Ashley Michele Scarlett The Media Arts have been recognized as an innovative field meriting discipline-specific federal and

provincial funding in Canada since 1983. In 2003, the Canadian Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage commissioned an interview-based review of the New Media Arts sector in an effort to define the discipline and determine the artistic and economic viability of the sector at-large. While results from the review have been leveraged repeatedly as testament to the crucial role that Canadian artists have played within broader historical and global conceptualizations of the discipline (Langill 20JJJ), the over-arching conclusion drawn from the study was that New Media Art is a complex, multimedial discipline that is under-researched and poorly understood. Furthermore, the review revealed that, while video, film and audio-based works have historically received a significant amount of academic, institutional and financial interest, very little research has even begun to explore contemporary and emerging computational expressions of the discipline, such as: device art, software art, integrated media, 3D printing and holography. The review concluded by suggesting further research into broader articulations of the discipline, and the technological, aesthetic, and political tenets that purportedly ground it. This follow-up project was never undertaken despite the purported importance of Canadian New Media Art within larger historical and international contexts. The difficulty of approaching and defining the parameters of New Media Art has been echoed in numerous recent academic publications exploring the topic (Grau 2010; Popper 2007; Jones 2006). While numerous definitional lists have been compiled, documenting relevant pieces and mapping the territory, little work has succeeded in moving beyond genre building exercises to provide a historically coherent and conceptually geared critique of the discipline. Drawing upon the work of Lev Manovich and Mark Hansen, one potential explanation for this is the According to XXX, In fact, according to the materiality of new media art has always been at question. Aims and Objectives - This research program has two broad aims: (1) To further develop preliminary academic and federal research into the ontological and epistemological status of contemporary new media art and, most importantly, its materials; and (2) . The aims of this research program will be addressed by the following objectives: (1) the research will map out and critically analyze existing provincial and federal documents, academic literature and art publications that work to delineate and validate New Media Art as a unique discipline; (2) it will conduct semi-structured interviews and observational studio visits with New Media Art practitioners in an effort to address the technological, aesthetic, and political tenets that purportedly ground the discipline (CCA Report 2003) and tease out k;jlkj and (3) through an engagement with art-making methodologies (Springgay 2005, Summara 1999), triangulated with objectives 1 and 2, it will critically theorize the material-political implications that New Media Art work has for contemporary digital culture. Methodology - The research program will be conducted through four overlapping phases augmented by appropriate forms of dissemination. Phase 1: Literature Review (completed during PhD year 2, Sept. 2011-August 2012) This phase will comprise of an historical and theoretical analysis of the ways in which New Media Art has been articulated through practice, exhibition and literature. Research materials will be gathered from government archives, art-based magazines, exhibition catalogues, and academic publications (e.g., Grau 2010; Popper 2007; Jones 2006; Rush 2005; Hansen 2004). The purpose of this phase is not to define new media art as something unitary, but instead to create a rich genealogical map through which to navigate the nodal assemblages that hold the discipline together.
1

