Posted: September 13th, 2017

Art Media

Art Media

Project description
Alternative art can be generally defined as artworks made outside the traditional media. Alternative media includes video, digital media, conceptual art, performance art, sound art, and installations. Alternative art often asks us, as viewer to interact with and sometimes complete the work of art and begs us to think beyond the traditional notions of what constitutes art.
For this assignment, you are asked to interact with a work of digital interactive art. Select one or two of the artworks described below and then write a one-and-a-half- to two-page (1.5-2) essay response to your experience interacting with this digital work of art. Responses may be based in personal opinion, but should address some combination of the following questions. Which artwork did you select? How would you describe the experience of interacting with this artwork? In your opinion, what is the purpose of this specific artwork? Is it commenting on an aspect of contemporary life? If so, what aspect and what is it saying? How might you compare interacting with this artwork to other activities you perform on the Internet? What makes the site visited a work of art compared to those other daily activities? Has your opinion of what constitutes art changed since the start of this class? How so?

ARTWORKS YOU MAY SELECT FROM
Inaki Bonillas, Words and Photos (2003) http://awp.diaart.org/bonillas/
For this Dia Artist Web Project commission, Bonillas is digitizing the [photo] archive, while simultaneously creating an extensive index of associated words that mirrors the image database. The relation between these two levels unfolds as the visitor explores the possibilities of matching text and image.
Lisi Raskin, Warning Warum (2009) http://awp.diaart.org/raskin/
For her first web-based artwork, Warning Warum, Lisi Raskin presents visitors with the ability to virtually detonate an atomic bomb at an address of their choice. The mapping functionality included in Raskin’s project was once available on the web as part of a PBS website for the 1999 film “Race for the Superbomb.” The website still exists, but the mapping function was removed post 9-11, a time which marked a shift from Cold War nuclear fears to the fears of nuclear bombs in the hands of terrorists.
Rosa Barba, Vertiginous Mapping (2008) http://awp.diaart.org/barba/
For Vertiginous Mapping, her first web-based project, Rosa Barba draws upon a collection of film, images, texts, and audio that she compiled and created while on a residency in Sweden in the Spring of 2008, weaving together facts and footage with fabricated elements to invite the viewer on a pleasantly perplexing journey through a fictionalized country named Forgotten.
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Agent Ruby (2002) http://agentruby.sfmoma.org/
An artificial intelligent web agent that is shaped by and reflective of encounters and adventures that it has with users, and will be seeded to user servers through a site of origin or birth. Ruby chats with users, remember users questions, ultimately be able to recognize their voice and have moods and emotions. Her mood may also be affected directly by web traffic.