The work that stood out to me the most was Hito Steyerl’s Factory of the Sun. I felt it was the most immersive experience due to its large screen and Tron-like environment, feeling like I’m inside a digital entity like a computer. Although irrelevant, I’m also a big fan of the Tron and Matrix movies and I felt this art piece had some relevance to blurring the lines between virtual and reality. I think Hito’s work is trying to accomplish an interpretation of our world that has become so digital with the combination of information overload and virtual reality. Sometimes we forget what is real and fake when we are immersed in computer games or other virtual worlds. That was one part that stood out to me. Another part was how the human being was not the prominent force in the work, but an accessory to it, as if the humans were just tools for a bigger purpose (video game creation and creating energy – the sun) instead of main actors. It kind of made me feel even more insignificant in today’s world, which is pretty depressing.
In the Digital Divide reading, Claire Bishop states that the evolution of mainstream art has not coupled, “gained traction” with digital technology. I would have to agree, because from what I saw in this exhibit there was definitely a lot of embracing of new technology, but this “new media” art is a smaller segment of the overall mainstream art world, like its own genre. Even today there are artists that still use analog tools and legacy technology and I think they are trying to hold on to the past and/or just better at making art with those tools. If someone is proficient with analog film in art, then it would be hard to neglect that and move on to Photoshop. Also, I think Claire is looking for a deeper understanding from artists to try to reflect their work as digital experiences, so even if some works of art do embrace today’s digital tools, do they embrace it more than just physical context?