“The Medium is the Environment: Digital Materialism, Digital Art, and the Climate Crisis” presented by Day
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Full Papers Online Content
Presentation Title:
- The Medium is the Environment: Digital Materialism, Digital Art, and the Climate Crisis
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
Contrary to the notion of immateriality and commonplace imageries such as the cloud, information and communication technologies (ICT), from individual devices to the general infrastructure, are grounded in the natural world, ranging from the materials needed for production to the e-waste that is produced through planned obsolescence and aggressive consumerism. Despite such entanglement with the material substrate, the environmental implications of ICT usage is overlooked by the ICT industry, as it continues to exploit natural resources and cultivate a culture of consumption. Such socio-political landscape warrants an exploration of potential counter tactics in the field of digital art. This paper examines the environmental implications of ubiquitous ICT manufacturing, deployment, and usage, using the theories of new materialism and digital materialism. Following these theoretical lenses, the paper proposes that a focus on the material is necessary in digital art, which functions as an antithesis to the abstracting act of information/data and its purported immateriality.
