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As accessibility and understanding of electronic media grows, its use by artists becomes more widespread. Yet the art world, both critically and practically, was initially slow to accept this emergence - new technology is potentially alienating and esoteric. Edward A. Shanken gives a lucid evaluation of the subject, contextualizing it in a broader art-historical and political framework. A comprehensive survey, his essay also addresses the reaction, development and future of artistic practice in the face of new technology, and how art can 'humanize and mythologize' science. Divided into seven thematic sections, the book follows a broadly chronological approach. The seven sections of this survey include: light, space, motion, time which lays the foundations in the early twentieth century, artists introduced motion and light into their work, defying the traditional concept of art as static, lit object - the jump-off point for interactive art incorporating digital media; Coded Form and Electronic Production which shows how the emergence of computer graphics and electronic photocopying (1950s and 1960s), and high resolution digital photography, printing and rapid prototyping (1980s and 1990s) expanded the possibilities for artistic production and reproduction, challenging notions of originality and creativity; Simulation and Simulacra which describes the interactive exchanges allowed by virtual reality, engaging audiences with simulated forms and environments, playing on the trompe-l'oeil verisimilitude of art history. Sections also include Electronic Environments which is distinctly different from virtual reality outlines performances enacted in electronic environments that enable audience feedback to influence the unfolding of various elements or demonstrate the politicized contexts in which the media (and the mass media in particular) operate. This work also includes sections such as: Networks, Surveillance, Culture Jamming which discusses public access cable television, satellite transmissions, and especially the union of computers and telecommunications, and how these have led to exchange, transfer and collaborative creation; Bodies, Surrogates, and Emergent Systems which questions the distinction between real and artificial, as artists join their bodies (and/or those of their audiences) with electronic media, creating cyborgs and robots in order to examine human existence; and, Exhibitions, Institutions and Communities which looks at how technical requirements and financial overheads demand close collaboration between artists, scientists and engineers, shaping production, reception and historicization.
About the Author
Edward A. Shanken is Universitair Docent in New Media, University of Amsterdam, and a member of the Media Art History faculty at the Donau University in Krems, Austria. He was formerly Executive Director of the Information Science + Information Studies program at Duke University and Professor of Art History and Media Theory at Savannah College of Art and Design. He writes and teaches about the entwinement of art, science, and technology with a focus on interdisciplinary practices involving new media. He edited Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness (University of California Press, 2003).
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
From the Posthistorical to the Future
24 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
What stands out most for me about this book is how, even though it is a review of twentieth-century art, it is the best book I have read to date that offers an exciting perspective on where art can go from there. The book was almost published a few years ago and again a year or so ago. I started to wonder if it would ever get published. The delay appears to be a desire to contextualize up through 2008, to show what the concepts in the twentieth century led to. This is likely because art in 2008, especially electronic media, was being conceived of from the early twentieth century and has, in some cases, only fully manifested itself now. People imagined communicating the way we do now in 2009 long before we had the technology to build an Internet, post home videos, and make use of virtual reality, a term coined in the early twentieth century.
The common thread with the art covered in this book is that it all makes use of electricity in some form. It covers computers, robotics, biotechnology, even body and performance art. Much of it, although not all of it, deals with communication processes. Of course, all of it deals with communication, as that is what art is about.
Another thing that stands out for me is how the written material in this book covers the end of the twentieth century. Much as I have found Art in Theory 1900 - 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas to be an amazing book, the essays at the very end not only do not cover the material in this book, they are among the weakest in that book. So, I recommend this book for its superior coverage of the turn of the 20th/21st century. Posthistorical theory may have merit, but it can have an implied fatalism that this book correctly circumvents, offering instead an inspiring, optimistic view of the still uncharted possibilities for art.
No competent contemporary art history program will be complete without this sort of material. Traditional mediums will continue to be used, but the period where it was cool to be snobbish towards television and other electronic mediums is now dated and irrelevant. All of the books in the Themes and Movements series are fantastic. But this is the best one to date to pull you into the future and not merely fetish the past.
For current developments, Leonardo is suggested by the book. The journal covers issues related to the development of the arts and sciences and how these two disciplines relate to one another. I would recommend reading this book first and then deciding if a subscription is in order as the journal does not lend itself to mere passive reading.
The common thread with the art covered in this book is that it all makes use of electricity in some form. It covers computers, robotics, biotechnology, even body and performance art. Much of it, although not all of it, deals with communication processes. Of course, all of it deals with communication, as that is what art is about.
Another thing that stands out for me is how the written material in this book covers the end of the twentieth century. Much as I have found Art in Theory 1900 - 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas to be an amazing book, the essays at the very end not only do not cover the material in this book, they are among the weakest in that book. So, I recommend this book for its superior coverage of the turn of the 20th/21st century. Posthistorical theory may have merit, but it can have an implied fatalism that this book correctly circumvents, offering instead an inspiring, optimistic view of the still uncharted possibilities for art.
No competent contemporary art history program will be complete without this sort of material. Traditional mediums will continue to be used, but the period where it was cool to be snobbish towards television and other electronic mediums is now dated and irrelevant. All of the books in the Themes and Movements series are fantastic. But this is the best one to date to pull you into the future and not merely fetish the past.
For current developments, Leonardo is suggested by the book. The journal covers issues related to the development of the arts and sciences and how these two disciplines relate to one another. I would recommend reading this book first and then deciding if a subscription is in order as the journal does not lend itself to mere passive reading.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Very good condition, pretty fast
11 Dec 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I needed this book for a class. it came in pretty fast and in very good condition. It had a thin layer of plastic protecting it. It is a really good book if you are interested in the history of Electronic Art. Really beautiful images and pretty concise descriptions that help you start further research on the artist. Wish there were more Asian Artist
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