[-empyre-] 'new media' -> future

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

There will continue to be 'new media' created, over time, but it seems
likely the relation of them to the digital will be strong. Because a
computer is a machine that can be any machine. A new medium generally
involves some machine or machines. The camera. The audio recording device.
The press. Etc/whatever. The way that machines are built, these days, is
intimately tied to the computer for all sorts of reasons ranging from
economics to integration in the communications infrastructure to the design
flexibility of programmable media.

There will be exceptions to this, and probably significant ones, but this is
the general direction of new media heading into the future, is it not? Brett
mentioned that computing has had its influence on most fields. This is not a
fad that is about to change. It will only deepen over time.

Politically, look what the schism between the arts and the sciences has
achieved over the last hundred years. Lots of weapons that kill with the
utmost efficiency, and a schism between the arts and sciences that is
present both in the cultures of the world and in peoples' heads. How many
people can both do math/science and the arts? This division is not a natural
cognitive division; it is a cultural division. What if there were more
integration of arts and sciences, to the point where the aspiration of
students in Computer Science or Mathematics, say, might not be to do weapons
research or general widget research but to work on projects that were
generally the result of building a scientific/artistic culture in which
there was more emphasis on projects for the benefit and delight of humanity?

Sure, there can be 'new media' that don't use the computer. The more the
better. But let's not lose sight of the big picture of what a field of 'new
media' concerned with the digital is about, politically. Not only is it
about cross-fertilization within the arts, but is toward a synthesis of the
cultures of art and science. I think it was Aristotle who said that the end
of education is the integration of our intellectual and emotional responses
to life.

ja
http://vispo.com