Ashley Michele Scarlett Phase 2: Data Collection Interviews (Months 1-8) In the second phase I will conduct 20 in-depth semistructured interviews with XXX . Using anti-definitional conclusions drawn in the 2003 Canada Council's report Media Arts Study as a point of departure, these interviews will serve to expose the technoaesthetic, historical, theoretical and political implications of new media art practices with hopes of exposing a series of inter-connected principles that ground the discipline (CCA Report, 2003:12). While the interviews are expected to fill in gaps located within the CCA's report, particular attention will be paid to participants' politicization and location of their work within broader discourses on digital and digitized culture. Key participants (such as David Rokeby, Jan Allen and InterAccess) will be purposively selected Canadians, with further participants identified through an organic snowball sampling method (Babbie 2010). Phase 3: Data Collection Critical Making (Months 9-12) Drawing upon the findings of phases 1 & 2, in the third phase of this research program I will prototype a series of new media artworks through the application of art-making as methodology. The purpose of this phase is to further investigate the political implications of new media art through a methodologically grounded practice of art-making. I am particularly interested in how new media artworks might serve as physical correlates to immaterial digital processes and practices. This phase will build upon technical and mechanical expertise developed through coursework at the University of Toronto and ongoing creative involvement with maker communities in Berlin and Toronto. One of the projects that I have collaborated on with similar political ends have involved building physical computing units that exposed the presence of embedded RFID-based surveillance technologies. According to Springgay (2005) art-based methods involve a form of auto-ethnography that use art-making as both a means for engaging in explicitly reflexive and critical thought while simultaneously creating an art object for further (empirically based) analysis and dissemination. In this case, the reflexive act of making new media pieces, with particular attention paid to techno-political implications, will provide an additional arena within which to consider broader questions regarding intersections of new media art, contemporary technological discourses and digital culture. Phase 4: Analysis and Dissemination (Months 13-24) The analytic phase is guided by a series substantive questions such as: (1) How are individuals directly or tangentially engaged with New Media Arts conceptualizing the discipline and their practices? (2) What are the techno-aesthetic, historical, theoretical and political implications of New Media Art practices? Are these implications valuable and if so, to what end? (3) How might New Media Art provide a metaphorical means of accessing immaterial digital phenomena in a fashion that facilitates broader understanding and critical awareness? (4) What kind of impact might this have upon people's experience and conceptualization of digital culture? The knowledge produced throughout this research program will be disseminated through traditional avenues such as conferences, publications and a formal dissertation. It will not only address gaps in existing scholarly and art-centred research, but, given that New Media Art has been framed as a reliable means of investigating and critiquing intersections of the social and technological (Jones 2006), this program promises novel insight into the broader implications that New Media Art, artists and curators might have as insightful critics of contemporary techno-digital culture. In addition to the aforementioned traditional modes of dissemination, the pieces of art prototyped during the third phase of research will be pitched to relevant art spaces around Ontario as a potential exhibition with interesting things to say both about new media art and materiality in a digital age. Building on the theoretical tenets developed throughout my analysis, I will also work under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Brower, curator of the University of Toronto's Art Centre, to curate an exhibition of emerging Canadian new media works and artists, that speak to the conceptual and practical findings of my doctoral research project. This project will be executed at the University of Toronto through the guidance and mentorship of interdisciplinary faculty members in the Faculty of Information. My advisor, Dr. Jens Erik Mai and
2

Ashley Michele Scarlett committee member ,Dr. Matthew Brower have a wide breadth of relevant knowledge and skills concerning contemporary classification processes, contemporary art, philosophies of new media and curatorial practices that will provide support throughout the research program. The department also houses Dr. Matt Ratto's critical making lab, which will provide me with the environment, tools and collaborative workspace necessary to undertake the third phase of my research project.

Conducting research into this topic, does not only have practical consequences for Canadian artists, curators, and makers ( in terms of funding and programming infrastructure), but it also has broader socio-technical implications. One of the few agreed upon tenets of New Media Art is that it exists at the intersection of art, technology and science and as such, provides a creative and frequently counterhegemonic means of gaining critical exploratory insight into contemporary socio-technical realities. With this in mind, one of the critical avenues explored by a range of new media pieces is the materialization and politicization of frequently immaterial, nonphysical digital processes.

Ashley Michele Scarlett Bibliography and Citations Barney, D. (2004). The Network Society. Malden: Polity Castells, M. (2004) The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Edward Elgar Pub. Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age: Economy, and Culture. Volume 1. Malden: Blackwell. Second Edition. Society

Critchley, S. (1999). Ethics, Politics, Subjectivity: Essays on Derrida, Levinas and Contemporary French Thought. London: Verson Hansen, M. (2006) New Philosophy for New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gane, N. Beer, D. 2008 New Media: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg. Grau, O. (2010) New Histories for New Media. MIT Press: Cambridge. Jackson, T.A. (2001) Towards a New Media Aesthetic, Reading Digital Culture. Ed. David Trend. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. Jones, C. (2006) Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art. MIT Press: Cambridge. Lash, S. (2002) Critique of Information. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Manovich, L. 2001 The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press. Miller V. (2008). New Media, Neworking, Phatic Culture. Convergence 14; 387Murphie, A & Potts, J. (2003) Culture and Technology. Hampshire: Palgrave. Munster, A. (2006) Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics. Dartmouth College Press: New England. Poster, M. (2006) Information Please. Durham: Duke University Press. Poster, M. (2001) The Information Subject. Taylor and Francis Publishers. Rush, M. (2005) New Media in Art. Thames and Hudson. Taylor, P. & Harris, J. (2005) Digital Matters: The Theory and Culture of the Matrix. New Routledge. Tribe, M. & Jan, r. (2009) New Media Art. Taschen: New York Van Dijck, J. (2007) Mediated Memories in the Digital Age. Stanford University Press. York: