History of New Media Art
School of Visual Arts, MFA Computer Art Dept.
Time: Friday 12:00-2:50, Sept. 14 - Dec. 20, 2007
Room 1022
Instructor: Andy Deck
This course will explore developments in 20th-century art with a focus on artists' practices that examine or embrace new circumstances in the media and technologies of their time. Related work of critics and theorists will be included. The term 'new media' will be treated broadly, including developments in film, photography, and radio, as well as the beliefs and expectations that accompanied new technologies. In the first part of the course we will focus on pre-WWII art -- the "machine aesthetic" and experiments in film, photo-collage, radio, and music. Later, we will cover post-War developments including video art, Art and Technology, interactivity, and net.art. Themes and subjects to be covered will include the changing conception of the function of art and the role of artists; the relation of mass media culture, art, entertainment, and propaganda; art as communication; intellectual property in digital culture; museums and dematerialized artworks.