While the list of prominent new media artists is constantly growing, we’ll take a look at some key figures worth exploring for those who want to learn more about the field.

Nam June Paik
Arguably the founder of new media art, Nam June Paik came to prominence in the sixties with a series of bizarre screen sculptures and installations. Although a truly multimedia artist who often experimented with music and performance, video and television continued to occupy him throughout his career, and he made the multi-screen installation his signature artistic gesture.

Vera Frankel
A master storyteller who began life as a printmaker and poet, Vera Frankel’s artistic practice has become known for its narrative dimensions, combining film, photography, sculpture, and print in the service of social and political critique.

Alexey Shulgin
Alexey Shulgin, who goes by Shulgin, often incorporating website design into his artistic practice, typically combines elements of public engagement with a wry sense of humor.

Raphael Rosendahl
Raphael Rosandal is an artist for whom the Internet is at once a brush, a canvas and a subject. He even tattooed the word INTERNET on the inside of his lower lip.

Pierre Huyghe
An artist whose work spans film, sculpture, performance, and even living organisms, Pierre Huyghe has been exploring the ethics and aesthetics of new media landscapes since he first came to the attention of the art world in the late nineties. Perhaps most famously, No Ghost, Just a Shell, 1999-2002, saw Huyghe and Philippe Parreno acquire the rights to the main anime/manga character Anly, opening the door to what Parreno called an “aesthetic of alliances” between over a dozen artists who would breathe life into her empty shell.

Lawrence Leck
Since childhood, Lawrence Leck has been interested in the universe. With a background in architecture and a portfolio that spans game design and immersive simulation, he is certainly well positioned to realize speculative futures and incredible parallel realities.

Mario Klingemann
In a vision of what the future holds for AIDOL, machine learning artist and artificial intelligence pioneer Mario Klingemann is using deep learning and neural networks to blur the lines between human and machine creativity.

A resident artist at Google’s Arts and Culture Lab, Klingemann was one of the first to use their DeepDream and Style-Transfer tools as artistic media. His work is at the forefront of technological innovation and at the forefront of the debate surrounding the nature of AI and its ability to create.

Petra Cortright
A kind of post-Internet Monet who is just as comfortable exhibiting in a gallery as on YouTube, Petra Kortright’s floral arrangements may look painted at first glance, but a closer look reveals a practice rooted in software, even if the end result resembles the work of a real brush.

Hito Staerl
One of the most influential artists of our time, Hito Staerl is well known for her essays, film and documentary work. In her own words, her art is about “changing the meaning of images in the flow of media globalization.”

It can be argued that any art that experiments with innovative tools and techniques can be classified as new media art. But although acrylic paint is a more recent invention than film, the changes it has brought to the art world are more subtle. What is “new” in new media art is less tangible than mere technophilia and will inevitably evolve over time. What unites the artists on this list is not a specific medium or even a shared commitment to the newest – just look at Cortright’s everlasting flowers – but a desire to use the full range of technologies, old and new, to create, explore, and provoke.

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The standards define media arts as “a unique medium of artistic expression that can extend and unify the four traditional art forms by combining the technological advances of the modern world with new skill sets available to students and teachers. Media arts students develop both artistic ability and technological ability. A media artist uses a fundamental understanding of analog and digital media to integrate digital technologies with traditional forms of artistic expression.”

Similarly, the National Endowment for the Arts defines media arts as “all genres and forms that use electronic media, film, and technology (analog and digital; old and new) as an artistic medium or a means to broaden art appreciation and awareness of any discipline. This includes projects presented through film, television, radio, audio, video, the Internet, interactive and mobile technologies, video games, immersive and multi-platform storytelling, and satellite broadcasting.”

The biggest challenge facing education today is that “our DI teachers, who speak an outdated language (a language of the pre-digital era), are trying to teach a population that speaks a completely new language. Our students today are digital natives, who are the first students to grow up with cell phones, computers, video games, tablets, digital cameras, webcams, email, internet, instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other forms of ever-evolving technology. There was never a time in their lives when this technology did not exist. And we can’t even imagine what advances will be made in technology in our students’ lifetimes.

So, how can teachers who are digital immigrants reach students who expect connectivity and instantaneousness across all media? Prensky advises teachers to accept that we need to learn to communicate in the language of our digitally native students by adapting materials to their language.

As art teachers, we should learn the new digital language as much as possible, accept help from our students to do so, and look for ways to use digital technology to teach and create in media arts.

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This type of artist typically works in a specific medium, such as television, video games, video, 3D animation, etc., so they will be highly specialized and skilled in certain areas of graphic design. Whichever medium they work in, they focus on creating a cohesive look, feel, and layout for the graphic portion of the project.

Multimedia artists use a variety of technologies and artistic techniques to create advertising, special effects, website design, and even animation to create unique work that engages users. Their daily responsibilities may include:

Creating graphics/illustration/animation using computer programs
Developing storyboards to plan storylines and graphics to go with them
Editing animations and effects based on feedback from art directors, graphic designers and fellow design team members
Conceptualize, assemble and create various forms of 2D and 3D digital art for projects
Creating and installing special effects
Collaborate with other designers and clients to assess the needs of a specific project or campaign

Misconceptions about multimedia artists
The job title indicates a person who develops art, but it’s important to remember that this position is very technology-oriented. Multimedia artists need to have good computer software and even coding skills, and they need to be savvy in keeping up with the latest design and animation technologies. While a good understanding of design is an important element of these types of roles, technological know-how is an absolute must.

Important indicators for a multimedia artist

Demographics.
To create quality graphics, videos, and images for the web, it’s important to know who the key demographics are, e.g. local or international? Then it’s important to think about the graphics and cultural norms for that audience.

Views and landing rates
This metric is especially important when Multimedia Artists are responsible for creating interactive experiences, such as videos or online games. It shows the popularity of a particular experience and if/when users tried to leave the experience at certain points to know what to improve in the future.

Feedback.
This can be from the client or the audience that the graphical experience is aimed at. Feedback can be assessed through online comments, direct communication, or even a survey. The results of the feedback will be crucial to know what worked and what didn’t, and how to get better in the future.

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