The review of the last 25 years of Media Art leads Michael Naimark to recall how it used to be for artists working in New Media, spending most of their time figuring out how to get the equipment and support they needed for their projects. He compares it with today, when technologies have become economical enough for many people to get their own equipment and create their own laboratories; and this new situation is also bringing the artist a kind of greater freedom for their ideas and concepts. Naimark also speaks of the Internet, how it is making it easy for people to show their work all over the world for little money and how it has brought a new way of communication, expression and the opportunity of surprise again.

In more than 25 years of art experience, Michael Naimark has worked on new media and interactivity, psychophysics and cognition, immersive virtual environments.

Interviewed by Pau Alsina, professor of Humanities Studies at the UOC, at Ars Electronica 2004. Recorded by Pau Waelder (Artactiva).

Question: This is the 25th anniversary of Ars Electronica, an interesting chance to review the history of media art, and I was thinking that later on I find quite a few different spaces where the history of media art is being asked or established as conferences and exhibitions. Do you think there is a reason behind all these events happening at the same time?
Answer (1‘32”)

Question: At what stage do you think media art is at the moment?
Answer (1‘48”)

Question: If I remember rightly, you drafted a report for the Rockefeller Foundation on Media Labs. From that point of view, what do you think of the production of Media art at present? And also what do you think of the history and evolution of Media Art production?
Answer (1‘22”)

Question: So many things have changed in the Media Art world’s development process, such as the utopia of the Internet and high technologies. Do you think new utopias are appearing now or maybe we are becoming more suspicious about technologies and our relationship with them?
Answer (1‘56”)

Question: We have seen here at Ars Electronica 2004 so many different points of view about what art means. But we can also see two main visions, one of them is closer to the design field and the other is closer to contemporary art and in both cases different disciplines merge together. Do you think there is still space in between those merges? Could we consider this moment as a first step for this merge to keep on evolving to a new media art scene?
Answer (1‘26”)

Question: It is quite easy to imagine what technology can do for art, but what about the other way around?
Answer (1‘38”)

Question: Does it mean that the emotion of art has changed since High Technologies have been getting more deeply into the roots of art? How do you think this art emotion is evolving?
Answer (1‘17”)

Question: In the relationship between the Media Art scenario and the culture, do you consider Media Art is being as socialised as it should be? Is it really integrated in society? Many people say that Media Art is separated from other contemporary art or from other kinds of art. What do you think about the relationship between Media Art, society and art?
Answer (0‘55”)

Question: Do you think that this time shift and what is happening throughout the world regarding the history of Media Art is the consolidation, the founding of a new area that will become established within society and the field of knowledge?
Answer (0‘49”)


Related links
Michael Naimark official website
Michael Naimark’s biography at MedienKunstNetz.de
Review of his installation “Be Now Here” [Digital Arts]
Michael Naimark’s article Addressing Time, at Ars Electronica 2004 [aec.at]