New Media History and Theory Randall Packer

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Research Critique: Cybernetics, Nam June Paik and Magnet TV

Pohsuan

Tuesday, Jan 30, 2018 - 06:16:10 am

@ The Studies of Art, Media and I Have Never Discovered

Cybernetics

In 1948, Norbert Wiener derived this word from a Greek word, cybernēticḗ (meaning governance), and defined as “the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine” in his essay. Nam June Paik described the impact of it as “the exploration of boundary regions between and across various existing sciences”1. Yet, Ascott suggested that the spirit of cybernetics “offers Read more →

Categories: Research

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Randall Packer

Jan 30, 2018 - 12:31:42 pm

Excellent. I thought your opening paragraph very nicely framed our study of cybernetics, interactivity, communication, and the impact on the artwork. I am glad to see that you investigated deeply enough to discover that Magnet TV is indeed an interactive artwork and is meant to be manipulated in real-time. Too often, actually most of the time, the work is shown as a static object in museums, but as you illustrate both visually and textually, the work demonstrates a behavioural response as described by Roy Ascott.

Research Critique: Robert Rauschenberg, "Soundings", 1968

JP

Monday, Jan 29, 2018 - 11:58:03 pm

@ JP's ADM journey

Soundings is a 36 by 8 foot voice responsive object by Robert Rauschenberg.

The construction consists of nine eight-foot high units, three layers deep of plexiglass panels. The outer panels are silvered. When the observer enters the room in which the construction is installed, he sees his own reflection in the silvered panels. The work is electronically Read more →

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Randall Packer

Jan 30, 2018 - 12:37:02 pm

Very good, and I am very impressed that you introduced the "silent" works by Cage and Rauschenberg. I think you might have more specifically described why these works are interactive. Two main reasons come to mind: they both interact with the environment, one visually, one aurally, by incorporating light (and dust) and ambient sound respectively. But also, they do interact with the viewer, in a more abstract way then the cybernetic, by allowing the viewer to "fill in" the content with their own imagination and perception, where there is no real content provided. Good description of Soundings but it would have also been useful to introduce ideas found in the essay by Norbert Wiener.

Class 2 Reading Assignment Vocabulary

Vanessa

Saturday, Jan 27, 2018 - 05:28:10 pm

@ When art meets technology!

cybernetics /sʌɪbəˈnɛtɪks/ noun. the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. Origin 1940s: from Greek kubernētēs ‘steersman’, from kubernan ‘to steer’. Use over time for: cybernetics

automaton /ɔːˈtɒmət(ə)n/ noun plural noun: automata – a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being. “a collection of 19th century French automata: acrobats, clowns, and musicians” – a machine which performs a range of functions according to a predetermined set of coded instructions. “sophisticated Read more →

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Randall Packer

Jan 30, 2018 - 12:38:32 pm

Excellent documentation of definitions. Great use of OSS!

Research Critique: Nam June Paik, "Magnet TV", 1964

Vanessa

Saturday, Jan 27, 2018 - 05:25:17 pm

@ When art meets technology!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-TsvjJAfmg

Nam June Paik, MAGNET TV, 1965

An altered television set combined with a magnet sitting on top is unlike the majority of artworks back then. It is not an autarchy. This screen does not broadcast fixed programme but shows a crooked moving abstract image, that can be manipulated at will.

Norbert Wiener’s 1954 essay “ Read more →

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Pohsuan

Jan 30, 2018 - 03:43:47 am

I very like the diagram you drew, it is fairly clear to understand what the meaning of Cybernetics in your perspective for readers. Especially for a lazy person(like me), Diagram can effectively organize the key points of a paragraph or description.

SEUNG

Jan 30, 2018 - 10:46:20 am

After I read your post, it reminds me of another artwork of Nam June Paik. This artwork is installed in National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea. Because of the lack of mechanical parts that aren't produced anymore, MMCA decided to turn off the work for its conservation.

Nam June Paik, 다다익선(多多益善), 1988

Is it the fate of the machinery artwork? Or maybe it is the fate of all kinds of artwork that stored under the museum for conservation. And we can only see the images of true artworks on the Internet. Nam June Paik, 다다익선(多多益善), 1988

Vanessa

Jan 30, 2018 - 10:55:51 am

Thanks Pohsuan. This is a fairly engineering approach when trying to make sense and streamline a theory. It is quite simplified though.

