| Hello out there! Thanks to Lev Manovich to start this discussion!
I also wanna make a short statement here:
Digital art is the art form of rapid change. In my opinion, not only the artistic investigation of new technologies is available as a field of work. Rather, digital art should also capture social trends, face the challenges of our daily life and function as a technological reflection of our world.
All the more, I had to note with regret that my blockchain project Konjungate (which is dealing with media art and social changes) was rejected by the moderator of softspot after published on there website: https://softspot.art/aedotartgallery (a joint venture with ars electronica) with the reason:
"Our team is from the web 3.0 space, so we're fascinated to learn about Konjungate! However, given the promotional nature of the work you submitted, we were requested by the moderators to remove them to keep the space clean for the other artwork. “
Of course, that raises questions for me as an media artist - working over 20 years in this field now... that I would like to write down and answer here:
If you think about that the development of this project started 1999 in form of my Cyber-Novel MACHFELD published online. How is it possible, that a pice of media art developed and transformed over 20 years get rejected by an international driven and well known festival (ars electronica)?
May, because it will change something in real life through art? (Namely the income of artists and art organisations.)
But wait? Isn’t it that what media art and art in general should do? Sharping the view, changing thoughts, draw attention to important issues, having an activating effect?
Not for everyone… Best, Michael Mastrototaro
—— Michael Mastrototaro MACHFELD
Max Winter Platz 21/1
1020 Vienna / Austria
Hi all,
I think I have to make a statement here as well. Digital Art is my profession since 1988, and I prefer to create art instead of talking about it. But there are lots of important points in Lev Manovich s post.
Yes, it is important to have feelings & passion in the digital art. And as a digital artist you have to prove that you can survive & stay - outside of the academic kindergarden and the festivals around it, without a professorship to pay for everything. So many „digital-/new media artists" are civil servants with 14 fixed salaries per year, doing art in their spare time.
Gary Danner & me always focussed on „Surviving in the Electronic Jungle" , Digital art is about real everyday life, when you live on it. Which includes appearing in different art and music scenes, white cubes or not at all white cubes (with more ecstatic potential)… Experimenting is necessary, Male-Female is still a topic. Life is not happening at festivals only.
The integration of digital art in the art market is so important & it is really difficult. It got a bit better the last years. In Covid-19 circumstances the art market is a challenge anyway - for all artists - and hopefully a new chance for digital art. Lots and lots of issues,
best, Elisa Rose
STATION ROSE 30.0 - The Walls of the New Systems will be Liquid catalogue with AR, published by DeGruyter 2018
"Sad by Manovich" or "Sad by Ars Electronica" ;)
Six false statements in four sentences is a lot!
"New media art never deals with human life, and this is why it does not enter museums. It's our fault. Don't blame curators or the "art world." Digital art is "anti-human art," and this is why it does not stay in history. //" ---- Geert Lovink wrote ---- URL or not but this is too good, and too important for nettimers, not to read and discuss. These very personal and relevant observations come from a public Facebook page and have been written by Lev Manovich (who is “feeling thoughtful” as the page indicates).
—
My
anti-digital art manifesto / What do we feel when we look at the
previous generations of electronic and computer technologies? 1940s TV
sets, 1960s mainframes, 1980s PCs, 1990s versions of Windows, or 2000s
mobile phones? I feel "embarrassed. "Awkward." Almost "shameful." "Sad."
And this is exactly the same feelings I have looking at 99% of digital
art/computer art / new media art/media art created in previous decades.
And I will feel the same when looking at the most cutting-edge art done
today ("AI art," etc.) 5 years from now. If consumer products
have "planned obsolescence," digital art created with the "latest"
technology has its own "built-in obsolescence." // These feelings of sadness, disappointment,
remorse, and embarrassment have been provoked especially this week as I
am watching Ars Electronica programs every day. I start wondering - did
I waste my whole life in the wrong field? It is very exciting to be at
the "cutting edge", but the price you pay is heavy. After 30 years in
this field, there are very few artworks I can show to my students
without feeling embarrassed. While I remember why there were so
important to us at the moment they were made, their low-resolution
visuals and broken links can't inspire students. // The same is
often true for the "content" of digital art. It's about "issues,"
"impact of X on Y", "critique of A", "a parody of B", "community of C"
and so on. // It's almost never about our real everyday life and
our humanity. Feelings. Passions. Looking at the world. Looking inside
yourself. Falling in love. Breaking up. Questioning yourself. Searching
for love, meaning, less alienated life.// After I watch Ars
Electronica streams, I go to Netflix or switch on the TV, and it feels
like fresh air. I see very well made films and TV series. Perfectly
lighted, color graded, art directed. I see real people, not
"ideas" and meaningless sounds of yet another "electronic music"
performance, or yet another meaningless outputs of a neural network
invented by brilliant scientists and badly misused by "artists."
New media art never deals with human life, and this is why it does not
enter museums. It's our fault. Don't blame curators or the "art world."
Digital art is "anti-human art," and this is why it does not stay in
history. // P.S. As always, I exaggerated a bit my point to
provoke discussion - but not that much. This post does reflect my real
feelings. Of course, some of these issues are complex - but after 30
years in the field, I really do wonder what it was all about) P.P.S.
The mystery of why some technology (and art made with them) has
obsolescence and others do not - thinking about this for 25 years. We
are fascinated by 19th-century photographs or 1960s ones. They look
beautiful, rich, full of emotions, and meanings. But video art from the
1980s-1990s looks simply terrible, you want to run away and forget that
you ever saw this. Why first Apple computers look cool, cute, engaged?
But art created on them does not? And so on. I still have not solved
this question. Perhaps part of this has to be with the message
that goes along with lots of tech art from the 1960s to today - and
especially today. 19th or 20th-century photographs done by professional
photographs or good amateurs do not come with utopian, pretentious,
exaggerated, unrealistic, and hypocritical statements, the way lots of
"progressive art" does today. Nor do their titles announce all latest
tech processes used to create these photographs. --------------------
Ars Electronica 2020:
https://ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/ --------------------
Video illustration: Japanese robot at Ars Electronica 2010 -
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