6. MEDIA POP ART - A WAY OF CREATING SOCIO-POLITICAL ART

As the works above show, I try to use the signs and the language of pop culture and everday’s life . I believe that with this way, I am able to reach more people and so my works are more likely to have an impact on society.
“Joseph Beuys is perhaps the best post-1960s example of an artist whose work changed society. Rather than adopting a perception of art that is formal and aesthetic only, his concept of social sculpture includes the kind of human action that is directed at structuring and shaping society - Beuys calls it the social organism. When seen in this way, art is not just a material artifact: it is also, and above all, action designed to have social consequences. Beuys' idea of relating plastic creativity to socio-political activities took up the social utopias of the historical avant-garde. Beuys was not primarily interested in including and using media in this context, but many post-1960s artists have both addressed media explicitly, and also used them to pursue concrete socio-political aims. They start by assuming that in a society increasingly influenced by media, an (artistic) change of media content or media structures can contribute significantly to democratizing society. And ultimately, behind this idea there lies the hope that art can change society. ” [1].
Guy Debord among others formulated a radical social critique and also a radical critique of media society. It rejected
creating aesthetic objects in favor of socially constructing situations aimed not at art but at life.” [1]
“The demand not to limit oneself to producing works of art any more, but to raise artistic practice to the level of the technological possibilities offered by modern industrial societies.” [5] This demand of Guy Debord is met by modern Computer Based Art. My demand though is that the produced art should use the technology and media with a sensible understanding of how to reach people and provoke the reactions you intended. “Form follows function” is not only the famous Bauhaus motto, in my work it is a credo as well. If I want to communicate something to kids, I will use their medium the computer game.
“As a rule, media installations work as a link between a (media) view of the public sphere and a subjective view of the world.” [2]

7. CONCLUSION

Media Pop Art has some advantages and some drawbacks. One of the benefits for young artists is that you can reach a lot of people with even a simple piece, but for that it must be easy ascertainable. There the drawback arises, that curators and media theorists critic this kind of work whether as immature or not subtle enough.
Another advantage what makes this kind of work so tempting for me is that you recycle your own or other works and make different variations with the same piece, get it a new meaning or looking [9]. Media Art is connected with a lot of work, at least if you belong to the group who is programming their art themselves. Each piece takes you a long time planning, programming, tuning, etc., so it’s quite reasonable to recycle the algorithms you’ve already created and vary the content.
For me there is just no other option to make my art and get some attention for it. Most of the museums are far too conservative to commission computer based art [2] so as a young unknown media artist you have to draw some attention on you and your work, by embedding it in the pop cultural context. Another important point is that I grew up with pop culture and I try to reflect the media and the culture behind it with my works, so therefore my pieces often can be interpreted as media or social critique.