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Royal Hospital, Military Rd, T. 00 353 1 612 9900 www.imma.ie Kilmainham, Dublin 8 F. 00 353 1 612 9999 Ireland E. [email protected]

WHAT IS–– (New) Media – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ? Irish of Ireland Kilmainham, Dublin 8 Royal Hospital, Military Rd,

Education and Community Programmes, Irish , IMMA E. [email protected] F. 00 353 1 612 9999 T. 00 353 1 612 9900 www.imma.ie THE WHAT IS–– IMMA Talks Series – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ?

There is a growing interest in , yet the ideas and theo- retical frameworks which inform its practice can be complex and difficult to access. By focusing on a number of key headings, such as , and art, this series of talks is intended to provide a broad overview of some of the central themes and directions in Modern and Contemporary Art.

This series represents a response to a number of challenges. Firstly, the 03 inherent problems and contradictions that arise when attempting to outline or summarise the wide-ranging, constantly changing and contested spheres of both art theory and practice, and secondly, the use of summary terms to describe a range of practices, many of which emerged in opposition to such totalising tendencies. CONTENTS Taking these challenges into account, this talks series offers a range of perspectives, drawing on expertise and experience from lecturers, artists,

curators and critical writers, and is neither definitive nor exhaustive. The inten- What is __? talks series page 03 tion is to provide background and contextual information about the art and Introduction: What is (New) Media Art? page 04 artists featured in IMMA’s Exhibitions and collection in particular, and about Art and (New) Media, Through the Lens of the Contemporary , to promote information sharing, and to encourage IMMA Collection - Maeve Connolly page 08 critical thinking, debate and discussion about art and artists. Further Reading page 16 The talks series addresses aspects of Modern and Contemporary Art Glossary of terms page 17 spanning the period from the 1940s to the present. (New) Media Art Resources page 21 Each talk will be supported by an information guide which includes a summary, the presenter’s essay, a reading list, a glossary of terms and a resources list. This information can also be found on IMMA’s website along with more detailed information about artworks and artists featured in IMMA’s Collection at www.imma.ie

Image: James Coleman, I N I T I A L S, 1993-94 WHAT IS–– (New) Media Art – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ?

Introduction As the national cultural institution responsible for the collection and presenta- tion of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Irish Museum of Modern Art exhibits artworks by established and emerging artists who use media ranging from and to installation, photography, and performance. IMMA’s Collection comprises artworks by Irish and international artists acquired through purchase, donations, loans and commissions, many in association with IMMA’s Temporary Exhibitions Programme and on occasion, IMMA’s Artists’ Residency Programme. There is no limitation with regard to the media acquired; consequently, IMMA’s Collection is well represented by contemporary artists who use new media, such as , video, photography and digital technology. 04 In this introductory text, we provide a brief overview of the context in 05 In general usage, MEDIA, which is the plural of medium, refers to forms of which this evolving category of has developed. Terms associ- mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the ated with New Media Art are indicated in CAPITALS and are elaborated on Internet. In the , MEDIA refers to the materials, methodologies, mechanisms, in the glossary on p.17. We invited Maeve Connolly to write an essay on New technologies or devices by which an artwork is realised, a substance through Media Art, titled Art and (New) Media, Through the Lens of the IMMA Collection, which an effect is transmitted. Traditional or old media include PAINTING, which focuses on artists and artworks in IMMA’s Collection as a means of SCULPTURE and DRAWING. The specific materials used, such as paint, charcoal describing and contextualising this complex and contested area of contempo- or marble, can also be referred to as media. ‘New’ is a relative term in that rary art practice. By focusing on IMMA’s Collection we hope to draw attention something is new when it is first created, discovered or used, and its status as to the body of artworks in the Collection by artists who use a range of media ‘new’ diminishes both over time and as it is replaced by something newer. In including new media, such as film, video, photography, sound and digital CONTEMPORARY ART, NEW MEDIA refers to a range of materials and tech- technology. Some examples include James Coleman, Jaki Irvine, Pierre Huyghe, nologies developed relatively recently and utilised in the creation, presentation Brian Duggan, Gerard Byrne, Isaac Julien, Philippe Parreno, Clare Langan, Phil and disemmination of NEW MEDIA ART. These new media are drawn from a Collins, Candida Höfer, Willie Doherty, Thomas Ruff, Grace Weir and Caroline range of sources both within the arts and the wider field of communications, McCarthy. We also hope to highlight the potential of IMMA’s Collection as a entertainment and information technologies. Informed by the rapid pace of growing resource for further exploration and consideration of this subject. technological development, New Media Art is a constantly changing category encompassing FILM, VIDEO, PHOTOGRAPHY, LENS-BASED MEDIA, DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, HYPERTEXT, CYBERSPACE, AUDIO TECHNOLOGY, CD-ROMS, WEBCAMS, SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY, WIRELESS TELEPHONES, COM- PUTER AND VIDEO GAMES, GPS SYSTEMS and BIOTECHNOLOGY.

