New and Old Art

The boundaries between media creation and consumption are breaking down. Going into this class I used to think the distinction between Old and New media was simply the method with which one created said piece. After this class, however, I understand some of the nuances between new and old media. Old media took more to make. I think there is something about the ease with which New Media is changed is at some level it loses some of the emotion tied to it. Since so much of New Media is simply a remix of its predecessors, the ways in which we experiment must become more abstract. When conventional media is always catching up to itself, always looking for what's new and edgy. This lifecycle will eventually be pushed to its limit. This however may just be my perspective as someone still mired in the ecosystem I referenced above. Old media was uniquely human. It covered the human experience and was born out of human labor. Now that we are in an age of technological advancement, that is not always the case. Using technology we do not fully understand will eventually result in media that is no longer fully human as we know it. A quote from Marshall McLuhan says "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us." With new innovations in the creation and consumption of media, our shape will change.

Since so much of media is now crowdsourced the audience is now entitled to a piece of the media they consume. Media creation is now more accessible than ever, there is truly nothing stopping audiences from creating works personal to them. Technology in CGI, photo editing, and now even script writing continues to advance at a faster and faster pace. This has contributed to the creation of new more innovative pieces of media since the creative landscape is now so much more democratic. Along with this, even if people don't want to create their own media, they have more of a direct voice to artists than ever before. The maelstrom is populated with the consumer's opinions on art. Most people have to chime in, with what they want out of media and their opinion on how it can best be made. The downside to such a huge onslaught of media is how desensitized people now are to Media. Media is so self-referential today. Artists have moved beyond traditional storytelling, to keep people entertained, but with the amount of content they take in, there is nothing that can keep them satisfied. Algorithms can crystalize public opinion, making it so artists can only reach people by following what is already popular. By taking in content audiences are deciding what art is prioritized. I believe that because of this overexposure to media people are beginning to classify the narrative elements in their own lives. As time goes on the distinction between life and media will only continue to become blurrier.