New Media and Mainstream Contemporary Art: Toward a Hybrid Discourse?

Since the mid-1990s, new media has become an important force for economic and cultural development, establishing its own institutions, such as the ZKM, Ars Electronic Center, and Eyebeam.  Research at the intersections of art, science, and technology also has gained esteem and institutional support, as demonstrated by the Artists in Labs program (Switzerland) and the proliferation of interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs around the world.  During the same period, mainstream contemporary art experienced dramatic growth in its market and popularity, propelled by economic prosperity and the proliferation of international museums, art fairs and exhibitions from the Tate Modern to Art Basel Miami to the Shanghai Biennial.  This dynamic environment has nurtured tremendous creativity and invention by artists, curators, theorists and pedagogues in all branches.  Yet rarely does the mainstream artworld converge with the new media and art-sci artworlds.  As a result, their discourses have become increasingly divergent.

Contemporary art practice and writing are remarkably rich but often lack understanding of science or technology and the interdisciplinary artistic practices and critical discourses that are co-extensive with them.  Art-science and new media art offer valuable insights into the implications of science and technology and expand the possibilities of art. However, these discourses often display an impoverished understanding of aesthetic and theoretical developments in contemporary art, resulting in work that fails to resonate in that context.

My paper interrogates the extent to which the discourses of art-science, new media art and mainstream contemporary art are commensurable.  Is it possible to construct a hybrid discourse that offers nuanced insights into each, while laying a foundation for greater mixing between them?  What role have traditional art institutions played in fostering these divides and how can they contribute to dissolving them?  How have new means of production and dissemination altered the role of the artist, curator, and museum? What insights into larger questions of emerging art and cultural forms might be gleaned by such a rapprochement?

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