New philosophy for new media

TLDR

New media art redefines the digital image as a bodily process of filtering information, drawing on Bergson’s ideas that perception is shaped by affection and memory, and positioning the human body as the essential agent in creating images. The book seeks to update Bergson’s theory for the digital age, showing that we actively filter incoming information to generate images rather than passively receiving pre‑formed technical forms. Hansen illustrates this by analyzing works of Bergson‑inspired artists such as Jeffrey Shaw, Douglas Gordon, and Bill Viola, using concrete engagement and over 70 illustrations to explore the affective, bodily basis of vision. He concludes that the digital image is a flexible, accessible frame whose embodied status drives the media revolution, challenging the notion of a fixed representation of reality.

Abstract

In New Philosophy for New Media Mark Hansen defines the in art in terms that go beyond the merely visual. Arguing that the digital image encompasses the entire process by which information is made perceivable, he places the body in a privileged position - as the agent that filters information in order to create images. By doing so, he counters prevailing notions of technological transcendence and argues for the indispensability of the human in the era. Hansen examines new media art and theory in light of Henri Bergson's argument that affection and memory render perception impure - that we select only those images precisely relevant to our singular form of embodiment. Hansen updates this argument for the age, arguing that we filter the information we receive to create images rather than simply receiving images as pre-existing technical forms. This framing function yields what Hansen calls the digital image. He argues that this new embodied status of the frame corresponds directly to the revolution: a digitised is not a fixed representation of reality, but is defined by its complete flexibility and accessibility. It is not just that the interactivity of new media turns viewers into users; the itself has become the body's process of perceiving it. To illustrate his account of how the body filters information in order to create images, Hansen focuses on new media artists who follow a Bergsonist vocation; through concrete engagement with the work of artists like Jeffrey Shaw, Douglas Gordon, and Bill Viola, Hansen explores the contemporary aesthetic investment in the affective, bodily basis of vision. The book includes over 70 illustrations (in both black and white and colour) from the works of these and many other new media artists.