Image: Clare Langan, Glass Hour, 2002 Innovative artists have always been interested in new media and materials. Dur- The exploration of new media is central to the development of Contemporary ing the , artists’ practice was transformed by the use of the new Art. Many colleges and art institutions have New Media departments and most medium of OIL PAINT which provided artists with greater flexibility and versatil- and galleries of Contemporary Art collect and present the work of ity than FRESCOS. The introduction of the CAMERA OBSCURA contributed to artists who use new media in their practice. Some venues, such as the Walker new developments in perspective, and PRINTMAKING radicalised the notion of Art Centre in Minnesota and the New Museum in New York, have New Media the unique or one-off artwork, establishing an early precedent for mass media programmes and there are also dedicated centres for new media, such as communication. the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and FACT (Foundation for Art and The scale of technological development during the INDUSTRIAL REVOLU- Creative Technology) in Liverpool. TION, which gave form to the modern era, has had a considerable influence One of the consequences of accelerating technological development is on the course of Modern and Contemporary Art, particularly the development the potential that the media used to create, display or store artworks has to of photography and film. In the early twentieth century, AVANT-GARDE and become obsolete. OBSOLESCENCE presents considerable challenges for the experimental artists embraced these technological developments, challenging production, presentation and preservation of New Media Art. For some artists, the dominant artistic media of painting and sculpture. Photography displaced obsolescence has become a mode of artistic production. Formats for the pre- painting as the primary mode of pictorial representation, giving artists the free- sentation and display of New Media Art also need to address audience expecta- dom to experiment with new media and methodologies. CUBIST artists focused tions shaped by exposure to new media through entertainment and mass dis- on the medium and structure of the painting itself, challenging the illusory na- tribution formats, such as cinema, television and game consoles. As technology ture of painting and prompting the development of ABSTRACTION. Embracing evolves and more artists engage with new media and emerging technologies, all things new and modern, FUTURIST artists applied technological advances Contemporary Art museums and galleries, such as IMMA, are adapting their to their work. Experimentation with new media also prompted collaboration approach to address these challenges so that the artwork remains in the 06 across art forms, such as music, literature and dance. artists, includ- 07 public domain. ing visual artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians, embraced technological advances in film and video to create MULTI-MEDIA artworks encompassing film, video and PERFORMANCE. In their exploration of new media such as SOUND, Lisa Moran, Curator TEXT, LANGUAGE and performance, CONCEPTUAL artists emphasised the Education and Community Programmes importance of the concept or idea over the material art object. The pace of technological development has accelerated considerably over Sophie Byrne, Assistant Curator the course of the twentieth century. Advances in military defence technology Talks and Lectures Programme during the Second World War and throughout the Cold War contributed to the development of DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, the COMPUTER and the WORLD WIDE WEB. Some technological advances also occurred when artists migrated from one medium to another, such as from painting to photography or video, bring- ing their medium-specific concerns to bear on their exploration and interroga- tion of new media. The availability of technology has also influenced artists’ use of new media. For example, 16-MILLIMETRE FILM was developed in the early twentieth century but only became widely available in the 1960s when increased use and improvements in manufacturing and distribution reduced costs. Similarly, the development of the low-cost VIDEO CAMERA made video making accessible and affordable for many artists. These emerging technolo- gies contributed to the growth of and in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, the accessibility and ubiquity of digital technology and the INTERNET have resulted in a proliferation of contemporary artists employing and interrogating these media. Art and (New) Media, Pictorialism and While many contemporary art practitioners reject media-based classifications Performance altogether, categories such as ‘Lens-Based Media’ can be valuable, emphasising Through the Lens of the Maeve Connolly the parallels and tensions between art practice and a much wider history and culture of media use and production. Thinking about lens-based practice opens IMMA Collection up points of connection between a contemporary artwork and such diverse cultural forms as a television news broadcast, a holiday snapshot taken with a mobile phone, or even a seventeenth-century painting in which the illusion of perspective was produced with the aid of optical technologies. Several works in the IMMA Collection that might be classified as ‘New The term ‘New Media Art’ is frequently applied to artworks, or art practices, Media Art’ allude directly or indirectly to histories of technologically medi- involving media not traditionally or conventionally associated with the Fine ated representation, asserting connections as well as differences between Arts. , drawings and are routinely (although sometimes new and older media. So, for example, Caroline McCarthy’s two-channel video erroneously) regarded as original and unique works of art authored by a single work Greetings, 1996, calls to mind a history of landscape representation individual, but the emergence of photography, film, video, audio and other tech- that extends from painting to tourist postcards and amateur video, while also nologies enabling reproduction through mechanical or digital means, radically drawing upon a performative tradition in artists’ film that is deeply indebted to alters the relationship between art and originality.1 This is one of the reasons silent cinema. The artist composes a picturesque image of the Irish countryside, why artists associated with the historical Avant-Garde, seeking to radicalise complete with drifting clouds and rolling hills, before suddenly jumping up into the relationship between art and society, often rejected painting or sculpture the frame to temporarily include herself in this ideal landscape. in favour of photography or cinema. Inevitably, however, media that are initially ’s 60 minute single channel video Solar Breath (Northern 08 perceived by the art world as ‘new’ (such as video in the 1960s) soon become 09 Caryatids), 2002, also exploits established traditions of pictorial and dramatic familiar and even conventional. representation. A highly significant figure for theorists of film in the 1970s, Artists have also been drawn towards non-traditional media because they Snow directs his camera at the billowing curtains of a window opening out are specifically interested in exploring the (rapidly changing) relationship be- from his workshop onto the landscape of Newfoundland. The window suggests tween media, technology and society. These concerns were often evident in the a frame though which (in cinema) the camera might be expected to work of artists associated with the and Fluxus movements during move, or even a proscenium arch within which (in theatre) some action might the 1960s, such as , whose installations and sculptures involving take place. Yet, Snow’s camera remains resolutely fixed and the viewer is left audiovisual technologies explore and contest the power of the mass media.2 only with the fluctuations of the curtain as it moves in the breeze. More recently, it is possible to trace a continuation of this critical tradition in the Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) derives much of its appeal from its work of a younger generation of artists working with even newer media, from status as an unaltered document of a natural phenomenon occurring at a par- locative technologies, like GPS systems, to gaming software, bio-technologies ticular time and place. But for many artists in the 1960s and 1970s, the medium and beyond. of video was most interesting for its capacity to blur the boundaries between event and document. , unlike film, could be played back, viewed and if necessarily re-recorded immediately. Monitors could also be used within the context of a video work or performance to display a live or delayed image ‘feed’, enabling various forms of real-time interaction between artist, on-screen image and audience. In the single channel video Now, 1973, for example, moves between the roles of performer, operator and director, appearing to kiss a monitor that displays her own image, while continually repeating the phrases ‘Now?’, ‘Do you wish to direct me?’, and ‘Start the camera’. There are parallels here with James Coleman’s use of 35mm slide projection, a medium once associated with advertising, corporate communications and domestic photography. He has produced a number of ‘projected image’ installa- tions involving slides, including Background, 1991-94, Lapsus Exposure, 1992-94, and I N I T I A L S, 1993-94. All three feature highly constructed still images, synchronised with soundtracks that incorporate voiceover narration. Coleman’s images and scripts are richly evocative and a vast array of historical and con- temporary sources are referenced either directly or indirectly, but he generally withholds contextualising information, with the result that critics often excavate earlier works in search of meaning.

