Visual is Reality
Inthe development of media technology, 1946 should be its year zero. The world's first computer "ENIAC" was born this year at the University of Pennsylvania. Strictly speaking, it was the invention of the computer that made the development of new media possible. That said, Lev Manovich, a new media art theorist, once proposed three arguments to counter the view. First, new media is by no means a new-born thing. Rather, it is a combination of cultural tradition and media tools. Second, new media stands for aesthetics arisen from each modern media and telecommunication revolution in the early stage. Third, new media is the encoding of the avant-garde of modernism. New media is the meta-media. According to Manovich, new media, as a form of aesthetics, has been encoded in the social and cultural convention as well as the artistic values of the avant-garde of modernism even before the new media technology was invented. This exhibition is trying to present the following questions based on the above theories:
First, we should treat new media art within the framework of the entire history of art. We should also discuss the illusion caused by the new media art and the illusion created by the perspective method at the same time. This way, new media art is regarded as an extension of the illusion of visual effect caused by a scientific perspective in the two-dimensional plane since the Renaissance.
Second, we should treat new media as a way of thinking. From the perspective of the history of media, new media, as a new creation tool,serves the same function as other media in the past. Therefore, the pursuit of the “new things” of media technologies cannot be regarded as the fundamental goal of new media art. However, new media is different from any prior art media from other perspectives. Now, our society has been dominated by media. The application of new media has penetrated into every aspect of our lives, a scenario that never happened before. Especially when the thinking provoked by new media is incorporated into the works of artists, they do not only belong to the new media art but also affects artistic form. Through these artworks, we should see how the human mindset has been reshaped in the era of new media and how new forms of aesthetics gradually emerged. In other words, this should be the fundamental reason why the new media art can be called "new.”
Last but also the most important point is that new media technology is holistically changing the society. We can foresee that shortly, the boundary between virtual and reality will become increasingly blurred, and the definitions of the two will become more and more overlapping until one day they become an integrated one. This indicates the greatest feature of a new media society in its mature stage - virtual is a reality. In my opinion, this is both the context needed for the thinking of new media and an aesthetic standard for the new media art.
Visual is Reality
Inthe development of media technology, 1946 should be its year zero. The world's first computer "ENIAC" was born this year at the University of Pennsylvania. Strictly speaking, it was the invention of the computer that made the development of new media possible. That said, Lev Manovich, a new media art theorist, once proposed three arguments to counter the view. First, new media is by no means a new-born thing. Rather, it is a combination of cultural tradition and media tools. Second, new media stands for aesthetics arisen from each modern media and telecommunication revolution in the early stage. Third, new media is the encoding of the avant-garde of modernism. New media is the meta-media. According to Manovich, new media, as a form of aesthetics, has been encoded in the social and cultural convention as well as the artistic values of the avant-garde of modernism even before the new media technology was invented. This exhibition is trying to present the following questions based on the above theories:
First, we should treat new media art within the framework of the entire history of art. We should also discuss the illusion caused by the new media art and the illusion created by the perspective method at the same time. This way, new media art is regarded as an extension of the illusion of visual effect caused by a scientific perspective in the two-dimensional plane since the Renaissance.
Second, we should treat new media as a way of thinking. From the perspective of the history of media, new media, as a new creation tool,serves the same function as other media in the past. Therefore, the pursuit of the “new things” of media technologies cannot be regarded as the fundamental goal of new media art. However, new media is different from any prior art media from other perspectives. Now, our society has been dominated by media. The application of new media has penetrated into every aspect of our lives, a scenario that never happened before. Especially when the thinking provoked by new media is incorporated into the works of artists, they do not only belong to the new media art but also affects artistic form. Through these artworks, we should see how the human mindset has been reshaped in the era of new media and how new forms of aesthetics gradually emerged. In other words, this should be the fundamental reason why the new media art can be called "new.”
Last but also the most important point is that new media technology is holistically changing the society. We can foresee that shortly, the boundary between virtual and reality will become increasingly blurred, and the definitions of the two will become more and more overlapping until one day they become an integrated one. This indicates the greatest feature of a new media society in its mature stage - virtual is a reality. In my opinion, this is both the context needed for the thinking of new media and an aesthetic standard for the new media art.
