The Evolving Role of Technology as A Creative Medium
1250 word paper on one or more of the speakers from PLASMA this semester.
Your paper must have a TITLE which is THEMATIC (ie it cannot be AKIL FLETCHER'S TALK) and related to the argument or point that your essay seeks to make about the work or ideas that the speaker or speakers presented.
You must include at least THREE QUOTATIONS from the assigned talk and readings. You may use external sources in addition (apart from Wikipedia). You must include full citations for all of the material that you reference (so MLA or Chicago style citations for all internet sources (in addition to links) -- as well as time code for quotations from presentations).
This paper should be a deeper dive into the ideas or projects of one of the speakers or treat a theme or issue that has been raised across different speakers. This should NOT be a value judgment on the speaker or speaker style -- but rather pick up an issue or thread which you want to consider and explore about the questions, character, style or context or content that these very different speakers raised in their presentations/screenings/or performances (or across the series).
Some things to consider:
How have these speakers (or a single speaker) challenged your definition of media art and media artists this semester?
What sorts of commonalities have you been able to draw between works (ie a number of artists have used 16mm in different ways)?
You may use your initial Friday response as a jumping off point but YOU CANNOT quote yourself or copy that text in this essay.
Be sure to PROOF READ YOUR ESSAY.
Reminder: this is a paper and NOT a blog post. Be sure to PROOF read for grammar and spelling and to use the 1250 words to DEVELOP a point or point in a structured way.
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The Evolving Role of Technology as A Creative Medium
One of the essential issues raised by one of the speakers from PLASMA this semester concerns the intersection of art and technology. Lindsay Caplan, one of the speakers in the assigned readings and also the author of the book Arte Programmata: Freedom, Control, and the Computer in 1960s Italy, discusses the ways technology is being employed in the art to allow audiences to see personal and collective experiences in new ways. Kaplan’s book, which is mentioned severally in the discussion, covers the evolution of technology as a creative medium in postwar Italy. The book traces the origins of Italian avant-garde’s first trials with art and technology as artistic tools to address social issues like the reconceptualization of the connection between personal freedom and collectivity. This essay will discuss the evolving role of technology as a creative medium using Caplan’s insights from the PLASMA discussion on the intersection of art and technology.
Throughout history, art has evolved in tandem with technology, not just in how art is produced but also in how it is understood, transmitted, and consumed. For instance, technology has created a setting in which art is more reachable to a broader and more assorted audience. While the intersection of art and technology may appear to be a very recent phenomenon or very American, the relationship between the two is both enduring and worldwide as art itself (Doyle and Valiulis). This fact is highlighted in the talk by Kaplan, who argues that the evolving role of technology as a creative medium can be traced to the 1960s. Not just in America but other global art hubs: “…art and technology in the 1900 sixties that it wasn’t just in New York and London. It was also happening elsewhere, making this movement much more international” (Class Reading ). One of the earliest instances of the intersection of art and technology was the Italian kinetic art of the 1960s.
In the late 1950s, Italy became a global hub of avant-garde art. Italian kinetic art was one of the phenomenal art movements to appear in Europe, with several artists like Bruno Munari, Marina Apollonio, Enzo Mari, Grazia Varisco, Alberto Biasi, and Edoardo Landi producing neo-avant-garde artworks of historical significance. This group of kinetic artists investigated the link between art, technology, and science to design interactive works that eliminated the rigid rules between the artist and the public (Camurri and Volpe). For instance, the 1964 Venice Biennale included Biasi’s light prism, which employed assorted media like electric motors, prisms, mirrors, and light to produce varying light rays that regularly appear and disappear. These experiential pieces challenged the public’s perception of art and ushered in an era of technology as a creative medium. These groundbreaking artists in postwar Italy provided the conditions for a cutting-edge approach to art production, dissemination, viewing, and defiance of easy classification.
Another reason why the kinetic art of postwar Italy is important in the conversation on the evolving role of technology as a creative medium relates to the perennial conversation about the negative effects of technology on art as a discipline. Kaplan highlights this concern in the discussion: “So if you go back to this moment also in the there are these 2 competing stories about technology. On the one side, we have the Techno Utopians. People who like technology are going to fix all of our problems…And then, on the other side, you have the techno-dystopian who are like, Well, hold on a minute. Technology is like the Vietnam War. It’s napalm” (Class Reading ). One of the biggest criticisms against the intersection of art and technology is the fetishization of art. Leading art experts have raised concerns about the uncategorizable nature of technology art. Some critics have argued that the intersection of art and technology prioritizes the value of technology art as a novelty rather than for its cultural value. Technology art can sometimes be evaluated solely by its media virility or ability to stir controversy rather than its ability to address the la...