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Themesicon: navigation pathOverview of Media Articon: navigation pathPerception
 
 
 
 
 

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media technologies and their artistic use: «In general, technology is considered not a norm of external facts, but a ‹medium› for the increasing communicative possibilities of expression and design. In particular, the new informational tools possess unique linguistic powers that need to be explored in both directions: first in light of a vital exchange with the other technologies of technological image storage (like photography, cinema, and video); on the other hand in light of its own ability to develop new figurative syntheses that live from themselves [and] are multimedia audio-video. At any event, at issue are not techniques of transmission, but rather the possible definition of new materials, qualities and temporal-spatial linkages in the image.»[3] Dieter Daniels is somewhat more general about the mutual relation between art and media: «Just as artistic genres are not only defined by their material but also by their contexts and institutions, the delimitation and production of media technologies are also based on a mix of cultural conventions and technological innovation.»[4]

 

The film medium

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the development of film with its new visual qualities formed an important point of departure for the artistic study of new forms of expression and techniques of perception.[5] This was also continued in the course of the development of other media. Here, the object of these studies is usually the specific form of the media themselves and their suitability as artistic means of expression. Artists as well, especially painters, explore the aesthetic possibilities of film.[6] The light of film is considered an extension of the artistic spectrum, a means of transferring painting to the dimension of movement. Walter Ruttmann, one of the protagonists of abstract film, observes an accelerated form of intellectual engagement with information and expression caused by technological media of transmission like the telegraph, fast trains, stenography, photography, etc. He sees in this the reason for an increased concentration on temporal processes. To provide an adequate response for the new speed characteristic of the period, he calls for

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