Collaboration, Other artists have embraced technologies and economies of digital media Appropriation, production and consumption, as well as more collaborative modes of practice. and the Politics Carlos Amorales’ two-channel installation Dark Mirror, 2004-2005, incorporates of Representation animation by André Pahl and an original score and piano performance by José María Serralde. Significantly, the animation is derived from a ‘liquid archive’ – an open and expanding collection of digital images assembled by Amorales’ studio, which is apparently available for use by others. A comparable example 10 Aura, Just as Benglis uses repetition to highlight the specificity of video time, others 11 of collaboration can be found in Philippe Parreno’s digital video Anywhere Out Materiality have emphasised the distinctive characteristics and properties of photography of The World, 2000, featuring a character entitled Annlee originated by a com- and Analogue and film. Taking the reproducibility of the photographic image as a starting mercial animation company, co-purchased with the artist Pierre Huyghe and Technologies point, Craigie Horsfield makes only a single print, rather than an edition, and then made available to several other artists in accordance with the principles of destroys his original negative. But even though this action results in a unique ‘copyleft’. artwork, with the same claims to originality as a painting, the title of each work This project can be situated in relation to a much earlier tradition of strongly asserts the specificity of the photographic process. Each title records appropriation, in which artists borrowed and repurposed images from popu- where and when the photograph was ‘taken’ – or rather the exposure of the lar media. was one of a number of artists to work with mass negative to light – as well as a second date referring to the production of the produced images of women’s bodies during the 1970s. Her single-channel video print. Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978/9, is composed entirely Clare Langan is also interested in the interplay between painting and of edited and looped special effects sequences from the Wonder Woman TV newer media. In such as Forty Below, 1999, she combines dramatic shoot- series, in which ‘Diana Prince’ is transformed in an explosion of light and sound ing locations and hand-painted filters (attached to the lens of a 16mm Bolex into her tightly-costumed, crime-fighting alter-ego. film camera, which is wound by hand) in order to create exotic, otherworldly Willie Doherty’s work during the 1980s and 1990s is also informed by images. But although she is clearly drawn to the materiality of film, Langan critiques of representation. But rather than appropriating material from specific seems to favour the expediency of newer image display technologies, because sources, Doherty explores the recurrence of certain images and she exhibits her work on DVD. In contrast, Tacita Dean shoots and exhibits her across a range of media, from photo-journalism to film and television drama. moving image work primarily on film, often relying on mechanical looping de- Initially working with photography, Doherty produced a number of black and vices for continuous projection and sometimes using optical sound so that the white diptychs that combined images of Derry city and its surroundings with audio is encoded directly onto the celluloid. There is also frequently a relation- ambiguous yet suggestive text. He gradually moved towards colour photog- ship between the themes explored in her work and her attraction to 16mm film, raphy and away from the direct use of text on image, relying on titles (as in a medium widely thought to be anachronistic, even obsolete. the case of Border Incident, 1994) to evoke associations, and developed video installations, including The Only Good One is a Dead One, 1995, that engage with locally specific media genres such as television advertisements for the Confidential Telephone line.3