Vanessa

Jan 30, 2018 - 11:10:23 am

There are many institutions these days have departments that particularly deal with the conservation of new media works, like MoMA and guggenheim's media conservation lab. It's interesting to think about how much does replacing parts of the hardware of the system change the identity of the work, as in the question of identity posed by the Ship of Theseus. If a wire is replaced to make the hardware work again, is it still the original work? What if more wires are replaced? How about replacing oscilloscopes, picture tubes, receptors? What if the magnet has to be replace?

SEUNG

Jan 30, 2018 - 11:27:24 am

It seems like people are trying to keep artworks alive, even it already doesn't work or exist at some point. As you mentioned, we can think about the originality of work. If all the parts of the work are replaced, which one is more original? the work replaced new parts or video with low resolution that really worked at that time when it was first made?

Randall Packer

Jan 30, 2018 - 12:43:31 pm

Great discussion! Vanessa, you have led me to think about Magnet TV in a slightly different way. Yes, it was originally intended to be manipulated by the viewer, however most museums treat it as a static object, because of course they are afraid it will be broken! Yet at the same time, there is another aspect to the interaction here, which is between the magnet itself and the television. The magnetic properties are operating on the television signal, causing the distortion. This combined with the viewer's movement of the magnet, then introduces a degree of motion or even animation. So you essentially have two different kinds of interactivity: human-machine, and machine-machine, both of which are relevant to our study of cybernetics. Let's discuss further. Excellent piece.

What Is My Aspect of Multimedia

Pohsuan

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 01:43:44 pm

@ The Studies of Art, Media and I Have Never Discovered

Forward

In my perspective, multimedia is defined as a culture and aesthetics communication based on the technological medium. It could be also regarded as a collaboration between artists and scientists. In the overture of this book, the author introduced the evolution of multimedia from World War II (the first computer produced) to twentieth century artists’ efforts (visual arts, performance and so Read more →

Categories: Research

Tags: history | meme | multinmedia

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Randall Packer

Jan 23, 2018 - 02:14:59 pm

Very interesting comment about the meme as a carrier of image through multiple media and via networks. Yes, generally multimedia does in fact refer to multiple media, but I like your observation that a multiplicity of "meanings" can also be a consideration. In future posts, be sure to incorporate specifics from the readings, as you did partially with the first computer, the ENIAC.

Imagine the art of the future, mutimedia

SEUNG

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 01:27:53 pm

@ Seung hyun Kim

Even before analyzing the word or the history of “multimedia”, I have pre-conception. Whenever I saw the multimedia or interactive art exhibited in Seoul, there were always some problems. The works supposed to move were stopped because of the safety problem or sometimes even the artists just left them because they couldn’t fix it during the exhibition. And if Read more →

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Chloe

Jan 23, 2018 - 01:53:23 pm

I like your concept "prosumer", an common issue in communication studies to discuss about all participants on the Internet. Everyone has their own right to decide the story's lines and outcome, blurring the boundaries between the producers and the consumers!

Randall Packer

Jan 23, 2018 - 02:29:24 pm

Excellent! You have already moved into concepts that are important extensions of the fundamental concepts of integration, interactivity, etc. The blurring of boundaries between artist and viewer, or artist and audience is a key idea, and one we will talk extensively about throughout the semester. Today in fact, we will discuss the idea of the Happening, which Billy Klüver was closely related to, and the Homage to New York is essentially a kind of Happening or performance work. This history of new media has in fact, not necessarily been the death of the artist, but rather the changing role of the artist, as well as the viewer. The artist may give up control, but the overall design or concept of an interactive work is an important, evolving aspect of the artistic role in interactive media art. Now maybe your experience in Korea with broken down media artworks could be more closely aligned with the idea of the death of the artist or the artwork. I have known that predicament all too well!

Kapi

Jan 23, 2018 - 04:45:28 pm

One of the biggest challenges facing creatives today is that they are fast becoming divorced from the technological advancements that are coming along with each passing day. It really requires more effort on the part of creatives to stay updated. Perhaps it would be beneficial for technologists and creatives to re-establish the relationships that Klüver had with artists to push for better integration and interfacing between technology and art.

My Learning from Overture

JP

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 11:00:42 am

@ JP's ADM journey

The Overture essay briefly describes a long ‘secret history’ of multimedia which includes the birth of multimedia, the pioneer activities promoting the development of multimedia, as well as the future of multimedia. These parts of contents provide a new understanding of the concept and history of multimedia for me, for example, I never realized that the origins of Read more →

Categories: Research

Tags: history | multimedia | Summary | WWW

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Vanessa

Jan 23, 2018 - 11:36:59 am

It's interesting how most of us think WWW marks the birth of multimedia, and failed to further investigate that what WWW brought to the world - presentation means of a collective of media - has long before been achieved by the various premodern attempts.

