Form Follows Format
Tensions, Museums, Media Technology, and Media Art
Rudolf Frieling

The question of «formatting» and the devices for recording, saving, distribution, and presentation, with which artists continue to be confronted, provoke this aphorism from Kittler: «The typewriter writes, too.» Consequently, it is always a specifically artistic practice to appropriate available technologies for genuinely artistic purposes, but at the same time working against the conditions of the hard- and software in question. Putting it more pointedly: art with media is also art directed against media. The first part of this essay is devoted to aspects of this artistic history of technological formats and platforms. In a second step, the questions will be posed how far the technologies and media used trigger a perceptible change in art reception, and to what extent this can be connected with a history of the sites and institutions in which media art was produced and/or presented. [more]

Open form The closed format: Distribution/mass media The museum format White cube–Black cube From form to platform Standards or autonomous use? Software–Soft cinema–Soft space