Television as an art form

Today, if you ask somebody if TV is an art form you will almost always get a “NO”. But was this always the case. When TV was an immerging technology it was used to make people think and inform them on the issues. Then somebody came along with the great idea too entertain people using this medium, thus TV as we know it was born. The word TV is a generalization, there are many sub categories, some with more artistic merit then others. Take for instance the BBC, a television company who thrives off of giving its audience the truth. Contrasted with a channel like SpikeTv we see that channels like this are designed for no other purpose then to entertain, which is shaky at the best of times. So then, is it possible to reignite TV as an art form? In my personal opinion I think that it is too late for TV, if you have a larger message you want to get across your best bet would lie in film. Although TV has the potential to reach a much broader audience (as every American has one) , its audience simply has no interest.

Response to Transcendent man

Here is a man who has predicted mind-boggling events for centuries, and when he says the future is cyborgs, you listen. He talks about the potential to become post-human within the next few years. While this may sound like a scary topic and it is sure to have people up in arms, there is nothing to be afraid about.  He is merely talking about improving our physical condition; if we lost a leg we can now replace it. Science is just around the corner from making innovations to reproduce organs and save thousands of lives.  But how does this relate to art? We see some artists using these technologies to preform, much like the new media craze this cyborg phase is just an emerging technology and it will take a while before we see any real tangible art being produced. At this point art and cybernetics is in the pre-production phase and it is up to a few select artists to show us the potential for this medium and create a spark that will ignite masterpieces.

Video games as an art form

In the 21^st century we see a new and rising art form. Video games, for many people, artists in particular, video games do not enter the field of art. But when we look at the quality of the artwork produced we have to ask ourselves why? For the most part, I believe that it stems from the fact that many video games don’t employ the user to think. Generating questions is a very key aspect to art, without it you just have a pretty picture. But as we see videogames advancing we see that they are able to evoke emotions from people, they are now beginning to make them think about the game as more then purely entertainment. How long before we see games whose soul purpose is not to entertain you? I believe that in the next 50 years we will begin to see games emerging with serious topics. Ones that make the viewer think, serious topics that rival those of conventional art.

graffiti as an art form

Everywhere you look today it seems like there is in one form or another graffiti .Yet in the art world graffiti is seen as some of the lowest form of art produced today. Looking at the murals you can see that this artist has poured their heart and soul into it. So then why do we look down on graffiti? I believe that it is caused by the generalization of the word. Anyone who has ever used a public bathroom can confirm that the stalls are littered with what is classified as graffiti, but this is for the most part just trash that someone drew up when they were bored and had nothing better to do. Graffiti has so much more potential then it is given credit for. It is able to reach the masses where they have with just as much power as any other art medium; as such I think it should be shown more respect from both citizens and governments alike.

Cyborgs

    Modern day cyborgs, when people hear this they think of science-fiction based cyborgs such as the T-800 (terminator robot). But just how close are we to  this today, truthfully we are centuries away from this type of technology. However we are beginning to adapt aspects of the T-800 to our everyday life. We are beginning to use cybernetics to replace limbs, give people their vision, or hearing back. We are even using it to replace the human heart. You may be asking yourself how this is possible. Through modern technology we are able to mesh mechanical wiring to the nervous system in hopes that the body will mimic the original parts function. These prosthetic limbs were originally designed and tested by the military, to give wounded soldiers their limbs back when they returned from the war. They were taken from a plastic, hinged , replica of a arm or leg and turned  into a high tech, light weight aluminum replacement limb. The hands on the prostheses could now grasp items and the legs were able to move by themselves with minimal input from the user thanks to many small motors and servos in the limbs themselves. How long will it take before we see people simply adding extra limbs for convenience, or even performance sake?

The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto by Luigi Russolo

The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto by Luigi Russolo begins by talking about sound as an art form. He begins by going over the history of sound saying that up to the 18^th century, sound was something profound, something delivered to us from the gods themselves. He continues to say that we believed this until the invention of the machine. He states that ever since the invention of the machine sound has never again taken on the same meaning. Machines produce hundreds of thousands of noises that we could never hope to reproduce ourselves, and it is because of this that sound has lost its meaning. When we look at other art forms wee see the same correlation. With art, it was the introduction of digital programs that inevitably lead to the demise of old techniques. Luigi then continues to state that we have, in the 21^st century reached the pinnacle of noise and sound. He says that we have combined noises and sounds so much throughout the ages that in todays society we have pretty well reached our limits of what is enjoyable (in respect to sound). He ends this passage by opening an invitation to new musicians just starting out, he wants them to push the limits of what is enjoyable and to as well push the limits of what is possible.

