The first of this weeks posts addresses the idea of New Media in art. An art professor has implanted a camera in the back of his head, and the video recorded from this camera will be offered as part of an opening of performance art. Read more here. To me this serves as an example of New Media. Although New Media has been growing since the mid to late 20th Century, it has sprung up recently in the last decade or so in a more prominent way. As an artist, I do not have an issue with New Media, I am all for experimentation and exploration. However, I do think art is something that is meant to be understood across a variety of eras and spectrums. How will this stand up to time? After the apocalypse of the modern era, how will archeologists and art historians of the future be able to interpret this type of work? And, is it important that they do? Perhaps my understanding is biased in an unproductive way. What do you think?
The second post for this week addresses human creativity. A graphic was recently released detailing the NFL wins and losses for the season. This image was so popular it went viral. Read about that here. I think that a graphic design created spontaneously and recognized by a wide audience as useful qualifies as art. Again, as an artist I can only wish that an image I have created and posted on the internet would go viral. That would be amazing! Too often I think people perceive art as an abstract high culture activity that only the upper class understand. I believe this to be incorrect. Art is the spirit of creativity, and this graphic represents one example.