Image: Willie Doherty, Empty, 2006 Gerard Byrne also responds to hybrid media genres, such as the magazine Memory in the Even though new media artworks may directly reference or evoke aspects of ‘advertorial’ or the ‘roundtable discussion’, which may borrow from reportage museum popular media production and exhibition, artists generally aim to solicit modes or documentary but are nonetheless highly constructed. In Why it’s time for of engagement that are specific to the spaces and sites of Contemporary Art.4 Imperial, again, 1998-2002, Byrne creates a film script from the text of a conver- So, for example, Willie Doherty might structure a (such as sation between Frank Sinatra and Lee Iacocca (chairman of Chrysler), originally Re-Run, 2002) so that the viewer must continually shift their attention between published as an advertorial for the Chrysler Imperial car in National Geographic. two opposing screens in order to ‘read’ the work. Similarly, seating is rarely The text, never designed to be used as a script, is full of awkward phrases and provided for James Coleman’s projected image installations; instead, mul- Byrne exaggerates this quality by staging it three times in different locations. tiple speakers are arranged around the exhibition space to invite viewing and Byrne’s multi-channel installation New Sexual Lifestyles, 2003, is also based listening from different positions. These works demonstrate a sensitivity to the upon a text derived from a US magazine – this time a roundtable discussion on museum gallery as a space through which the viewer moves, but some artists sexuality published in Playboy in 1973. Again the shooting location is highly sig- have structured their installations around the notion of mobility in even more nificant as Byrne restages the discussion with Irish in a modernist build- pronounced ways. ing in Co. Wicklow. Designed as a summer house for the wealthy art patron Ba- This is the case with Jaki Irvine’s The Silver Bridge, 2003, an eight-screen sil Goulding, the building also serves as the subject of a series of photographs video installation that explores the spatialisation of narrative, drawing some that form part of the work. These photographs are exhibited alongside the of its themes and images from Carmilla, 1872, a novella by Sheridan Le Fanu. edited footage of the re-enactment, which is presented on multiple monitors Widely regarded as a source of inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Carmilla (with headphones attached), a mode of display that suggests the mediatheque is a tale of repressed desire involving two young women. Like much Gothic or media archive, rather than the cinema. literature, The Silver Bridge explores the persistence of attachments to people and places, and derives much of its power from the use of atmospheric settings 12 13 (including Phoenix Park and the Natural History Museum) as locations. The architecture of IMMA provides a particularly appropriate exhibition context for this work, as the eight projections are dispersed across a series of small interconnected rooms alongside a corridor, enabling multiple pathways through the narrative. James Coleman’s Strongbow, 1978/2000, is also concerned with story- telling, focusing on the fraught interplay between history, myth and media in Irish culture. One of the first important new media works acquired by IMMA, Strongbow was placed on public display for several years during the early 1990s. At that time the work consisted of a spot lit replica of a tomb-effigy found in Christ Church Cathedral, and once assumed to be that of the Norman knight Strongbow. The replica was displayed alongside a video, on a monitor, of two hands clapping continuously, with the sounds of the clapping gradually rising to a boom and then receding. One hand is green, the other red and the image is distorted so that the hands appear to blur, leaving traces across the screen.

Image: Phil Collins, How to make a refugee, 2000 The work was interpreted in its original form as a critique of television’s insis- Maeve Connolly is a Lecturer in the School of Creative Arts at Dun tence on the ‘noise and confusion of the present [offering] no particular insight Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT). She lectures on on the past nor resolution for the future’.5 In 2000, however, Coleman presented the BA in Practice and on the MAVis, MA Visual Arts Practices, a radically altered version as part of the IMMA exhibition ‘Shifting Ground: where she leads a module on Visual Cultural Research. Her research centres Selected Works of Irish Art, 1950-2000’. Strongbow, 1978/2000, was no longer on concepts of public space in Contemporary Art and culture, informed by situated in a darkened space; instead the components were clearly visible and histories of art, film and television since the late 1960s. Her book on several new elements had been added. The residue of the plaster mould was artists’ film and video, entitled The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, evident on the resin cast of the effigy, and the video of the hands clapping was Site and Screen (Intellect/University of Chicago Press, 2009) includes displayed on a widescreen ‘Sony Art Couture’ monitor. In addition, the packing boxes for several monitors were stacked against the wall, along with a scaffold in-depth readings of works by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Carlos Amorales, Gerard tower and the residue of the installation process. Byrne, Tacita Dean, , , Willie Doherty, Pierre Given its subject matter, these revisions to the form of the work can be Huyghe, Jaki Irvine, Aernout Mik, Tobias Putrih, Anne Tallentire and Jane read as a response to the context of the exhibition ‘Shifting Ground’, which & Louise Wilson, among others. focused partly on history and identity. But Coleman’s action also raises broader questions about the interpretation of new media artworks. The first version of Strongbow was produced towards the end of the era of classical ‘TV’, just before the widespread availability of home video and the emergence of cable channels aimed at niche audiences. During the classical era of broadcast- ing, television (like radio) had contributed to processes of nation formation 14 through its insistence upon a continuous, shared, sense of the ‘here and now’. 15 But by 2000, the experience of television – and its relationship to the national context – had altered radically. Through the alterations to Strongbow, Coleman highlights the complexities and the contradictions that are integral to the pro- duction and exhibition of New Media Art, the meaning of which is at least partly structured by the continually shifting relationship between media, technology and society.

