Media Appropriation and Explicitation

Abstract

This paper presents a novel characterisation of new media art together with an exploration of key aspects of its practice. It proposes that new media art’s defining characteristics are media appropriation and explicitation: the dialectical inscription into art practice of the knowledge that enables particular technological production, and the construction of a new vocabulary by making explicit aspects of more traditional art, including randomness, interaction, programming, and the role of tools and instruments.