Brought to you by artists

Throughout modern history, innovations in media technologies have radically altered way artists create and distribute their work. This evolution has allowed artists to create deeply personal expressive work about their lives, loves, and political values all topics that mainstream media would rarely address.

This evolution began in the mid 1950’s when smaller lighter and cheaper film cameras were invented. Artists could now create feature-length films without studio constraints. François Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer were notable directors who developed their own more expressive style of filmmaking based from these innovations.

In late 1960’s artists began to experiment with analog video. This technology was cheaper to access, allowed for longer takes, and had the novelty of instant playback. Artists such as Andy Worhol, Nam Jun Paik, and Wolf Vostell are just a few of these artists who first pushed the boundaries of this medium. Their work was often regarded as controversial for its graphic images or its overtly political subject matter. As a result, the distribution of their work was often limited to a handful of contemporary galleries, since no television channel would broadcast their work.

The Internet greatly altered the way artists created and distributed their work. From the mid 90’s to the present day, artists have utilized the Internet capabilities as a tool for art, distribution and social networking. Furthermore, the interactive capabilities of the Internet have allowed artists to create work that viewers can watch and participate in. For example South African artists Nathaniel Stern, together with American artist Scott Kildall have created a mock-Wikipedia web page called wikipediaart.org. It is an online art encyclopedia that artists and art lovers can edit, comment, and forum for internet copyright. This piece work was intended to be part of Wikipedia site but was blocked because their editing process did not comply with Wikipedia’s copyright policy.

Spain’s Antoni Abad helps handicapped people in Geneva and Barcelona. On his web site www.zexe.net he has created a network to make it easier for handicapped people to get around the city easier. On the site are pictures that people have taken of obstacles that may get in their way.

Today artists have the ability to produce almost any kind of work they desire and display on the Internet to thousands of people at minimal or no charge. Furthermore, there is statistical evidence that more people view online art then visit galleries, according to Jon Ippolito of the New York Digital Salon. Advances in technology have changed art, both in production and distribution. Unfortunately, technical advances can render older digital art works obsolete. While museums such as SFMOMA are currently researching archival techniques to preserve digital and online art there is no way that they can catalog all the millions of online. So even though artists have greater freedom to create and distribute art, the work that they create comes with a life span much shorter to that of a painting in a gallery or a role of film on a shelf.

Related Links,

Film History- French and New Wave Cinema

http://foreignfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/film_history_french_new_wave

The Video Art History Achive

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/videoart/

Web Work a History of Video Art

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_9_38/ai_65649375/

New Yorks Digital Salon

http://www.nydigitalsalon.org/10/essay.php?essay=6