1 See Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, London: Fontana, 1973, pp. 219-254.

2 For a recent overview of this tradition see Edward A. Shanken (ed), Art and Electronic Media, London: Phaidon, 2009.

3 See Martin McLoone, ‘The Commitments’, Same Old Story, Exhibition Catalogue, London/Derry/Colchester: Matt’s Gallery/Orchard Gallery/ Firstsite, 1997, pp. 8-22.

4 For further exploration of this issue see Maeve Connolly, The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, Site and Screen, Bristol and Chicago: Intellect and University of Chicago Press, 2009.

5 Anne Rorimer, ‘James Coleman 1970 -1985’ (1985), in James Coleman (October Files No. 5), ed. George Baker, Cambridge, MA. MIT Press, 2003, p.11.

Image: Carlos Amorales T, Dark Mirror, 2004-2005 New Media: Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Hill and Wang, 1982. New Media Art: Audio Technology Computer and Digital Technology Devices and mechanisms Video Games Electronic data storage Further Reading Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Illuminations, Glossary (ed.) Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, London: Fontana, 1973, pp 219-254. for recording and produc- An electronic game devised and transmission technol- ing sound, such as the gra- for interactive use on a ogy that enables immense Curiger Bice, The Expanded Eye: Stalking the Unseen, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006. maphone, audio cassette, computer or video player. amounts of information

microphone and compact The development of games to be compressed on Paul Christiane, Digital Art, London: Thames and Hudson, 2008. disk. involves multi-disciplinary small storage devices, Maeve Connolly, The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, Site and Screen, Bristol and Chicago: teams of game designers, such as computers and Intellect and University of Chicago Press, 2009. Avant-Garde programmers, graphic de- telephones, that can easily

Catherine Elwes, Video Art: A Guided Tour, I.B. Tauris, 2005. French for advance guard signers, sound technicians be preserved, retrieved or ‘vanguard’, a military and producers. and transported. Charlie Gere, Digital Culture, London: Reaktion Books, 2003. term to describe an ad-

vance army group. The Conceptual Art Film Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003. term is used to describe Originating in the 1960s, The medium used for the Oliver Grau (ed.), MediaArtHistories, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. innovative, experimental or Conceptual Art pushed creation of still or moving cutting edge artists arts practice beyond the images. The term is also Rachel Greene, , London: Thames and Hudson, 2004. and practitioners. conventional limits of used to describe a motion Andy Grundberg, Photography and Art: Interactions since 1946, Abbeville Press, 1987. the art object, placing an picture which is a sequence Biotechnology emphasis on the idea or of images projected onto a Mark Hansen, New Philosophy for New Media, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004. Biology-based technology concept rather than a tan- screen, collectively referred

Philip Hayward, Culture, Technology & Creativity in the Late Twentieth Century, New Barnett: concerned with medicine, gible art object. The ideas to as cinema. In Contempo- John Libbey Publishing, 1990. agriculture, food science and methodologies rary Art, film is referred to and genetic engineering. of Conceptual Art inform as an art form. Ian Jeffrey, Photography: A Concise History, London: Thames and Hudson, 1981. 16 17 much contemporary art Tanya Leighton (ed.), Art and the Moving Image: A Critical Reader, London: Tate Publishing Camera Obscura practice. Fluxus in association with Afterall, 2008. An optical device devel- An international, avant-

oped in the tenth century garde, in Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant & Kieran Kelly (eds.), New Media: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge, 2009. and used extensively during An early twentieth-century the 1960s which included the Renaissance to aid movement led by Pablo Pi- artists, writers, filmmak- Margot Lovejoy, Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age, New York: Routledge, 2004. drawing and perspective. casso and Georges Braque ers and musicians creating

Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002. which focused on the experimental, multi-media CD-ROMs physical qualities of paint- work in film, video and Sylvia Martin, Video Art, Taschen, 2006. A compact disc which ing rather than the subject performance informed

contains fixed data and matter. It is characterised by social and political Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects, New York: Random House, 1967, reissued by Gingko Press, 2001. which can be accessed by the breaking up of the activism. by a computer. picture plane, merging Florence de Mèredieu, Digital and Video Art, New York: Larousse, Kingfisher, Chambers, 2005. of figure and ground. the Fresco

