New Media Reader introduction 2

This essay raised a lot of philosophical questions about what art, and artists are. When the author made statements like the internet is more complex, unpredictable and dynamic than any novel, or hypothesizes about a future when films will be made to tailor to the viewers preference, he ignores the agency of the artist. Although I agree that the lone artist creator may be an ideal of the past, nevertheless I think that an art work is something whose form and content is dictated by who ever created it, in order to convey a certain message or feeling. It is not just a fluid collection of anything and everything. While I also appreciated the insight that new mediums like HCI, finalcut or photoshop will become the lenses through which we view all culture, I was disturbed by his suggestion that the engineers of these technologies are the most famous artists of our times. To use an old media analogy, if you invented a new kind of printing press, you might not necessarily be the person who will use it to make the most beautiful or interesting prints. The skill set needed to develop a technology may not be the same one needed to communicate through it most effectively. But I don't even feel confident making these assertions about new media. They highlight are some of the distinctions that are broken down in Manovich's article, and as we go on, I'm sure these questions about the nature of art and the artist will be brought up again and again.