Homework #1

As someone whose knowledge of art is generally limited to Kanye West or Jay Z album liner notes, the concept of attempting to deeply conceptualize the concept of conceptual art will always leave me feeling uncomfortable at best, and equally uncomfortable at worst. But the concept of new media art can be easier to decipher than others for me because I, along with the majority of my peers, are directly involved in it, whether we know it or not.

With the podcast, what stuck out to me is the concept that the hosts discussed following the Sarah Lewis segment where the quality of the art presented is now not as big of a priority in lieu of what will get the most attention. I thought about how relatable that is on even the most basic level. If I make an occasional post to Facebook, rather than spend all of my time worrying about how funny or interesting the post will be (Which, as evidenced by this post, would clearly be “Not enough”), and will instead spend more and more time worrying about what will make it get the most likes, when to post it to get most exposure, etc. That doesn’t mean I completely remove my personality from it and post “Like if you think oxygen is a vital component to human survival”, but in a way, the component of artistic integrity has been compromised because of the ability to quantify approval. It goes along with the excerpt from the New Media in Late 20th Century Art book, where it talks about how rise and advances in technology have led to a tool for art previously used by technicians and engineers. The implementation of what is art is now becoming harder to define as the entire world is now on equal footing with theoretical equal access, and does having more, better looking art devalue it?

That also leads to the Smithsonian piece that caught my eye the most (Not literally; that would be “Monster movie”, which caused me to worry if I had downloaded a virus and feel like I had accidentally taken a psychedelic drug) was “Halo 2600”. This grabbed my attention because I’ve played Halo so much over the past 15 years that my right thumb has a permanent imprint of the Xbox’s A button, and it dealt with an interesting idea that stemmed from a novel concept. Halo’s success stemmed from its tremendous story-telling and expansive universe. It was an artistic accomplishment given what it was able to do for video games when it was released. But when Ed Fries remade the game with Atari 2600 capabilities (re: virtually non-existent), it led to another question to ponder: At what point does new media art become actual art? Does “Halo 2600” qualify as art, and if not, at what point did “devaluing” it lead to it losing its status as such? It shows that new age media art has a higher bar and expectations to reach due to the increasingly limitless possibilities.