David Parkinson, , London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Computer adoption of multiple view- A form of mural painting A mechanism for storing points, and simplification of prevalent during the Re- Frank Popper, From Technological to Virtual Art, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. data and executing instruc- form into geometric shapes. naissance, which involved

tions called programmes It is considered to be the painting in pigment mixed Michael Rush, New Media in Art, New York: Thames & Hudson, 2005. in relation to that data. forerunner of . with water on a thin layer of Michael Rush, Video Art, New York: Thames and Hudson, 2007. Software applications wet lime mortar or plaster. for personal computers Cyberspace Edward A. Shanken, Art and Electronic Media, London: Phaidon Press, 2009. include word processing, The notional space within Susan Sontag, On Photography, Picador, 2001 spreadsheets, databases, which the network of in- Early twentieth-century Web browsers, e-mail cli- formation technology and movement which originated Mark Tribe, Jana Reena & Uta Grosenick (eds.), New Media Art, Taschen, 2006 ents, games, and specialist communication infrastruc- in Italy and embraced all

Bruce Wands, Art of the Digital Age, London: Thames & Hudson, 2006 software. tures, such as the Internet, things modern, including operate. technology, speed, industri- Liz Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge, 2004 alisation and mechanisation.

Gene Youngblood, , New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970 It also embraced violence and nationalism and was associated with Italian Fascism. GPS Language New Media Art Photography Sony Portapak VVideo Art Global Positioning System Use of verbal and written Artwork created using new The process of recording Video Camera Artwork created using a is a U.S. space-based text as a medium in Con- media, such as film, video, an image, a photograph, on The first portable low-cost video recording device. Vid- radio-navigation system ceptual Art. lens-based media, digital light-sensitive film or, in the video recording device eo Art emerged as an art that provides position- technology, hypertext, case of digital photography, introduced in 1967 by Sony. form in the 1960s and 1970s ing, navigation and timing Lens-based Media cyberspace, audio technol- via a digital electronic or Its relatively low cost and due to the development services. GPS handsets are Mechanisms which employ ogy, CD-ROMs, webcams, magnetic memory. portability made it acces- of new technology, and it used by drivers to optimise a camera lens, such as film, surveillance technology, sible to many artists and is a prevalent medium in navigation routes. video and photography, to wireless telephones, Printmaking contributed to the growth Contemporary Art practice. create artwork. GPS systems, computer The process of creating of experimental video mak- Hypertext and video games and an artwork by transferring ing in the 1960s and 1970s. Webcams Text which contains links Mass Media biotechnology. an impression from one A video-capture device to other texts, usually Forms of communication, surface to another. The that can be attached to a displayed on a computer. such as newspapers and Obsolescence printmaking process can A form of art practice computer to enable the Hypermedia refers to those television, used to distrib- A state where a product or use metal, stone, linoleum, concerned with sound, communication of live elements of Hypertext ute news and information technology is superseded fabric, etc. While printmak- listening and hearing, often visual information. which are not text, such to large audiences. by a newer one and con- ing enables multiple copies involving an interdisciplin- as graphics. The World sequently it is no longer to be produced, each print ary approach. Sound Art Wireless Telephones Wide Web is an example Media manufactured or used, even is considered unique. encompasses acoustics, A cellular or mobile of hypertext. In general usage, media though it may still function electronics, audio media telephone is a type of refers to forms of commu- adequately. Renaissance and technology, the body, short-wave analog or Industrial Revolution nication, such as newspa- A French word for rebirth, ambient sound, etc. digital telecommunication, A period of social, political pers, magazines, television, Oil Paint the Renaissance was a cul- in which a subscriber has 18 and economic change radio and the Internet. In Form of painting which 19 tural movement originating Surveillance a wireless connection from arising from the shift from the arts, media, the plural became prevalent during in Italy in the early four- Technology a mobile telephone to a manual to machine-based of medium, refers to the the fifteenth century, where teenth century, prompted The employment of relatively nearby transmit- manufacturing, which materials, methodologies, pigment is suspended in by the revival of ancient technology to monitor ter. The transmitter’s span affected agriculture, manu- mechanisms, technologies slow-drying oil such as classical sources. Extend- behaviour and activities, of coverage is called a cell. facturing, mining and trans- or devices by which an linseed oil. ing until the late sixteenth and to gather information. port. Began in Great Britain artwork is realised. Tradi- century the movement This includes electronic World Wide Web in the late eighteenth and tional or old media include Painting spread throughout Italy and security systems: CCTV A system of interlinked early nineteenth centuries painting, sculpture and The application of a pig- Europe affecting all aspects cameras; social network hypertext documents and spread throughout drawing and the specific ment or colour to a surface of social, political and cul- analysis: Bebo, Facebook accessed via the Internet. Europe and America, materials used, such as such as canvas, paper or tural life. Characterised by and Twitter; biometric Browsers, such as Google, impacting on all aspects paint, charcoal or marble, plaster. It was the dominant the adoption of a humanist surveillance: fingerprint- enable users to access web of social, political and can also be referred to as artistic medium for pictorial approach, - ing and facial recognition; pages containing text, im- cultural life. media. In contemporary representation until the ists placed an emphasis on aerial surveillance: satellites ages and multimedia, and art practice media artists twentieth century. naturalism and the use of and unmanned aerial also to navigate between Internet use a wide range of media, linear perspective. vehicles; data mining and web pages using hypertext. A globalised system of such as technology, found profiling; corporate surveil- computer networks linked materials, the body, sound, Involves an artist undertak- Sculpture lance and telephone and 16-millimentre Film by copper wire, fibre-optic etc. ing an action or actions A three-dimensional art computer monitoring. Film stock developed in cables and wireless con- where the artist’s body is object which is either the 1920s for amateur and nections, which provides New Media the medium. Performance created or constructed Text-Based Art industrial use. Since the services, resources and A range of materials and Art evolved in the late by an artist. Includes con- Artwork created using 1960s, when it became information, such as the technologies developed rel- 1950s and is closely associ- structions, assemblages, written or printed words as more affordable, it has hypertext of the World atively recently and utilised ated with Video Art as this installations, sound, new the material and/or subject been used widely by artists Wide Web, eletronic mail, in the creation, presentation was the primary means of media, etc. matter. in experimental filmmaking. file sharing, online gaming and dissemination of New recording this ephemeral and social networking sites. Media Art. art form.