Randall Packer

Jan 23, 2018 - 02:35:28 pm

I really appreciate your discovery process: beginning with the Web as a key origin of multimedia, only to discover that the Web in fact has its own history of ideas and concepts that led to it. I think a lot of people would look at the Web as a starting point, certainly it is in terms of the mainstream embrace of networked multimedia. However, when we consider that Tim Berners-Lee drew his inspiration from the Ted Nelson's concept of the hyperlink, and that Ted Nelson drew his inspiration from the "trail of associations" of Vannevar Bush, we have a much better idea of how these technological ideas evolve. Not only does it give us a sense of history, but it also deepens our understanding of what multimedia actually is.

Thinking afresh about multimedia

Vanessa

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 10:43:31 am

@ When art meets technology!

In the overture of the book, Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, 2001, the authors presented that multimedia experience dates way back, to as early as 15000 BCE of the cave paintings of Lascaux. And the theory of multimedia has been established in 1849 by Wagner as “Gesamtkunstwerk”, or “Total Artwork”.

My initial encounter with the Read more →

Categories: Research

Tags: e.a.t. | gesamtkunstwerk | multimedia | multimedia theory | Richard Wagner

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Jan 23, 2018 - 12:57:58 pm

I also remember clearly about the Multimedia Classroom where is the place that I thought I can play the computer in my childhood. It is impressive and really broaden my understanding that you think the Japanese tea ceremony and the Chinese Yuefu as a genre of multimedia which follows the concept of Wagner’s artistic synthesis but happens before it. And last, thank you for your sharing :D

Randall Packer

Jan 23, 2018 - 02:49:08 pm

Thank you Vanessa for sharing your evolution of multimedia history from the classroom to examples of the Japanese tea ceremony, etc. Yes, that is my intent as we begin this class to expand our thinking well beyond computing into the realm of the synthesis of artistic forms and multi-sensory experience. Your comment about how human beings will be more at the center of the mediated experience has already blossomed through networked technology in particular, in which communication and social interaction constitute the primary subject matter. We will be discussing this idea extensively throughout the semester.

Kapi

Jan 23, 2018 - 04:40:38 pm

It seems especially recently that the term multimedia has become heavily tied to technology. Perhaps its because only of late that "multimedia" has grown to see it's full potential with the aid of technology. Interdisciplinary works have been around for a really long time and may be great early examples of multimedia but as with all things in the art and technology space, definitions are constantly being challenged and updated. Human centric design really seems to be the best way forward in terms of creating future multimedia experiences.

My Understanding of Multimedia

Chloe

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 10:40:40 am

@ I see Technology in Art

In my view, I regard multimedia as a pure medium that combines sound, images carrying nothing meaningful. However, after I read the content in the overture part, it surprised me that the meaning of multimedia is not just a tool, but also a carrier that loads the creativity and intelligence of human beings, and a breakthrough that changes the inherent Read more →

Categories: Research

Tags: art | collective intelligence | multimedia

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SEUNG

Jan 23, 2018 - 01:42:13 pm

I also had a preconception about multimedia art. It's really interesting that how many people (maybe just around me) don't think about the historical and aesthetical basement of multimedia technology and art, even multimedia is a very prevalent notion these days.

Randall Packer

Jan 23, 2018 - 03:00:09 pm

Fascinating Chloe! I find it remarkable how you transitioned from viewing multimedia purely as a technological platform, to multimedia as a medium through we experience a variety of artistic forms, including opera. You expressed that transition in the most interesting way and I would like to have you share that observation in class discussion. I think that your perception of multimedia is quite common, and in fact, it is a perception that I found prevalent in the technology industry when I was first researching my book. I found that people thought that multimedia began with the CD-ROM, and quite surprisingly, the disc and the format, but not so much even the content! So as we look back on the various historical achievements, we find an ever-expanding world of multimedia influences. And yes you are right, it does seem to be a deeply human need, as we see with the prehistoric cave paintings, to recreate the world according to the senses and our understanding of reality.

My History of Multimedia

SEUNG

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 - 09:52:15 am

@ Seung hyun Kim

The history of multimedia begins with the Korean shaman ceremony.

Categories: Research

Tags: ceremony | history | multimedia | shaman

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