[spectre] Media, New Media, Postmedia (Postmediabooks 2010)

[Domenico Quaranta]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Domenico Quaranta, Media, New Media, Postmedia, Postmediabooks, Milan  
2010. 176 pages, 99 b/w images, isbn 9788874900558, € 19,00. Language:  
Italian

[A consistent English abstract is available at http://medianewmediapostmedia.wordpress.com/ 
]

Cover 300 dpi: http://www.postmediabooks.it/55media/cover55dpi300.jpg

 From December 2, the book "Media, New Media, Postmedia",written by  
Domenico Quaranta and published by Postmedia Books, will be available  
in Italian bookstores and on the website www.postmediabooks.it.

Along the last sixty years, a complex body of works has been developed  
along the edge between art, science and technology. An increasing  
number of artists came up putting their hands on the new tools that  
technology placed at their disposal, trying to get in touch with  
engineers and scientists, collaborating with them, entering university  
labs as well as research and development centers. After a long  
preparation, this research literally boomed along the Nineties, when  
the increasing accessibility of new technologies and the development  
of a “digital culture” made it possible for it to acquire a critical  
mass of artists. Festivals and specialized art centers sprang up like  
mushrooms, and many books and magazines, investigating the present and  
documenting the past, have been published.

A plenty of labels and critical paradigms have been forged in order to  
identify and describe this kind of research; then, in the late  
Nineties, the label “New Media Art” imposed itself upon the others.

Yet, notwithstanding this flourishing, neither the label “New Media  
Art” nor the artistic practices it refers to were able to conquer the  
official art criticism or, more generally, the contemporary art world.  
Just a few works of New Media Art were able to enter the permanent  
collection of a museum, and even less were able to escape the limbo of  
the museum’s warehouses. New Media Art is more or less absent in the  
contemporary art market, as well as in mainstream art magazines; and  
recent accounts on contemporary art history completely forgot it.

How can we explain this segregation? Why “official” art criticism and  
history have still so many difficulties in integrating the artistic  
research on new media technologies into their interpretation of the  
art history of the Twentieth century, even now that this research can  
be considered in all its historic relevance? Why the art market, that  
was able to greet video, installation and performance, is still unable  
to accept and distribute artworks based in software, hardware or  
computer networks? Why many artists are so intolerant of the very term  
“New Media Art”, and of any attempt to stress its diversity? Why, on  
the other side, other artists are so proud of this diversity? Why New  
Media Art pretends to be “different” from contemporary art, and yet  
proudly reclaims its relationship with contemporary art’s very same  
roots, the Avant-gardes?

Many answers have been suggested, along the last decade, for these  
questions. It has been said that the official art criticism suffers a  
generational gap, a digital divide that doesn’t let it understand the  
most radical choices (in terms of media); that art history never  
accepted the art-science-technology paradigm; that digital  
technologies challenge the traditional idea of an artwork as a closed,  
unique artifact, as a luxury item for a luxury market; and that the  
fast obsolescence of technology makes it impossible to collect  
technology-based works.

However, all these answers share a common mistake: they focus on a  
single problem, rather than considering these problems as part of a  
whole. Medium, New Media, Postmedia is the first attempt to give these  
questions a common, holistic answer. In order to reach the goal, this  
book starts discussing the current definition of New Media Art, making  
its weakness clear and suggesting a new definition that makes it  
possible to reconsider New Media Art’s historical development on a new  
basis and to better understand its recent developments and its  
positioning in contemporary culture.

But "Medium, New Media, Postmedia" is not just an attempt to explain  
the current status of the artistic research with new technologies, but  
also a militant endeavor to help it get the critical consideration it  
deserves; it’s not just a description of the present, but also an  
attempt to change the future, suggesting new critical and curatorial  
strategies.

A consistent preview of the book is available on Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=7l0ZgoI_UEcC&lpg 
). A bilingual website (English / Italian, http://medianewmediapostmedia.wordpress.com/) 
  has been developed in order to provide information about  
presentations and reviews, and also to further develop the issues  
discussed in the book.


Domenico Quaranta is an art critic and curator. He is a regular  
contributor to Flash Art and Artpulse; his essays, reviews and  
interviews appeared in many magazines, newspapers and web portals. His  
first book titled, NET ART 1994-1998: La vicenda di Äda’web was  
published in 2004; he also co-edited, together with Matteo Bittanti,  
the book GameScenes. Art in the Age of Videogames (Milan, October  
2006) and contributed to many books and publications (including the  
recent Eva and Franco Mattes: 0100101110101101.ORG, 2009). He curated  
and co-curated a number of exhibitions, including: Connessioni  
Leggendarie. Net.art 1995-2005 (Milan 2005); Holy Fire. Art of the  
Digital Age (Bruxelles 2008); RE:akt! | Reconstruction, Re-enactment,  
Re-reporting (Bucharest, MNAC – Ljubljana, Skuc – Rijeka, MMSU 2009);  
and Playlist. Playing Games, Music, Art (LABoral, Gijon 2009 – 2010  
and iMAL, Bruxelles 2010). He lectures internationally and teaches  
“Net Art” at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. Since  
2010, he is the Director of the MINI Museum of XXI Century Arts.

More infos:

http://www.postmediabooks.it/
http://books.google.com/books?id=7l0ZgoI_UEcC&lpg
http://medianewmediapostmedia.wordpress.com/
http://domenicoquaranta.com/


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Domenico Quaranta

web. http://domenicoquaranta.com/
email. info at domenicoquaranta.com
mob. +39 340 2392478
skype. dom_40