{"id":33759,"date":"2019-08-01T12:20:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T12:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=33759"},"modified":"2019-08-02T13:54:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T13:54:13","slug":"ask-the-collector-with-holly-hager-collecting-101-new-media-art-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/ask-the-collector-with-holly-hager-collecting-101-new-media-art-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the Collector with Holly Hager  Collecting 101\u2014New Media Art II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">above: Excerpt of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Fun<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, by <\/span><a style=\"color: #999999;\" href=\"https:\/\/0100101110101101.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eva and Franco Mattes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014one of the most important works of this decade, if not the digital age as a whole. Video courtesy of the artists and <\/span><a style=\"color: #999999;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.postmastersart.com\/main_page_tribeca\/klar_rozendaal_15_direct.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Postmasters Gallery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my last column, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/ask-the-collector-with-holly-hager-collecting-101-new-media-art\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Media Art<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I introduced the genre with several works by digital-art pioneer, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.claudiahart.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Claudia Hart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Now let\u2019s dig into some of the most important new media art out there, as well as how to collect it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"vimeo-player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/11467722\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know that the video above, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Fun<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, by Eva and Franco Mattes is extremely disturbing. That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s one of the most important works of this decade, if not the entire digital age. As we launch into the 2020 election cycle, this 9-year-old work couldn\u2019t be more relevant. It prophetically speaks to key issues that are undermining democracy around the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long before the term \u201cfake news,&#8221; these artists revealed how technology can erode our ability to get at the truth. As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/4093683\/No_Fun_A_Virtual_Simulation_of_Inescapable_Tragedy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frauke Surmann assessed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the year the work was made, it demonstrates that, \u201cThe concepts of reality and fiction themselves have become highly fragile and therefore do not serve as consensual, community-building means anymore.\u201d Yikes. If you\u2019ve been wondering how we got so polarized, here\u2019s part of the answer. This work crystallizes the now accepted digital-age danger that what\u2019s meant to connect us can often divide us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Fun<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> documents the artists faking a suicide on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chatroulette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chatroulette<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an early social site. Launched by a well-intentioned Russian teenager in late 2009, Chatroulette paired random worldwide users for webcam conversations. If you can think back to the 2000s, that seems like a recipe for unprecedented global interaction, understanding, and connection. In fact, the site was so addictive that it went viral, exploding in just a few months to 1.5 million users by March of 2010\u2014one-third of them in the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s revelatory about <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Fun<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the reactions on the other side of the chat. On a site meant to connect people, what we see instead is rampant callousness. During the several hours of the Mattes\u2019 performance, thousands of viewers were confronted with a horrifyingly realistic hanging. Yet <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only one<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> user tried to help Mattes. Many viewers laugh nervously or tell each other that the suicide must be fake. Others have a <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gladiator<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> moment\u2014clearly annoyed that the victim isn\u2019t sufficiently entertaining them. One user types, \u201cu have to die\u201d to Mattes. Even more disturbing, one masked viewer appears unfazed, silently playing the guitar as he stares at the lifelessly swinging body. Another actually starts masturbating\u2026. The artists purposefully make no judgments; they leave that to us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"vimeo-player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/285654538\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Excerpt of <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">T3511<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/deweyhagborg.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heather Dewey-Hagborg<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> another potentially decade-defining work is showing on the LES until August 9th. Run to see the whole work while you can. Video courtesy of the artist and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fridmangallery.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fridman Gallery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year another potentially decade-defining work is showing on the LES at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fridmangallery.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fridman Gallery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> until August 9th. Run to see the whole thing while you can. Seriously. The video above is just an excerpt, and the show is by another brilliant <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eyebeam.