Reading Response 3: Dialogue, on Chris Burns’ “What is New Media?”

I think all artists need to ask themselves what their work is about. A sound theory or philosophy of art can keep work coherent and meaningful. I suppose this depends, though, on what the artist really wants. Works in New Media, like the pieces up in the Neuberger gallery we looked at in class show the possibility of these sorts of projects to work towards effecting social change, exploring new modes or paradigms of social and political life, or simply disseminating information in an artful, aesthetic way. At the same time, it’s possible to completely avoid that kind of work creating only attractive images for consumption without any attempt to convey any larger meaning or purpose.
I think particularly new art or work that is not coming out of traditional art techniques needs to ask itself questions. Of course, this depends on what the artist wants. New Media, I think, is somewhere in flux. The kind of work New Media students are looking at is a product of consumer-fed technological development, not time-honed or (necessarily) culture-bound like most visual arts. As a result, I think it finds itself somewhere on a new field between the avant-garde and commercial work. Artists in New Media can study the same work and want to be a new Pablor Picasso or Max Ernst, creating imaginative images invisible in the world outside their work, or look at Andy Warhol as a role model, where meaning is vague and obscure if present at all.
Not being a New Media student, myself, I’m not sure how the program is framed here, but it seems to me that the space for New Media was opened in the realm of “high art” by the Fluxus artists in the 60s. The attitude of these artists was exactly the question “What is art?” They worked to incorporated varieties of media into their work, using things like radio and television sets. New media for work began to be explored in the mid- and late-1960s, and continues today, as more new technology becomes available to larger audiences.
Similarly, pop art is bound to be an influence on work in New Media. As a moment in art where artists looked to incorporate the new world that had been created by the technological advancements newly made available in the 1950s and 1960s, the perspective of pop art is fully relevant to the New Media artist.
I agree that, like you say, New Media shouldn’t be strictly confined to newly emergent technology, or experimental uses of machinery. I think it’s much better used to refer to recent trends in art where things like graphic design and other, recent audio/visual technologies have been incorporated into work by new artists. But New Media, as a new paradigm in the world of art, needs to be certain of what it is. Reflecting on your work and your studies can be a major aid to finding your direction in your field.