Intermedia is a specific area of artistic practice pioneered by Dick Higgins. Its principle was that the artist could produce artworks that existed between or distinct to media and therefore be translatable across media. It is, in a sense, a universalist model of art and thus could be considered modernist in its intent (although Higgins's work is usually considered proto-postmodern). It is arguable whether such an idealised artwork could ever exist.
Multimedia is not an art form or style of art. It is the application or use of more than one medium in the production and dissemination of something. Relational art is distinct again. It's concerns are with the social relations around the reception and valuing of something. The intent is to reveal the dynamics of social relations by evidencing the becoming of the artefact at a nexus of social relations. It does this by revealing people's interactions with things in the performative. Networked art may or may not engage with all or none of the above. Whether it does or does not may or may not be a function of the artists intent. Whether a work succeeds in its aims will depend on how it is received and the artist has (at best) only partial responsibility for that. Networked art does use networks which, in today's world, are generally run on and through computing systems (which are mostly digital). Teasing apart the mediale relations between all the elements involved in networked art is complex. Some artists (and theorists) have made entire careers out of it. Best Simon On 16/12/2010 06:12, "Heidi May" <[email protected]> wrote: > Rob, > > Thanks for your input - I will have to reflect more on the links you > provided and might email you back. > > A historically contextualised concept of "networks" will >> >> naturally dissolve the distinction between intermedia artists and >> multimedia artists so I wouldn't worry about drawing it. I'd just >> steer >> well clear of Relationalism, which exists precisely to obscure the >> structure of its networks. > > I wouldn't mind if you expanded on the distinction you see between > intermedia and multimedia, and more about your thoughts on the > relationship between Relationalism and networks. > > thanks again, > Heidi > > On 15-Dec-10, at 4:00 AM, [email protected] wrote: > >> Message: 3 >> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:47:58 +0000 >> From: Rob Myers <[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] defining "network/ed" in art >> To: [email protected] >> Message-ID: <[email protected]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed >> >> On 12/13/2010 10:48 PM, Heidi May wrote: >>> >>> Speaking as an artist who >>> teaching art at universities and college, I feel that "networked >>> art" is >>> immediately associated with digital and new media. >> >> Well, the Internet is the defining communication network of the age. >> But >> there have been and will be other communication networks (the >> telegraph, >> television, and postal networks have all been used to create art). And >> if we use "network" to mean "social network" (in the sociological >> rather >> than the Facebook sense): >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network >> >> then art is almost always the product of networks. Projects like "The >> Republic Of Letters" and "Unconcealed" use data to show those >> networks. >> >> In distinguishing between network and networked art (on whatever >> network) a little mis-applied mathematical terminology may help. >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_%28mathematics%29 >> >> We can define network art as art that exists on the edges of the >> network >> graph, and networked art as art that exists at its vertices: >> >> http://www.mteww.com/nad.html >> >> I think there's lots of research and lots of useful thinking that >> can be >> done here. A historically contextualised concept of "networks" will >> naturally dissolve the distinction between intermedia artists and >> multimedia artists so I wouldn't worry about drawing it. I'd just >> steer >> well clear of Relationalism, which exists precisely to obscure the >> structure of its networks. >> >> - Rob. > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour [email protected] http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ [email protected] http://www.elmcip.net/ http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
