My work in the area of New Media studies over the past two years has concentrated upon non-commercial forms of political, protest, or critical art in the form of digital graffiti, projection bombing and mapping, and other kinds of light-based interventions. Currently, I am interested in broadening this research purview to include other areas of New Media Art, such as digital prototyping, robotics, telepresence, virtual reality, VJ (video jockey) culture, audio-visual experiments, and other forms of digital light display.
Given that many of these art forms are so new they have yet to be fully documented, historicized, and theorized, a key feature of this project is a fieldwork excursion to “Elektra,” an “International Digital Arts Festival” that has taken place in Montreal, Canada every May annually since 1999. This five-day event is widely recognized as one of the major global venues for exhibitions and performances of cutting-edge New Media Art, as well as a prime venue for pedagogy in electronic arts though conference panels, lectures, and hands-on workshops. My fieldwork excursion will focus on the documentation of new works exhibited at Elektra, interviews with artists, participation in panels and workshops, and full immersion into the networked cultural sphere of New Media art production. Upon the completion of this fieldwork, further research will be carried out to expand the foundation for a critical scholarly consideration of these developments, including areas of history, theory, media studies, and art history, as well as a literature review of relevant books on New Media art published in the last decade. The overall aim of the project is to identify the major emerging trends in New Media art and transmute this knowledge into the foundation for one to two new research articles that will highlight both the aesthetic and social impact of these revolutionizing cultural developments.