carlos katastrofsky on Sun, 17 May 2009 14:43:20 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Political Work in the Aftermath of the New Media Arts Crisis |
what i am always wondering about is why the media arts field is so concerned with its media. is dealing with "new media" or "old media" an excuse for making good or bad art? IMO defining art by its media is on the same level as defining art by its subject. not getting over these definitions will result in a ghetto-situation sooner or later. the problem -IMHO- is not that media art is not recognized by the fine art world but that the fine art world is dealing with other subjects. when was the last big exhibition dealing solely with "painting" or "sculpture" you've seen? ars electronica and the others are doing that every year: "new media art" with changing subtitles. the same problem persists when new media artists and theorists insist on "politicalness" and "radicality". those terms don't say anything about certain works either, no matter which media is used in it. they only say that they may be recognised as "political" in a certain time in a certain context. but that doesn't say anything about it's "artness" either. "art doesn't become art by having specific characteristics but by a specific kind of processual reference to it." (J. Rebentisch, Aesthetik der Installation) and -please hit me hard if i'm wrong- the "fine art world" questions such things. this "eclecticism" and "cluelesness" some are claiming exist, but despite the ugly quest for the next blockbuster there is a lively scene developing things further without thinking about making "political art" or "painting". seen from this point of view i think that hans' claim "The aim should be Art, not Politics." is totally right, even if it is harshly critisized by geert. to put it bluntly: if i want to learn something about politics i would read a book with proper information about it and not go to see art that repeats the common sense that there are bad things existing in our world. i want to see art. neither new media nor politics. carlos -- http://katastrofsky.cont3xt.net http://cont3xt.net # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org