deep meaning and interacts with it’s viewer.
Sources:
– Michael Rush – New Media in Art 2nd/ed – Thames and Hudson – World of Art
– Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age – Margot Lovejoy
– School of Image Arts 09/10 – Student Handbook
– http://www.imagearts.ryerson.ca
– http://newmedia.umaine.edu/generic.php?id=204
– Interview with Nathalie Rodriguez ( Image Arts : Advisor )
It is good to situate new media in the context of that first drawing. It reminds me of something Scott Momaday wrote in The Man of Words about the advent of art:
“Imagine: somewhere in the prehistoric distance a man holds up in his hand a crude instrument – a brand, perhaps, or something like a daub or a broom bearing pigment – and fixes the wonderful image in his mind’s eye to a wall or a rock. In that instant is accomplished really and symbolically the advent of art. That man, apart from his remarkable creation, is all but impossible to recall, and yet he is there in our human parentage, deep in our memory. In our modern, sophisticated terms, he is primitive and preliterate, and in the long reach of time he is utterly without distinction, except he draws. And his contribution to posterity is inestimable; he makes a profound difference in our lives, who succeed him by millennia. For all the stories of all the world proceed from the moment in which he makes his mark. All literatures issue from his hand.” (Momaday, 1997: 13)
This passage makes me feel humble. I wonder what they will say about us a million years from now?
Yours is a good beginning but I would like to see you bring your sources right into the conversation.