RE: [-empyre-] ~~NMR

[noah wardrip-fruin <noah@queeg.com>]

At 2:03 AM -0800 13/1/04, Jim Andrews wrote:
> Does 'new media' as you and Noah conceive it involve a different relation
> between technological innovation and art? Or is the relation between
> technological innovation and art in computing-based new media the same as
> the relation between technical innovation and art in more traditional art?

I've been thinking about this, and I'd say that 'new media' - as Nick 
and I understood it for the NMR - encompasses an extremely broad 
range of practices. In some of these technological innovation and art 
are pursued simultaneously. In other work, only one is pursued. There 
are things that overlap with new media (such as the Critical 
Technical Practices mentioned earlier) which require that both 
technological innovation and another practice are pursued 
simultaneously - but 'new media,' as I understand the term, doesn't 
specify this.

That said, I think new media programs (again, 'new media' as Nick and 
I see it) should involve at least an introductory level of computer 
science - just as they should involve at least an introductory level 
of theoretical and historical work, as well as work in 
media/art/design - for students pursuing any area of specialty. The 
problem, of course, is that most introductory computer science 
sequences are aimed at people who are interested in CS for its own 
sake, and it can be a challenge for new media students to understand 
the connection between CS and their work. But an appropriate 
introduction, if one could be designed, would help students better 
understand what underlies the work of others creating new media, help 
them collaborate more effectively with those trained in computer 
science, begin to open to them ways of working with code 
expressively, and so on. While some might resist the creation and 
teaching of such an introduction, I think it's just as important as 
teaching new media students the history of new media and its 
predecessors in science and art rather than offering them only some 
general history of technology.

Noah