New Media: Websites DARE Organisations Electrohype Rhizome Resources General Resources and Interactive digital art Organisation promoting Based in the New Museum Information Websites resource for education. Art & Science and advocating computer- in NY, Rhizome promotes www.dareonline.org Collaborations (ASCI) based art in Sweden and emerging artistic practices Intute Promotes awareness of the other Nordic countries. that engage technology. Online service providing Database of Virtual Art collaborations between www.electrohype.org www.rhizome.org information about web Documents the field of artists and scientists. resources for education digital installation art. www.asci.org Eyebeam V2 and research. www.virtualart.at/common/ Centre for the promotion Interdisciplinary centre for www.intute.ac.uk info.do Beall Centre for Art of new technologies and art and media technology and Technology media arts. based in Rotterdam. STOT Depict Supports innovation www.eyebeam.org www.v2.nl Platform providing International short-film across arts, science online links relating to competition to make and engineering. FACT Vertext Contemporary Art. films under 90 seconds. www.beallcenter.uci.edu Foundation for Art and Cre- Artist-run space in NY www.stot.org www.depict.org ative Technology promotes supporting emerging Belfast Exposed artists’ work and innovation media artists. New Media Websites Digital Art Source Gallery for contemporary in the fields of film, video, www.vertextlist.net Resource site for digital art photography. and new media. 235media and culture information. www.belfastexposed.com www.fact.co.uk Videotage New Media Art and www.digitalartsource.com Interdisciplinary artist Technology. Co-Lab Folly collective focusing on www.235media.com Swiss-based organisation Digital Arts organisation the development of Video 20 Resource for video art. which adopts an interdisci- 21 promoting the exploration and New Media Art in Ars Electronica www.eai.org plinary approach towards of art through technology. Hong Kong. Platform for digital art art, new technologies and www.folly.co.uk www.videotage.org.hk and media culture. Lovebytes society. www.aec.at Digital arts organisation www.co-lab.ch Furtherfield WRO Centre for Media Art promoting the creative and Provides platforms for Independent organisation Arteamundo cultural potential of digital Digital Arts Developmental experimental practices in Poland specialising in New Media Art in Argentina technologies. Agency relating to art, technology Contemporary Art, media www.arteamundo.com www.lovebytes.org.uk Supports artwork exploring and social change. and technology digital processes. www.furtherfield.org www. wrocenter.pl BBC Video Nation Luxonline www.da2.org.uk www.bbc.co.uk/videonation A web resource for explor- ISEA Year Zero One ing British-based artists’ The Digital Hub Inter-Society for the Media Arts Collective British Artists’ Film & Video film and video. Dublin-based initiative Electronic Arts promotes exploring new and hybrid Study Collection www.luxonline.org.uk to create an international interdisciplinary academic artistic practices emerging Research project based in centre of excellence for discourse and exchange from new technologies. Central St. Martin’s College ICA Digital Art knowledge, innovation and among artists and organisa- www.year01.com of Art and Design, provid- Showcases digital art creativity focused on digital tions working with art, ing a range of resource projects curated by content and technology science and emerging material relating to artists’ London’s Institute of enterprises. technologies. film and video in Britain. Contemporary Art. www.thedigitalhub.com www.isea-web.org www.studycollection.org.uk www.ica.org.uk Electronic Arts Intermix Plug.In Cinovid (EAI) A space for Contemporary Database of experimental Arts organisation support- Art focusing on electronic Film and Video Art. ing Video and Media Art. media. www.cinovid.org www.eai.org www.iplugin.org

