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Themesicon: navigation pathOverview of Media Articon: navigation pathMuseum

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Form Follows Format
Tensions, Museums, Media Technology, and Media Art

icon: authorRudolf Frieling

The question of «formatting» and the devices for recording, saving, distribution, and presentation, with which artists continue to be confronted, provoke this aphorism from Kittler: «The typewriter writes, too.» Consequently, it is always a specifically artistic practice to appropriate available technologies for genuinely artistic purposes, but at the same time working against the conditions of the hard- and software in question. Putting it more pointedly: art with media is also art directed against media. The first part of this essay is devoted to aspects of this artistic history of technological formats and platforms. In a second step, the questions will be posed how far the technologies and media used trigger a perceptible change in art reception, and to what extent this can be connected with a history of the sites and institutions in which media art was produced and/or presented. [more]more

Text Sections
icon: heading Open formicon: heading The closed format: Distribution/mass mediaicon: heading The museum formaticon: heading White cube–Black cubeicon: heading From form to platformicon: heading Standards or autonomous use?icon: heading Software–Soft cinema–Soft space