Prehistories of New Media: 1965 to the Present
ARTHI 2511
1 PM - 4PM THURS
SPRING 2005

jonCates
Assistant Professor (Film, Video & New Media)
Art History Theory and Criticism
JCATES at SAIC dot EDU

Lori Felker
Teaching Assistant
LFELKER at SAIC dot EDU

COURSEWARE: DESCRIPTION ++ SYLLABUS ++ REFERENCE MATERIALS

Prehistories of New Media: 1965 to the Present presents a series of inquiries and conversations about the origins of the theories and practices collectively referred to as New Media. From Marshal McLuhan’s use of the phrase “new media” in the 1960s to later usages by video artists in the 1970s and 80s, to those working in the network and computer cultures of the 1990s and in currently emerging discourses, New Media includes a set of contested, multiple, and modular histories as well as an implicit impulse to discard the past. While arising from the parallel, overlapping and resistant codes of experimental media art culture and socially engaged technology, New Media has become both simultaneously clearer and more ambiguous. This course explores the many precedents, exceptions, disputes, and connections that constitute the prehistories of New Media.

LINKAGES: GO.ARTIC.EDU ++ HTTP://FVNM.INFO ++ CREATIVE COMMONS (CC) BY-NC-SA 2.0