Digital Art in a Convergence Society

Digital and media art is an interesting topic to explore. As a fine artist, as well as a practicing a digitally based type of art, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint the various differences that occur between the two. Digital art is constantly changing as new technologies are created. New media artists are always learning an experimenting with new software or equipment. The field is in a state of constant movement. However, given the nature that the evolution of art has taken throughout the years, eventually these new media practices may be considered the norm. As artists we should always be searching and working to find new ways to create expressions or commentate on topics within our society. Just like painters evolved when photography could capture the same images they could paint, art practices will continue to react to the media. Something that I am really drawn to when it comes to new media is the ability to experiment and develop new ways to create art beyond the traditional practices. Henry Jenkins, an author on the subject of new media art, has a lot of interesting things to say about media convergence in our culture. I had to read one of his articles for another class and I thought it really fit well with the topics we would be discussing in this class. So after researching him a little I found a good website that gives a pretty good overview of his ideas. The link is http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/converge.html. You will find a lot of links to other related articles. Check out the one entitled "Art Form for the Digital Age." I thought this was really interesting because it looks at video games as an art form.