What is New Media?

The definition of media is “Materials that hold data in any form or that allow data to pass through them, including paper, transparencies, multipart forms, hard, floppy and optical discs, magnetic tape, wire, cable and fiber.” (ask.com)

According to ask.com, the definition of new is “just found, discovered, or learned”

But is what is considered new actually new?

If we consider new to be the most up to date, current version of something, such as technology, using the description ‘new’ would only be used on objects created within the immediate past. Technology is advancing so rapidly that much of the ‘new’ technology becomes obsolete after a few years.

However, for the purposes of this essay, New Media is seen as the most recently developed technology that surrounds our lives; the Internet, the mobile phones, the high definition Televisions. New media has even found a way to permeate into the art sector. Nowadays, there are many artists who choose to do their art digitally. There is a growing market for the devices to produce digital art.

This can make New Media be seen as a rather exclusive, as not only is the software required to do New Media art quite expensive, but it can be rather daunting to make the required media work. Generation Y uses new Media most comfortably and many of the older generations do not have the same techno-savvy that this generation possesses. Generation Y have grown up with the technology, and generally tend to favour New Media over traditional media.

However, technology has not only affected the medium on which art is created, it has also affected art in other ways. Websites can be seen by anyone anywhere in the world. This has opened up a wide range of possibilities to artists, who are now able to advertise their artwork online and, hopefully, gain an online following. An online presence is a necessity to today’s artists.

However, technology is not just a tool of art, it is also able to shape the course that art will take. An example of this is the popularization of ‘phone films’, which is the use of mobile phones to create art (mainly in the form of films). This has only been possible due to the increase of technology and its availability to the masses. The have even have several film festivals dedicated solely towards phone film, such as the ‘Paris Pocket Film Festival’ and the ‘Mobile Phone Movie Awards Xi’an, China’. It is at film festivals like these that budding artists can get an idea of what is happening on the art scene, and be inspired by the work of other artists.

However, this is not the only way for artist interaction. The web is a major source of interactivity, due mainly to file sharing sites, such as ‘netjam’ and Oekaki.
Netjam is a website that allows its members to post a music file onto a server. These files can be worked on by other members and the new files are reposted onto the website with their edited content.
Oekaki is an online drawing forum that provides the software necessary to produce drawings. These drawings are done online, and then posted on the forum for other users to comment and provide feedback on.
These websites allow interconnection and interactivity between like-minded individuals, not only providing a place for users to gather and discuss their interests, but providing support that might not usually be available.

In general this interactivity “is all about collaboration and user controlled information: share, tag, vote and rank what is important to a user. With this process, usually the best out of many raise to the surface. The following social applications can help artists through the searching process by exploiting the collaborative filtering of many users.” (Styliaras 2008, p158) Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have the beginnings of this interactivity, however art sites allow greater sharing than the social networking sites. Art is an expression of people’s true feelings, and art sites allow people who would not normally talk to each other to communicate about a common interest.

To a limited extent this interactivity existed in traditional media, however the introduction of new media has provided artists with a greater deal of interaction. And one of the most interactive forms of New Media is Immersive Digital Environments. Immersive Digital Environments (IDE) is a form of virtual reality, in which virtual reality is defined as “a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment”. IDE are a highly evolving media and can be used for art and entertainment. IDE can come in many forms, such as a reactive environment, in which the way you move affects the environment, simulations, which are mainly used for training professionals in real life, potentially dangerous situations and not art, and virtual reality environments, in which you need the correct gear to participate in. The possibilities for artists are limitless, as with IDE they are literally able to create their own world.

Not only does new media exist in the art world, but it has significantly changed the course of art. New genres have sprung up dealing solely with new media, new methods of art appreciation have been found, and a new social network has been created.

In the words of Lev Manovitch “While New Media strengthens existing cultural forms and languages…it simultaneously opens them up for redefinition. Elements of their interfaces become separated from the types of data to which they were traditionally connected…online distribution of culture challenges traditional “off-line” formats. .. New Media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an “open source”. This opening up of cultural techniques, conventions, forms and concepts is ultimately the most promising effect of computerization.” (Manovitch 2001, p333)