“The reason why computer communication is important for media studies is that the computer is not simply a transmission device, but also a device for representation” (47)
I wish Langlois had gone into the status of art in a technocultural world more. The abstract opens with “this dissertation project argues that the study of meaning-making practices on the Web…needs to involve acknowledgement of the importance of communication technologies” (iv). New media art or digital art uses communication technologies of the Web to explore “meaning-making practices” and expresses itself through software.
Software is essential to the Web because it is how a viewer experiences that space. It is related to self-expression in an abstract world. It both constrains and sets free users. As artists using and creating software to produce art, I am wondering how the conditions of art have changed. Langlois brings up Kittler’s theory that “there is no software” and how lack of acknowledging the layers at work within technology makes it that “we simply do not know what our writing does” (43). If this is true and the aesthetics of software hide the layers at work for user’s pleasure – what does that mean for artists who break down and create software? Are they too implicated in that system or can they be in the realm of programmers? How does a viewer’s viewing of new media or internet art change compared to traditional art viewing practices?
No comments:
Post a Comment