New Media In Art 82-103 Response

It's interesting to read about the early "guerrilla" style reporters and activists who infiltrated events like political conventions with handheld video cameras. Today, almost anyone can participate in this kind of impromptu journalism, as video cameras exist on every cell phone. It seems as if these early pioneers of alternative news broke into a world that was otherwise very private and exclusive, and created a sense of accountability and transparency that we expect from news media today.

The author also discussed further the definition of Art. He refers to the way video artists differ from documentarians or news reporters in that although the latter might create things in an artful way, their intent, unlike video artists, is not to create art. This was similar to my thinking that readymades, like the ones created by Marcel Duchamp, separate the object from their original use into an art form. The intent of the artist is what makes this separation. Further, just as Duchamp separated objects from their original purpose, video artists separated televisions from content that was generally commercially driven.

Artists like Max Almy had surprising foresight when it comes to how humans communicate with one another in the digital age. Even in the 1980's, Almy could see that technology could cause humans to be dehumanized and unable to communicate with one another. Vito Acconci's performances also foreshadow the highly narcissistic videos we see all over social media today, where, with the use of cell phone cameras, everyone can be the star of their own "one man show".

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