Today we are in Berlin Germany at the Kunsthaus Tacheles. Students who cam e live had the opportunity too meet with Martin Reiter the current director of the Kunsthaus. Martin is also an accomplished artist, curator and reality hacker. As an artist he has created interactive media, performance, reality hacks and "uncontrollable robots." He has been working at Tacheles as an artist and later in other roles since 1995. He is originally from Vienna Austria where he studied electronics and electrical engineering before beginning his career in alternative art.
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In the last lecture with Martin Reiter, we talked about the ever pressing question of what is New Media. We also talked about Martin's pieces, and his robotic work. We also talked about Tacheles and what goes on there.
To talk about the wonderful question of New Media, I agree with him that there is no such thing as New Media, but there is Newer Media that will then phase out when it's replaced with the newest gadget, or piece of software.
We got to watch a video of some of his robotic work, although we were having bandwidth issues and the video was choppy I did get to see what was going on through the choppy-ness. I did enjoy the piece that he did with the robot that responded to the cellphone.
The art house Tacheles was something he talked about, and how they have artists coming from around the world, staying and creating art. I found it to be amazing, and I would love to go to Germany because I've always wanted to go there. I think it would be amazing to go there and create art with them or to sit around and play music and work with other creative people.
During the lecture we chatted about what is new media and like Kory said Martin suggested there is no such thing as new media. As regards to semantics, that is true, there is only contemporary media, past media, and future media. I guess the day that a device or a new web paradigm is created, it is new, but phases out rather quickly. But, I have always viewed new media as a term of trade - like a tool. New media is a conduit to create products of thought. Personally, I use new media as a tool to drive how I feel about sociological issues. I'm going to graduate school in the Fall and am going to be concentrating on New Media and Sociology because as I see it, New Media is the practical "doing" of Sociology. Like I said it's all a matter of semantics, but in reality - new media is more of a mindset of what to do with technology (to me at least)
The robots were creepy - if you watch the lecture I ask Martin if he directed any horror films (as a joke), but there were some really gritty and mind-bending videos. I think that is reflective of the time and the politics that he talked about. He suggested that after the Berlin wall came down, the politics were very up in the air, and for a lot of people it was a time of chaos much like the videos.
I think it would be really interesting to go to Tacheles for a couple weeks and do art projects. It seems like a care-free environment with a lot of motive. It also sounds like there is a lot of radical art there, which I enjoy (all art should be radical!!)
Overall, talking with Martin was very interesting and I think he had some great outlooks on technology and "new media"
In case you haven't heard or watched, we saw robots! And I'm not talking the friendly beer-kegged shaped B-9 from Lost In Space. I will get back to them later- for now I would also like to reflect on what Martin had to say about New Media. It is something I had thought about and still have felt confused. Lately, with the mind set that 'New Media' is a bullshit term that creates confusion when people ask me what I'm going to school for. So it helps me to sleep at night just thinking that it's all bullshit- I'll just keep doing what I like and learn as much as I can.
Matt- I really do think you made a strong point and I also agree with your view of New Media. As far as New Media being a mindset of what to do with technology- I see that as being the most tangible definition.
Back to the robots- after the lecture I kept thinking about those damn robots and all these 'what ifs'- The very same day I saw an add in the paper for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey playing in a theater- and then I thought of HAL. The view of the just 30-40 years had us flying cars and being pampered by robots. What has held us back from our original view of the future?
The think the commentary about robots in such films as 2001 or The Matrix is that technology, which may "advance" us in one level has disconnected us in others- technology will be the downfall of man.
I wish I could go back and look at Martin's projects of robots and ask him what the whole idea is.
I also think it would be interesting to go Techeles to see what it's like in that type of environment and the different projects that each artist is working on.
I was not able to attend this meeting unfortunately, however after watching the video and reading over what people have written, I have found that I've understood some of what was talked about.
Seeing how everyone else started off with what New Media is, I suppose I to will follow suit. In the lecture and in peoples post it was said that according to Martin Reiter, there is no such thing as New Media, rather that what New Media really is, is simply new media, and revamped forms of older media, or new gadgets and technologies.
I believe this to be true, you know I don’t see the major as something that is complete or entirely tangible, its more of an idea or a way of learning to me, because you re not learning one set system or one set of rules, rather you are learning and pulling from numerous places and a huge amount of resources, this is all being constantly pushed to the edge by the advancing of technologies and new systems. Rather than asking what New Media is, you should ask what things new media is doing right now; new media is more of a title given to a group of things that make up a greater part of the technological driven world. From advertising to building new computers to motion graphics, the world of new media is driven by advances in all the fields of technology, so in that there really cant be one thing that is new media, its more of in the way that we have it set up here at the University of Maine a way to learn, think and look at the world.
When it came to the robot part of the video I was oh sweet we get to look at some sweet robots, nice, afterward I was like oh man those were sweet, but I'm in total agreement with Mat where he said, they were creepy and mind bending, I totally understand why you would use the horror joke there. All in all I felt that the pieces were really interesting and obviously the connection issue played a part in the impairment of being able to experience them in a complete way, as it has been said several times. Over all it was a good lecture I think and brought up some good points about what New Media is and how it works, and it’s always fun to see other peoples works and get ideas from them, or to just see what other people are doing out there in the world.
Funny how most of the individuals that have spoken to us this semester have mostly denied the existence of New Media. Perhaps this is just playing into Raphael's conspiracy theory. Personally, I agree with Martin and Mr. Boulier, and even further agree with Kory further on the issue.
Also, Mr. Crowley, I adore the film 2001. From the beginning where apes discover the first use of tools (the club) and then to the discovery of the obelisk, which I am still convinced that it represents technology far beyond its time. Hal in 2001 was the ideal view of paranoia, where machines become more intelligent than their creators, thus destroying us if given the chance.
Perhaps Raphael is trying to impose a thought about why we are in an institution for higher learning, in a major that truly should not exist. I'm most certainly not using this degree after college for the skills I have developed, but for the degree itself.
I liked this lecture a lot - especially the awesome robots! I thought that Martin was a very knowledgeable man, and his views on New Media were quite interesting. I would tend to agree with just about everyone who has posted here on that issue: New Media doesn't really exist, it is a mindset as Matthew said. Also, in regards to what Stephen wrote, I find I have the same problem describing what actually goes on in the NMD major to people who ask. It's a very broad subject, and I don't think you can really categorize it because new technology is appearing every day, replacing obsolete computers and programs and gadgets, so how can you define what is "new" and what isn't?
Now on to Tacheles - hearing Martin describe this place made me really wish I could visit there. He mentioned that one of the really great things about the place was that you don't have to be a successful big-name artist to get a studio, and I thought that was wonderful. It seems like it would really open up possibilities to people like myself, who are just starting out in the artistic field, or students in general who are hoping to further themselves. I agree 100% with Kory, I would love to go there, even it were to just observe others at work.
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