New Media & Visual Culture

• Emergence of new technologies
• Before the invention of the Internet, McLuhan said that the world is now like a village, connected by mass communication
• In 1450 printing techniques developed, so that people didn't have to print only using wood blocks. Printed material slowly becomes available to masses
• Newspapers and books become a circulation of knowledge and information
• Computers become vehicles for the consumption and production of material. They have changed the way we exist, and the way we engage with information
• Will the 'reader' be the end of books?
• You can now read newspaper stories online, which contain forums so people can discuss the article, and challenge it. There is a shift in power from the editor to the reader.
• New technology is democratic, allowing us to shape and change the information we receive
• There is a false sense of freedom and control with this new technology, where you can get lost in the hyperspace information
• Several senses are stimulated with hypermedia, but there are hazards, as too much on the page can be dizzying
• Books force us to engage in a way that the Internet doesn't, as you can so easily skip through with hyperlinks
• A small group of people control the information given out to a large amount of people on a web page
• A con with new this is that there is no presence between the communicator and audience, it depersonalises the experience
• Also, new technology allows for superficiality, such as 'reality' programmes such as X factor
• TV Voting gives the illusion of control
• Viewer call ins seem as if there is true interaction, but in reality, producers can cut off the caller whenever they want
• There are pro's with new technology too - more people can access information now it is mass spread
• It is democratic, also it means art is no longer elitist
• The Benetton campaign traded on images of unity, black and white people together, horror, clothes of shot solider, exposing HIV. The adverts are not socially controlling, they are more about politics than advertising.
• Leeds 13 Scam - A group of art students pretended that they used their university grant for a drinking holiday and leaked the story to a newspaper. They used mass media to gain status.
• Pollock's art is about aesthetic freedom, not about politics and without an agenda. However, there is a conspiracy story that the CIA paid him to paint these images that gave the illusion of independence in art to show Russia that capitalism was best.
• Picasso used and exploited mass media
• Lichtenstein made comic book images, which were regarded as a lesser form of art, sophisticated. He presented this art form to the elitist.
• There was a backlash against pop art, it was criticised with the mass media, as pop art was a challenge to the elitist value system.
• Warhol's prints of Marilyn Monroe are not just pop art images of the famous celebrity, there is much more to them. He has used her as a commodity, as she was represented as being like a product. The print of the Marilyn's is the same style as Warhol's print of Coca Cola bottles - another commodity. The colours used in the Marilyn print aren't realistic art colours, as this image is anti aesthetic.
• Once repeated, shocking images lose their value. Repetition causes indifference.