A Companion to Digital Art - (Blackwell Companions to Art History) by Christiane Paul (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Reflecting the dynamic creativity of its subject, this definitive guide spans the evolution, aesthetics, and practice of today's digital art, combining fresh, emerging perspectives with the nuanced insights of leading theorists.

• Showcases the critical and theoretical approaches in this fast-moving discipline
• Explores the history and evolution of digital art; its aesthetics and politics; as well as its often turbulent relationships with established institutions
• Provides a platform for the most influential voices shaping the current discourse surrounding digital art, combining fresh, emerging perspectives with the nuanced insights of leading theorists
• Tackles digital art's primary practical challenges - how to present, document, and preserve pieces that could be erased forever by rapidly accelerating technological obsolescence
• Up-to-date, forward-looking, and critically reflective, this authoritative new collection is informed throughout by a deep appreciation of the technical intricacies of digital art

From the Back Cover

Digital art is a complex and vibrantly dynamic form whose diversity reflects the exponential growth curve in computing power. This new companion to the genre gives readers an inclusive, in-depth understanding of digital art, covering its history and evolution, aesthetics, and politics, as well as its often turbulent relationships with established institutions. The volume provides a platform for the most influential voices shaping the current discourse surrounding digital art. Their nuanced insights afford a robust and coherent appreciation of the current state of the field - and the possible paths its future development may follow.

Combining the seasoned perspectives of leading international experts with fresh work by emerging scholars, the companion tackles key issues in digital art. It showcases critical and theoretical approaches from across the spectrum, taking in art-historical, philosophical, political, and gendered perspectives, among many others. The volume also covers digital art's primary practical challenges - how to present, document, and preserve pieces that could be erased forever by rapidly accelerating technological obsolescence. Up-to-date, forward-looking, and critically reflective, this authoritative new collection is informed throughout by a deep appreciation of the technical intricacies of digital art.

About the Author

Christiane Paul is Associate Professor in the School of Media Studies at the New School, New York, USA, and also Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Prof. Paul is a noted curator who oversees the Whitney's artport website and has for more than a decade conceived and administered the museum's new media exhibitions, including Data Dynamics (2001), Profiling (2007), and Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools (2011). Other curatorial work includes The Public Private (Kellen Gallery, The New School, 2013); Biennale Quadrilaterale (Rijeka, Croatia, 2009-10); Feedforward - The Angel of History (LABoral, Spain, 2009); and INDAF Digital Art Festival (Incheon, Korea, 2009). She is the author of Digital Art (2003), New Media in the White Cube and Beyond (2008), and co-editor with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna of Context Providers - Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (2011).