Reflecting the dynamic creativity of its subject, this definitive guide spans the evolution, aesthetics, and practice of todays digital art, combining fresh, emerging perspectives with the nuanced insights of leading theorists.Showcases the critical and theoretical approaches in this fast-moving disciplineExplores the history and evolution of digital art; its aesthetics and politics; as well as its often turbulent relationships with established institutionsProvides a platform for the most influential voices shaping the current discourse surrounding digital art, combining fresh, emerging perspectives with the nuanced insights of leading theoristsTackles digital arts primary practical challenges how to present, document, and preserve pieces that could be erased forever by rapidly accelerating technological obsolescenceUp-to-date, forward-looking, and critically reflective, this authoritative new collection is informed throughout by a deep appreciation of the technical intricacies of digital art

Christiane Paul is Associate Professor in the School of Media Studies at the New School, New York, USA, and also Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Prof. Paul is a noted curator who oversees the Whitneysartport website and has for more than a decade conceived and administered the museums new media exhibitions, including Data Dynamics (2001), Profiling (2007), and Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools (2011). Other curatorial work includes The Public Private (Kellen Gallery, The New School, 2013); Biennale Quadrilaterale (Rijeka, Croatia, 2009-10); Feedforward - The Angel of History (LABoral, Spain, 2009); and INDAF Digital Art Festival (Incheon, Korea, 2009). She is the author ofDigital Art (2003),New Media in the White Cube and Beyond (2008), and co-editor with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna ofContext Providers Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (2011).

List of Figures viii

Notes on Contributors xi

Acknowledgments xix

Introduction: From Digital to PostDigitalEvolutions of an Art Form 1Christiane Paul

Part I Histories of Digital Art 21

1 The Complex and Multifarious Expressions of Digital Art and Its Impact on Archives and Humanities 23Oliver Grau

2 International Networks of Early Digital Arts 46Darko Fritz

3 Art in the RearView Mirror: The MediaArchaeological Tradition in Art 69Erkki Huhtamo Copyrighted Material

4 ProtoMedia Art: Revisiting Japanese Postwar Avantgarde Art 111Machiko Kusahara

5 Generative Art Theory 146Philip Galanter

6 Digital Art at the Interface of Technology and Feminism 181Jennifer Way

7 The Hauntology of the Digital Image 203Charlie Gere

8 Participatory Art: Histories and Experiences of Display 226Rudolf Frieling

Part II Aesthetics of Digital Art 247

9 Small Abstract Aesthetics 249Max Bense

10 Aesthetics of the Digital 265Sean Cubitt

11 Computational Aesthetics 281M. Beatrice Fazi and Matthew Fuller

12 Participatory Platforms and the Emergence of Art 297Olga Goriunova

13 Interactive Art: Interventions in/to Process 310Nathaniel Stern

14 The Cultural Work of Public Interactives 330Anne Balsamo

Part III Network Cultures: The Politics of Digital Art 353

15 Shockwaves in the New World Order of Information and Communication 355Armin Medosch

16 Critical Intelligence in Art and Digital Media 384Konrad Becker

17 The Silver Age of Social Media: Nettime.org and the AvantGarde of the 90s 400McKenzie Wark

18 Art in the Corporatized Sphere: The Impact of Commercial Social Media on Online Artistic Practice 413Kyle Chayka

19 Artistic Visualization 426Lev Manovich

20 Critical Play: The Productive Paradox 445Mary Flanagan

Part IV Digital Art and the Institution 461

21 Contemporary Art and New Media: Digital Divide or Hybrid Discourse? 463Edward A. Shanken

22 One of Us!: On the Coupling of New Media Art and Art Institutions 482Richard Rinehart

23 The Digital Arts In and Out of the InstitutionWhere to Now? 494Sarah Cook with Aneta Krzemien Barkley

24 The Nuts and Bolts of Handling Digital Art 516Ben FinoRadin

25 Trusting Amateurs with Our Future 537Jon Ippolito

26 Enabling the Future, or How to Survive FOREVER 553Annet Dekker

27 Exhibition Histories and Futures: The Importance of Participation and Audiences 575Beryl Graham

Index 597