Primary Devices: Artists’ Strategic Use of Video, Computers and Telecommunications Networks

Primary Devices: Artists' Strategic Use ofVideo, Computers and Telecommunications Networks Tom Sherman T,pm-po", ofthis writing isto examine on, fundamental question: why do artists choose to work in today's predominant communications technologies? The predominant communications technologies of our time are video, computers and telecommunications networks. These key interrelated communications technologies supply speed-of-light power to a much more visible media environment comprised of print, photography and cinema. These media ofgreater visibility have attained their considerable profile in part because they have given birth to vast histories ofartistic accomplishment. Print, photography and cinema are the 'smokestack' media of the cultural industries. By comparison, video, computers and telecommunications networks are, from an arts perspective, relatively uncharted territories. That is, while there is a recent art history for each, an arts perspective ofthese communications technologies is still an unestablished, minority point ofview [1]. Being on the margin fails to discourage some artists. This kind of defiant attitude has been exhibited by significant artists throughout Western art history. Today many ofthese artists are more interested in managing information than they are in formulating unique forms of individual expression [2]. Problems inherent in the management ofinformation , working with and against the hierarchies which dominate information and communications technologies, are difficult problems which intrigue and challenge many contemporary artists. Video, computers and telecommunications networks are the technological infrastructure of the late 20th century information economy. It is not surprising that many artists choose to work directly with these predominant communications technologies. The primary devices of these communications artists differ from those working with traditional fine art media, just as wide-spread attitudes and values associated with the use of communications technologies differ substantially from traditional art concerns. An intellectually acceptable methodology for using communications technologies does not include a behavioural lexicon of theatrical gestures or anticommunications techniques. Methodologies of information gathering, processing and diffusion are unlikely to be conceived for the purpose of defining or establishing one's creative identity. Communications art strategies are usually devised for their utility and effectiveness. Other, more convoluted , traditional approaches to the art-making process will tend to render the artist ineffective or incompetent. The primary devices used by communications artists are specific Pergamon Press pic.Printed inGreat Britain. 0024-094X/91 $3.00+0.00 pieces of equipment designed to perform assigned functions or serve particular purposes-such as video, tape recorders and personal computers. In many cases these primary devices are formattechnologies , technological devices taken off-the-shelf and used without modification. The artist forms a relationship with a particular class of machine for the purpose of confronting the problems and opportunities these machines were designed to address [3]. Teams of engineers, working in most cases without knowledge of or concern for artists or the art-making process, design these primary devices, assigning functions with consumer or industrial applications in mind. Market realities determine the performance specifications and degree of utility of these devices. A specific piece of equipment therefore constitutes a particular work environment or site. Factors ofcompatibility, or more significantly incompatibility, with other machines go a long way towards defining the context or place within which one must act. While the actual working context or environment may be extremely limited in reality, many artists using contemporary communications technologies see an unlimited future potential of their chosen media. In other words, extremely rigid machine environments are accepted because, in theory, existing restrictions will fall as these technologies advance on their own momentum. Artists working with today's powerful but challenging technologies believe they are at the frontier. In the face of unavoidable, unnerving change, these artists want the same things they have always wanted, and more: to work directly, without restriction, with images and sounds. They do not relish art-making which is distanced by cumbersome levels oftechnique. Artists want to control motion precisely. They long to harness computers and robotic technologies for cultural and artistic purposes. Everyone would probably agree that screens of all sizes must go. Virtual environments ofunprecedented complexity must be designed to existwithout the constrictive influence offrame and aspect ratio. Communications technologies may be restrictive today, but one only has to look contemplatively at the actual pace Tom Sherman. (writer...