The article Plunderphonia by Chris Cutler

The article Plunderphonia by Chris Cutler begin by speaking about issues concerning copyright in terms of music. Specifically it talks about one cd Plunderponic, a cd that was comprised of old hits modified with radically different techniques. These tracks were edited to the point where the songs had been given a new meaning. This cd was completely no profit, yet you saw artists such as Michael Jackson rising up and taking action against the cd, and inevitably seeing to its destruction. Cutler continues by saying “ a recording of a recording is just a recording. No more, no less.”. This EP was created with the intention of raising awareness of the copyright laws, yet we saw it crushed and swept under the rug.  The article as well discusses the history of art and how new art forms typically take a lot from older art forms they just have to tweak it a bit. It talks about the introduction of the readymade, and the correlation it has to recording in music. The article then goes on to discuss the invention of the recorder with Edison’s cylinder, which eventually lead to the tape which sparked the need recordings in everyday life. This article brings up issues in copyright specifically relating to music and recording, and it seems as if music drew the short stick. In every art form we see evidence of copying or borrowing, they don’t simply start from nothing. Yet this is what we seem to expect out of our music, you cant simply take an old song and make it original without being labeled a complete fake. You have to come up with completely original music with original lyrics and an original beat. It does seem that now in the 21^st century people are finally beginning to wake up and realize that we don’t need complete originality in our music, thus the introduction of scratching, mixing and rapping. The article discusses the idea of scratching where dj’s take two 12” disks and simultaneously play them thanks to a highly edited turntable.

The Aestetics of failure: “post digital” tendencies in contemporary computer music by Kim Cascone

The Aestetics of failure: “post digital” tendencies in contemporary computer music by Kim Cascone begins by assessing an all to familiar quote by Marshal McLuhan “the medium is the message”, she begins by stating that although this was a good philosophy when it was thought up, in todays society it is an almost obsolete quote. She states that “the medium is no longer the message; rather, specific tools themselves have become the message” she is stating that the medium has become so much more then what we expected, it has become its own identity. She continues on to say that it is the failures of any given medium that helps them to progress. In her example she uses the Internet, stating that “…system crashes, clipping, aliasing, distortion, quantization, noise and even the noise floor of computer sound cards are the raw materials composers seek to integrate into their music.”. This however is not mutually exclusive to this medium (internet); we see in some of the most famous paintings in the world, it is some of the smallest imperfections are the thing that makes them so intriguing. For example the Mona Lisa, would it have been such a famous painting if she had a regular smile, or if it hadn’t been stolen? Doubtfully, we see time and time again that it is the small imperfections that keep people coming back to art, it makes them question the individual imperfection which leads to a discussion of the piece as a whole. She does go on to say that any work with too many imperfections can be quite easily dismissed, and so it is up to the artist to find the perfect harmony between imperfection and perfection, which admittedly is not an easy task.

Audio Culture by Ben Neil

Audio Culture by Ben Neil is an article that discusses the transition of new music in the 21^st century. This article begins by establishing what we know as old music, it points out such facts as the 4/4 tempos and the fact that old music had  “fear of the funk” which essentially means it was afraid of change.  The article then goes on to talk about the progression of new music throughout the 70’s and 80’s and how they broke the conventional molds put on music. Ben speaks about new artists using this 4/4 tempo not classically, but rather to use “4/4 time as a vehicle for a wide range of compositional ideas and innovations”. It is quite ironic that we see this occurring in music. As when we look to art, we see that new media artists are doing exactly the same thing. They are taking old techniques and tweaking them to fit into a 21^st century ideology. However much like in art, in music, these new ideas come in the thousands, yet only a select few are able to hold the test of time. He as well speaks about the ways in which technology is making older forms of music generation obsolete.  He begins to explain that in our society more people are picking up a computer then those who are picking up a guitar.  He then goes on to talk about those artists who are constantly pushing the envelope; specifically he talks about an individual named Squarepusher. He talks about how this artist is pushing what is possible by pushing music to the limits of what is enjoyable.  This particular artist is working with hyper-speed beats that exceeded 200 B.P.M.  This music was not meant to dance too, but rather was created to make you feel something different. He did achieve this through synesthesia. The audience was feeling the beat at the same time they were listening to it. Finally Ben talks about the development of technology and explains that people are flocking towards new technologies and not older methods of sound production not due to accessibility but rather due to advancement in the fields of technology. While instruments will remain exactly the same the entire time you possess them, technology doesn’t. Technology is ever changing and ever improving, and it is because of this that we see people flocking to these newer technologies every day

Performances in cyberspace by Gunter Berahzos

Performances in cyberspace by Gunter Berahzos begins by talking about the emergence of the digital culture, specifically he references computer art and video. He tracks the evolution of computer art, beginning with sound and ending with the motion picture. He states that “…thousands of artists who had abandoned the easel or stage in order to focus their creativity on cyberart. “. He is talking about the shift that occurred when we saw the emergence of the computer as an art form. He discusses the reasoning behind many of these artists’ transitions to the computer. Saying that many of them switched over because they saw rapid development in the field, mixed with unlimited artistic possibilities. While this is mainly true, we see that computer artists are held back by the programs available to them, and the programs themselves are only as creative as the person behind them.  He then discusses the viewer participation in this new digital age of art. Stating that this new form of art thrived off of this viewer participation and that no other medium was able to facilitate this kind of interaction. He then goes on to talk about virtual realities and the reasoning’s behind people using them. Stating that for the most part people don’t like the life they are handed, as such we see thousands of individuals going to VR games to create a “new life” for themselves.  He then discusses the context of videogames in this mash of new art movements, stating that they walked hand in hand with VR since 1990, and that games are able to foster a desire to improve which has advanced the technology of the time leading to improvements in other aspects of new media art. Finally he goes on to speak about post humanism and how 10% of the western world is now a cyborg. He states that we have become so heavily dependent on this new technology that if it were to be taken away, we would simply perish and float off into the abyss. He as well speaks about the potential benefits to this increased reliability on technological advances stating that they could one day improve the quality of life for everyone worldwide.