What Is Media Art?

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Media art is everywhere!

Take a look around! Forms include electronic media, like digital art and photography, web design, sound art, video games, and other interactive media.

The media arts are forms of human communication that combine artistic elements with technology.

Watch the video below to learn more about this innovative way of creating with technology.

One way to truly appreciate the media arts is to understand its many forms and characteristics. Let's define some predominant forms of media art.

Sound Art is when sound is used as a medium. This is a unique form of art.

To see an example of sound art, watch a short selection of the following video.

Digital Photography refers to images that are captured and stored as data files on a computer. These images can then be easily manipulated and altered as well.

We all use this form of media art when we use our cell phones to take pictures!

Graphic Design is a form of communication that combines images and text to convey a specific idea, effect, or concept to its audience.

Many of us interact with graphic design in some way daily. For example, logos, magazines, websites, greeting cards, and more are created using graphic design.

Web Design includes all aspects of planning, designing, and creating a website.

The Elephango page you are looking at right now was created using web design!

Video is just moving visuals. The images, often accompanied by sound, must be recorded and broadcast.

If you've ever seen or created a YouTube video, you've interacted with this media art form.

Animation is the illusion of movement.

The animator creates a series of art media using drawings, models, or objects that are then posed in incremental movements. They are then sequenced together at the appropriate speed to make it look as though it is moving.

Video Games can be simple, like Pong, or complex, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

All video games must be interactive, where a player uses an electronic gaming device to control the game and its graphic images. A media artist must first create all of those possible images.

That's only a few forms of media art! There are many others.

The Media Arts are different from the Fine Arts, which include mediums like drawing, sculpture, or painting. This is because media art forms are created using some form of technology.

Painting, for example, is not a media art form. Drawing and sculpture are not media art forms.

However, it is important to note that painting, drawing, and sculpture can be integrated with technology to become forms of media art. For example, sculptures are often incorporated into sound artworks.

Take a look at some of these New Media Art examples.

Wow! That was a lot of information about media art. Nice work!

Now, move on to the Got It? section to see what you remember.