Journals and Afterimage Contemporary Online journals and Acknowledgements Published by the Irish Design: List of illustrations: Magazines: Journal of Media Art A London-based, monthly magazines Museum of Modern Art, Red and Grey Design and Cultural Criticism. contemporary visual arts General and Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, www.redandgreydesign.ie Page 2 www.vsw.org/afterimage magazine. Alt-X Dublin 8 James Coleman, New Media Art www.contemporary-maga- www.altx.com Print: I N I T I A L S, 1993-94, Art Forum zines.com Tel: + 353 1 612 9900 Print Library Projected images with An international, monthly Aspect Fax: + 353 1 612 9999 www.print-library.com synchronised audio narra- magazine specialising in Critical Inquiry www.aspectmag.com Email: [email protected] tion, Dimensions variable, Contemporary Art. A Chicago-based quar- With thanks to: Marguerite Collection Irish Museum www..com terly journal that presents Ctheory.net Text: O’Molloy, Assistant Curator: of Modern Art, Purchase, articles concerning critical www.ctheory.net What is (New) Media Art? Collections; Seamus Mc- Heritage Fund, 2004 Art Newspaper thought in the arts. Meave Connolly Cormack, Assistant Curator: A New York-based monthly www.criticalinquiry.uchi- newmediaFIX Collections; Joanne Kiely, Page 5 newspaper about the visual cago.edu www.newmediafix.net All other texts written and Administrator: Education Clare Langan, Glass Hour, arts. edited by Sophie Byrne and and Community; Monica 2002, Super 16 mm film www.theartnewspaper.com E-flux Journal Lisa Moran Cullinan, Public Affairs; transferred to DVD with A New York-based, monthly Christine Kennedy, Head of surround sound,Dimensions Art Monthly journal distributing infor- Editors: Collections; Rachael Thom- variable, Collection Irish A UK-based monthly mation on contemporary Lisa Moran, Curator: as, Head of Exhibitions; Museum of Modern Art, magazine about exhibitions, publications Education and Community Helen O’Donoghue, Head of Purchase, 2003 contemporary visual art. and symposia. Programmes and Sophie Education and Community www.artmonthly.co.uk www.e-flux.com/journal Byrne, Assistant Curator: Programmes and Enrique Page 10 Talks & Lectures Juncosa, Director, IMMA. Willie Doherty, Empty, 22 Art Papers Film Ireland 2006, Video installation, A non-profit arts organisa- Magazine published by Copy editor: © Irish Museum of DVD, colour, sound, Edition tion dedicated to the ex- Filmbase on film and video. Sophie Nellis Modern Art Texts 1 of 3, 8 mins, Collection amination and development www.filmireland.net Irish Museum of Modern of contemporary art and What Is __? Team: © The Authors 2009 Art, Purchase, 2006 culture. Flash Art an international, Lisa Moran, www.artpapers.org bimonthly magazine focus- Curator: Education All rights reserved. No part Page 12 ing on Contemporary Art. and Community of this publication may be Phil Collins, How to make Art Review www.flashartonline.com Programmes reproduced, stored in a a refugee, 2000, DVD, ed A Contemporary Art retrieval system or transmit- 2/3, 11 min, Collection Irish magazine published Frieze Sophie Byrne, ted in any form or by any Museum of Modern Art, monthly with an online A London-based magazine Assistant Curator: means, electronic, mechani- Purchase, 2004 networking site. of contemporary art and Talks & Lectures cal, photocopying, record- www.artreview.com culture. ing or otherwise, without Page 15 www.frieze.com/magazine Mark Maguire, the written permission of Carlos Amorales T, Dark Art and Research Assistant Curator: the Publishers. Mirror, 2004-2005, A UK-based quarterly Journal of Visual Art Education and Animation and video, journal of ideas, contexts Practice Community Images: Two channel projection over and methods related to An international, monthly Programmes Every effort has been made floating screen. Andre Pahl art and research journal supporting research to acknowledge correct (animation) and Jose Maria www.artandresearch.org.uk into visual arts practice. Research: copyright of images where Serralde (original score and www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ Marianna Sabena applicable. Any errors or piano performance). Ed. Circa journals Rebecca Devaney omissions are unintentional 2/5, Dimensions variable, An Irish-based, quarterly and should be notified to Collection Irish Museum journal about contemporary Journal of Visual Culture Image sourcing: the Irish Museum of Modern of Modern Art, Purchase, visual culture. A US-based journal promot- Joanne Kiely: Art What Is __? series. 2005 www.recirca.com ing research, scholarship Administrating and critical engagement Assistant, Education and with visual culture and art. Community www.sagepub.com/journals Programmes

Royal Hospital, Military Rd, T. 00 353 1 612 9900 www.imma.ie Kilmainham, Dublin 8 F. 00 353 1 612 9999 Ireland E. [email protected]

What is Series 1 ? Dublin 8, Ireland Military Road, Kilmainham, Royal Hospital, What is (New) Media Art? is the third a in series of talks which aim to provide a general introduction to key concepts and themes in New Media Art. What is (New) Media Art provides a brief overview of the context in which this evolving category of New Media Art has developed. This is accompanied by an essay by Maeve Connolly titled (New) Media, Through the Lens of the IMMA Collection.

Even though new media may directly reference or evoke aspects of popular media production and exhibition, artists generally aim to solicit modes of engagement

E. [email protected] F. T. that are specific to the spaces and sites of contemporary art.

00 353 1 612 9999 00 353 1 612 9900 Meave Connolly

www.imma.ie Irish Museum of Modern Art Ireland Kilmainham, Dublin 8 Royal Hospital, Military Rd,

Education and Community Programmes, Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA E. [email protected] F. 00 353 1 612 9999 T. 00 353 1 612 9900 www.imma.ie