Media art
New media art is a term denoting the critical, subversive,
speculative, and creative strategies which have the potential
to test the limits of programmed processes, expressions,
and experiences mediated by information and communication
technologies infrastructure. New media artefacts are
a result of creative acts which resemble the works of curators
rather than that of creators, DJs rather than that of interpreters,
and dancers rather than that of sculptors.
Media art theory
Both artists and theoreticians are trapped in the technologically
enhanced network of distributed control. They are
sentenced to wander in search of escape routes, survival
kits, and red/blue pills. Critical distance, which has been
taken as insurance for objectivity and independence of academic
theoretical reflection of culture and society, was revealed
to be a mere illusion of the too self-confident intellectual
mind. There is nothing quite like objective truth behind
the integrated spectacle of mediated, instant experiences,
but there is only the skilfully designed rhetoric of arguments
knitted within the fuzzy human-machine interactions. In
other words, new media art and theory are situated within
the same coded and programmed environment. Therefore,
the media art theory not only reflects on media art practices,
but it progressively merges with them, and thus itself
becomes speculative, subversive, and experimental.
Hands-on media art theory
The Theory of Interactive Media study program is influenced
by the convergence of new media art and theory. Its curriculum
includes several subjects which provide students with
hands-on experiences of new media as tools of creativity.
The goal is to acquaint them with the ´logic, vocabulary, and
grammar ´ of the media that artists deal with.
The exhibition shows selected outcomes of the media
art hands-on lectures. Moreover, two examples of ´out of
the box´ research projects, situated on the borderline between
media art theory, practice, and curatorship, will be
presented.
Jana Horáková
Curator’s Statement Exhibited works
01
Behind
the Interface
Subject: Software Art
Teachers: Monika SzűcsováSK
,
Adam FrancCZ
Medium: computer-generated pieces
AUTHORS:
Author: Petr Baueršíma
Technique: Image generator
Software: Python programming
language (open source)
Year: 2018
Author: Luisa Pavlíková
Technique: Image generator
Software: Python programming
language (open source)
Year: 2018
Author: Martin Koláček
Technique: Image generator
Software: Python programming
language (open source)
Year: 2018
Author: Alice Minaříková
Technique: Webpage appropriation
Software: Nick Monfort’s generative
web artworks (open to modifications)
Year: 2018
Author: Renata Václavíková
Technique: Webpage appropriation
Software: Nick Monfort’s generative
web artworks (open to modifications)
Year: 2018
Author: Jan Špičák
Technique: Text generator
Software: Python programming
language (open source)
Year: 2018
02
Math is
the New Latin
Subject: Artgorithms
Teacher: Tomáš StaudekCZ
Technique: Mathematical Images
Software: different kind, see:
http://artgorithms.droppages.com/
software
Year: 2016–2018
AUTHORS:
Jakub Bajza, Katarína Bazelová,
Júlia Chodúrová-Bútorová, Jiří Bednář,
Mark Birger, Petr Caha, Marek Čierny,
Michal Danko, Cecílie Fialová, Martin
Honěk, Václav Chvíla, Jakub Jakubec,
Filip Karpíšek, Marcel Kiss, Martin
Koláček, Katarína Kolesárová, Jakub
Krbec, Veronika Kroufková, Natália
Lajčiaková, Veronika Něničková, Petr
Nodžák, Miroslav Novák, Peter Pilát,
Jan Pokorný, Petr Pololánik, Michaela
Riganová, Vojtěch Rylko, Michal
Ryšavý, Zuzana Skačíková, František
Skála, Zuzana Skalníková, Vilém
Šoulák, František Spurný, Jiří Staněk,
Adéla Štelclová, Jakub Šulek, Kristýna
Šuráňová, Michal Tabášek, Hai Duong
Tran, Veronika Urbášková, Linda
Wojnarová, Veronika Zapletalová,
Lukáš Zbranek, Marek Zouhar,
Anastasia Zvereva
03
Remake Media
History!
Subject: The Best of New Media Art
Teacher: Martina Ivičič SK
Medium: video
LIST OF WORKS:
Risveglio Del Mondo Nuovo
Author: Oliver Bláha
Inspired by: Luigi Russolo: Risveglio
Di Una Cittá, noise composition (1914)
Year: 2015
Google Earth Ballet
Author: Petra Pohoničová
Inspired by: Michael Noll: Computer
Ballet, the first use of a digital computer
to create an animation of stick
figures on a stage (1965)
Year: 2019
Act III, Scene 1
Author: Veronika Hlavatá
Inspired by: Natalie Bookchin:
The Intruder, interactive story told
by videogames (1998–1999)
Year: 2017
Animated Vertov
Author: Filip Kratochvíl
Inspired by: Dziga Vertov: Man with
a Movie Camera, experimental
documentary (1929)
Year: 2019
The Rise of Cyberpunk
Author: Ondřej Myšák
Inspired by: Videogames:
Deus Ex (2000), Deus Ex: Human
Revolution (2011)
Year: 2015
Absence of an Analog Signal
Author: Dominik Pokora
Inspired by: John Cage: 4:33 (1952)
Year: 2014
Kinedryl
Author: Marek Litoš
Inspired by: Futuristic adoration
of movement and speed
Year: 2015
04
Aura of
Audiography
Subject: Audiocultures
Teacher: Filip JohánekCZ
Medium: sound track, ambient
RECORDINGS:
Zuzana Bachorecová, Petr Baueršíma,
Barbora Feníková, Jaroslav Havelka,
Petr Eric Hofmann, Zora Jandlová,
Filip Johánek, Jakub Jurčaga,
Klára Kacířová, Daniel Kobielusz,
Vojtěch Kozlíček, Jan Kučera, Valeriya
Lazareva, Ladislav Mirvald, Peter
Rajčan, Ján Solčáni, Ivona Solčániová,
Jakub Strezenicky, Renata Václavíková,
Alica Volfová, Radek Zatloukal
Technical cooperation, live sound and
recording installation:
Ladislav Mirvald, Ján Solčáni,
Filip Johánek
Edit, mix: Filip Johánek, Jan Kučera,
Valeriya Lazareva
Master: Filip Johánek
05
Computer Graphic
Re-visited
RESEARCH PROJECT
Authors: Jana HorákováCZ
, Jiří MuchaCZ
Medium: Virtual reality, digital images
Reconstruction of an early computer
art exhibition (Brno, 1968) in an immersive
virtual reality environment. The
remake balances between a digital art
history/historiography experiment
and a remembering exhibition genre.
More about the project:
• https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
document/8663648
• http://www.dum-umeni.cz/en/
vystavy/detail/id/322
06
Deep Learning from
Vasulkas‘ Video
Archive
RESEARCH PROJECT
Team: Jana Horáková (Masaryk University),
Jiří Schimmel (the Brno University
of Technology), et al.
Authors: Pavel Sikora, Jakub Bajzik
Medium: video recording of artificial
neural networks at work
Application partners of the project:
The Vašulka Kitchen Brno – Center for
New Media Art, The Brno House of
Arts
The project (TL02000270 Media Art
Live Archive) is conducted with financial
support from TA ČR. Technological
Agency of the Czech Republic.
CREDITS:
Teachers and students of Theory of Interactive Media,
Department of Musicology, Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts
www.tim.phil.muni.cz Instagram: tim.ffmu Facebook: tim.ffmu
Graphic design: Alina Matějová
Installation: Jakub Orel Tomáš
Light design: Luboš Zbranek
The exhibition was supported by: