Media Art as Social and Political Influence


Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Art and Activism in Digital Age

Presentation Title:
  • Media Art as Social and Political Influence

Presenter(s):


Venue(s):


Abstract:

  • Recent communication technology has encouraged public social and political engagement allowing them to share ideas, communicate, collaborate with each other, and sometimes act together more easily. Artists have paid attention to the potential of communication technologies through adopting the technology into their artistic representations and practices not only for cultural but also for social and political expression. Artists have used communication technology to express and share their social and political ideas and opinions. Furthermore, they have tried to encourage public awareness about social and political issues and public participation and engagement in social and political issues using the technology.

    It is obvious that media technology, especially its participatory structure, have had a huge influence in cultural discourse and practice. Media have helped artists actively engage with everyday life and close the distance between art, art work and audience. Media technology has been a useful tool to make audiences participate in art work, and make them an important part of art work as cultural and artistic producers.

    However, it is controversial how influential artists’ practices about social and political issues have been in our society and social and political discourse even though artists’ creative and critical perspectives and attitudes are necessary. In this paper, I will examine the potential and limitation of media art practices on social and political discourse. Specifically, I will look at how the artistic practices are related with social and political activities, how the practices can be understood in social and political contexts, and whether their cultural and artistic activity exert a practical influence on public’s social and political life by analyzing media art practices and their effect on society.

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