New media art

genre 1960s-present United States Europe

New media art is an umbrella term for artworks made with electronic media technologies, from video and computer graphics to internet art, interactive installation, sound, robotics, and 3D printing. It grew out of 1960s experiments - video art, cybernetic sculpture, and early computer art - and expanded as personal computing, the web, and digital fabrication matured. Unlike traditional media, new media works are often time-based, interactive, networked, or generative, and they frequently turn on the technologies themselves: surveillance, mediation, virtuality, and the flow of information. Because the category names a means of production rather than a single look, its appearance varies wildly from artist to artist, but its practitioners share a habit of treating the medium - the screen, the code, the signal - as subject matter rather than a neutral support.

This interactive project shows local, cultural and linguistic differences, but also how cities are becoming increasingly similar and interch
This interactive project shows local, cultural and linguistic differences, but also how cities are becoming increasingly similar and interchCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Marc Lee) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Time-based and processual: works unfold in duration (video, animation, generative systems) rather than standing still
  • Interactive or participatory structures that respond to the viewer's input
  • The medium as message: screens, code, and signals treated as subject matter
  • Networked, distributed forms - web art, telematic and telepresence pieces
  • Hybrid installation combining image, sound, light, and sculptural objects
  • Immaterial, reproducible output: files, streams, and editions rather than unique objects

Key figures

  • Nam June Paik (1932-2006) — Korean-American founder of video art who bent television into sculpture and performance
  • Vera Molnár (1924-2023) — Hungarian pioneer of computer art and generative geometry, working in Paris
  • Bill Viola (1951-2024) — American video artist known for slow, monumental explorations of perception and mortality
  • Roy Ascott (1934-) — British artist and theorist of cybernetic, telematic (networked) art

Example works

Sources

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