From an in-class exercise, a reflection on moving from "old" mediums to "new" mediums. What is gained, what is lost when we make the move? And what remains regardless?
"It is funny how the rise of photography and cinema were seen as cataclysmic for art (and politics) —they were the “new” media of the time, and marginalized in context of “fine” art … and now they are our “old” media 😅" - Audrey, ICAA Learner
"My take (very personal!) of AI is that it's simultaneously a data-collection tool, and a tool for digital visual production.... but not a medium of its own? I would consider it a tool for an existing medium" - Kat, ICAA Learner
"Thinking about the Kodak Charmera camera: a keychain camera that feels very retro and people assumed was vintage when it came onto the market, but actually is so new that it’s only available for preorder. what makes something feel like old media vs. new media can be very untethered from chronological time" - Lee, ICAA Assistant Teacher
EMILY
I was just thinking that new media is also a political term within cinema. Because it was a union distinction, new media wasn't covered work for a long time or then it had its own contract included and YouTube lived in that for a long long time and then they dissolved the new media because it was still considered cinematic labor, the same job roles. So there's similar things I think happening now with AI as you mentioned like is that new media or is it cinema and there's this whole other place where that's debated for different reasons of labor rights and I just think it's interesting because it remains contentious is like a way of disqualifying a professional legitimacy from a corporate perspective.
YELI
So, the term new media was, "Oh, this kind of work doesn't require as much and so we're going to...
EMILY
Yeah, it doesn't qualify as cinematic labor. If you're a grip or boom operator making something that's screened on YouTube or YouTube Red, you didn't have the same established labor rights as somebody doing the same exact work on Law and Order. Then it had its own contract. So it was less pay. And then that was dissolved in this last strike as a separate category.