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eyebeam<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> alum, Heather Dewey-Hagborg. A scientist and an artist, Dewey-Hagborg\u2019s <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the Temperature of My Body<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will introduce you to a whole other level of privacy invasion. Not just your data is at risk, but your very cells. Turns out that you don\u2019t just need a webcam cover to keep the NSA from spying on you. You also need to beware that almost anyone can now grow and \u201cimmortalize\u201d your DNA\u2014without your knowledge or consent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dewey-Hagborg\u2019s video, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">T3511<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is the definition of creepy. The work begins with her purchase of cells anonymously donated to one of the seemingly utopic DNA testing services (e.g., 23andme, Ancestry, My Heritage, etc.) Under a voiceover in which the artist talks to the donor like a stalker, the video chronicles her plunder of his personal details, her gestation of his cells with the warmth of her body through to her identification of exactly who he is and her attempts to physically contact him. As with <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Fun<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">T3511<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> unmasks a very dark and real time digital-age threat that we haven\u2019t even begun to fully understand, let alone consider enacting protections against.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-33765\" src=\"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/The-Eye-is-Not-a-Camera-Liz-Ligouri.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"756\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/The-Eye-is-Not-a-Camera-Liz-Ligouri.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/The-Eye-is-Not-a-Camera-Liz-Ligouri-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/The-Eye-is-Not-a-Camera-Liz-Ligouri-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Eye is Not a Camera<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Liz Liguori. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As with Hart\u2019s work, not all new media art is a cautionary tale. The genre runs the gamut, and generative pieces can be especially fun. Many, like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bitforms.art\/artists\/rozin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daniel Rozin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s works, incorporate cameras to render the viewer into the work in realtime in a kind of ultimate selfie. Other generative works incorporate sensors. Recently, at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/whitneyhoustonbiennial.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every Woman Biennial<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in New York, I got to experience <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lizliguori.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liz Liguori<\/span>&#8216;s<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Eye is Not a Camera<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in person. For someone like me, who can\u2019t even make a good stick figure, it was a delight to \u201cdraw\u201d in laser light using just the energy emanating from my hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"vimeo-player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/126978731\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Border Crossing Beta 2.0<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Alfredo Salazar-Caro, 2015.\u00a0 Long before the Trump administration started locking up kids in cages, Salazar-Caro was already bringing to light the often deadly journey that migrants brave to chase the American dream. Video as exhibited at the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/arts.uchicago.edu\/artsandpubliclife\/ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University of Chicago\u2019s Arts Incubator Gallery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and courtesy of the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other generative works are more hard-hitting. Long before the Trump administration started locking up kids in cages, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/salazarcaro.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alfredo Salazar-Caro<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was already bringing to light the often deadly journey that migrants brave to chase the American dream. In <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Border Crossing Beta 2.0<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Salazar-Caro gives us a window into what it\u2019s like to try to cross the U.S.-Mexico border via the Arizona desert. He based the work on interviews with actual migrants and constructed it like a video game in which he explains, \u201cThe user can roam indefinitely through the desert and may or may not find any fragments of these interviews\/experiences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New media works can also be scary to collectors for reasons other than their content. The most common fear is how to maintain them if they break or crash. With more complicated works that have moving parts, like motors or art that runs on software, that fear has some justification. But the irony is that the majority of new media works are video files, which are actually much more durable than traditional works like sculpture or prints. The video itself almost never breaks and only has to be upgraded if you radically upgrade your hardware. They\u2019re just like all the other images you keep in your photo streams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right now, I keep most of my new media works on thumb drives, which is the current standard for transferring them. I pop them in my computer or into one of my smart TVs at will. I also own a few works through the online art streaming site <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seditionart.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s[edition]<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There are new art services popping up all the time. The most promising is a new media subscription service called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.niio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Niio<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Starting at $99 per month, they\u2019ll loan you a rotating \u201cartcast\u201d of 6 works of continuously looping video per year from highly respected artists. Better yet, you can play them on up to a 98\u201d 4K screen via their plug-and-play player that\u2019s controlled with a phone app. Fine art doesn\u2019t get more accessible than that!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><i><span class=\"il\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28905\" src=\"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Holly-Hager-Headshot-e1528804796617.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"99\" height=\"125\" \/><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em><span class=\"il\">Holly<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"il\">Hager<\/span>\u00a0is an art collector and the founder of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.curatious.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Curatious<\/a>. Previously an author and a professor, she now dedicates herself full-time to help artists make a living from their art by making the joys of art more accessible to everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my last column, New Media Art, I <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":33764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","omw_enable_modal_window":"enable","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}