This week's topic on art (as usual when talking about art) became a philosophical discussion on 'what is art'. My personal view on this is just to label literally everything as art, from sculptures and paintings and other "high art" right down to something as mundane as a blank wall (although it seems this is now classified as contemporary art). This stems from the fact that every person in the world has different experiences and interactions with the world creating billions of unique views on the concept of art; where your pencil case may just be an object to you, to someone that designs pencil cases for a living it could be an art form in their eyes.
I held this view through this weeks readings (even though all the examples were actually intended as art pieces) and found some of the artworks to be relatively enjoyable compared to previous weeks. Perhaps my favourite reading this week, Intimate Transactions combined a both technology, media and art to create an experience unique to each "audience member" or "viewer"; much in line with my views on art. It took a direction contemporary art trends seem to be following, utilizing new media technology to stimulate much more than one or two of your primary senses, but rather has your entire body encounter the artwork. This is very similar to the augmented reality artwork discussed in one of my previous posts (Projection Mapping) which also uses new media technology to create an experience for others. The difference here, however, is the artists are trying to convey their own view of the world to their audience. I guess what I am trying to get at here is that art is predominantly a medium or vessel to convey the message of the artist or creator and so we can say all art (in one form or another) is media. This, in conjunction with my earlier views on art leads me to believe everything can be seen as media.
In this new digital age where everyone can and is a 'publisher' or 'artist', people have come to 'subvert' (in a sense) the use of certain types of media, creating and sharing their own perspectives and experiences publicly. One prevalent example is the use of screenshots or 'photographs' in video games, also known as video game tourism. This is possibly a new direction for both art and media, where the primary use of video game media (which can also be classified as art itself) has been changed into creating artworks that most people overlook when visiting their respective virtual worlds.
Main References:
The transmute colelctive & Partners (2003), 'Intimate Transactions stage 1', Available online at <http://embodiedmedia.com/homeartworks/intimate-transactions>
No comments:
Post a Comment