a/ Which Box? What is Media Arts?
Some people think that the following definitions apply. Some may not. Technology continues to expand and artists continue to find new creative ways of using technology that the technocrats had not considered.
Media Arts include works in new media, audio, film and video. This includes audio/sound art, documentary, drama, experimental, animation, dance film/video, media art installation and new media, and any fusion thereof.
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision and can be created and demonstrated in several ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video programme, although there are other methods.
Documentary films/ videos constitute a broad category of non fictional moving images intended to document some aspect of reality primarily for the purposes of instructing or maintaining a historical record. A “documentary film” was originally a movie on film stock the only medium available-but now includes video and digital productions. “Documentary” has been described as a “film making practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception” that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance as portrayed in film or video.
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, internet art and electronic music.
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relying both on visual arts and cinema.
Installation Art (video & sound being two forms) describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform a viewer’s perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces.
Interactive Media is the integration of digital media including combinations of electronic text, graphics, moving images, and sound, into a structured
digital computerised environment that allows people to interact with the data for appropriate purposes. The digital environment can include the
Internet, telecoms and interactive digital television.
New Media may be in the form of works integrating technology or robotics, audio artworks, installations, performances, immersive environments, web art, VJing, sound sculptures or soundscapes, radiophonic or electronic art and interactive works.
Radiophonics is a densely layered release, employing orchestral timbres, FX-laden atonality and sublimely uplifting harmonies.
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots . Robotics is related to the science of electronics, engineering, mechanics and software.
Soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment.
Sound sculpture (related to sound art) and sound installation is an intermedia and time based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces sound or the reverse.
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving images and comprises video and/or audio data. It is a creative exploitation of video technology. Recently the use of digital technology has altered video art.
VJing is a broad designation for real time visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in real time through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music.
Web Art Internet art (often referred to as net art) is a form of digital artwork distributed via the internet. This form of art has circumvented the traditional dominance of the gallery and museum system, delivering aesthetic experiences via the Internet. In many cases, the viewer is drawn into some kind of interaction with the work of art. Artists working in this manner are sometimes referred to as net artists.
Jim Riley
co curator
Deanna Bowen’s “Deconstruction of a Political Engagement (the Selma Project)”, 2011 Interdisciplinary installation
