[Leonardo/ISAST Network] New From the Leonardo Book Series - From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper
Leonardo/ISAST
isast at leonardo.info
Tue Jan 9 18:24:25 EST 2007
NEW from The Leonardo Book Series and MIT Press
FROM TECHNOLOGICAL TO VIRTUAL ART by Frank Popper
In From /Technological to Virtual Art/, respected historian of art and
technology Frank Popper traces the development of immersive, interactive
new media art from its historical antecedents through today's digital,
multimedia, and networked art. Popper shows that contemporary virtual
art is a further refinement of the technological art of the late
twentieth century and also a departure from it. What is new about this
new media art, he argues, is its humanization of technology, its
emphasis on interactivity, its philosophical investigation of the real
and the virtual, and its multisensory nature. He argues further that
what distinguishes the artists who practice virtual art from traditional
artists is their combined commitment to aesthetics and technology. Their
"extra-artistic" goals -- linked to their aesthetic intentions --
concern not only science and society but also basic human needs and drives.
Defining virtual art broadly as art that allows us, through an interface
with technology, to immerse ourselves in the image and interact with it,
Popper identifies an aesthetic-technological logic of creation that
allows artistic expression through integration with technology. After
describing artistic forerunners of virtual art from 1918 to 1983 --
including art that used light, movement, and electronics -- Popper looks
at contemporary new media forms and artists. He surveys works that are
digital based but materialized, multimedia offline works, interactive
digital installations, and multimedia online works (net art) by many
artists, among them John Maeda, Jenny Holzer, Brenda Laurel, Agnes
Hegedus, Stelarc, and Igor Stromajer. The biographical details included
reinforce Popper's idea that technology is humanized by art. Virtual
art, he argues, offers a new model for thinking about humanist values in
a technological age.
Frank Popper is Professor Emeritus of Aesthetics and the Science of Art
at the University of Paris VIII. He is the author of /Origins and
Development of Kinetic Art/, /Art, Action, and Participation/, /Art of
the Electronic Age/, and other influential works on art and technology.
To order this book and to learn more about other titles in the Leonardo
Book Series visit the Leonardo Book Series website at:
http://www.leonardo.info/isast/leobooks.html
MEMBER DISCOUNT! Leonardo/ISAST Associate Members are eligible for 20%
off all Leonardo Book Series titles as well as a number of other
membership benefits! Visit http://leonardo.info/members.html for more
details.
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