Cultural Politics

                                DIGITIZING THE ARTS 

Digital technology has changed virtually (pun not originally intended) every genre of art, while also making possible a host of new genres like digital murals, e-literature, various forms of net and software art, digital installation art, database art, game art, nano art, net art, augmented reality and virtual reality art, and much more.

                                                           ^{Judy Baca's digital mural, "Danza de la Tierra"} 

At the same time, cyberspace has proliferated points of access to non-digital art in the form of online museums, galleries, art encyclopedias, sites for individual artists, and so forth.

Since art is one of the most powerful expressive tools in human culture, art online is playing a crucial role in raising issues about inequalities and inadequacies of digital representation of various cultures and social visions.

Since it is impossible to cover all of the rich developments of socially critical art online, the links below give a small sampling of the many new media genres and forms that artists and cultural critics have utilized to resist oppression and fight for justice .

Some sites are actual works of digital art, others are resource sites for finding more examples of the diversity of new media art, and some are online repositories of resistant traditional art works.

Featured Site

• Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Great site for one of the most important public art centers in the world. Learn about the hundreds of community murals SPARC has created, preserved, and recorded, including many recent digital murals, including the monumental half-mile long "Great Wall of Los Angeles."

Representative Sites

• "A History of Computer Art." From 50s to 90s. No author, from Victoria & Albert Museum, London. UK 
• African American Music and Culture Archive Fine resource on jazz, blues, hip hop and other black cultural/political art forms.
• Alvarez, Cecilia Latina painter/muralist whose portraits raise issues of poverty and cultural identity.
• Amerinda A major resource on American Indian/Native artists and cultural workers of all kinds.
• Arab and Arab-American Art Contemporary art in new and old media.
• ArtCycloPedia Extensive guide to finding art and artists online.
• Art in the Public Interest Fine resource on community art movement(s).
• Archive of Digital Art  Extensive collection, from 1980s to the present.
• ArtPort Whitney Museum's net art portal.
• Assemblage: Women's New Media Gallery A no longer updated but still useful gallery of women's new media art.
• Augmented Reality Freedom Stories From the Augmented Reality Lab at York University for the Harriet Tubman Centre.
• Austin Museum of Digital Art.
• Awkward Black Girl Web series praised for its complex portrayal of contemporary black female identity.
• Beehive Collective Graphic artists focused especially on environmental justice and related social issues.
• Black, Hannah Feminist digi-vid artist.
• Black Shoals Digital art project that turns the stock market into a "night sky" of activity.
• Blackness for Sale (on eBay) Provocative piece by Keith Obadike.
• Blas, Zach Queer techno-theoretical art interventions.
• Brown Pride Site for the promotion of Latino/a arts and culture.
• Burson, Nancy Uses computer morphing and other digital tools to brilliantly interrogate questions of race, gender, sexuality and represent ion.
• cárdenas, micha Site for mixed-race trans femme latina who works through art and criticism on a "technology of change."
• Chan, Jennifer Video and new media feminist artist.
• Center for Story-based Activism. Narrative strategies for social change movements.
• Claiming Art, Reclaiming Space Post-Apartheid art from South Africa.
• Coe, Sue Prolific painter and printer maker who has made brilliant graphic illuminations of political issues ranging from apartheid to factory farming to AIDS to the prison industrial complex.
• CompArt Center for Excellence in Digital Art, Bremen, Germany
• Critical Art Ensemble Among the most influential troupes practicing tactical media, and digital performance art.
• Critical Voice Political performance art troupe.
• Crunk Feminist Collective zip hop generation feminists of color, queer and straight, creating resistance in art and scholarship.
• Cybracero by Alex Rivera. A sensible solution to the immigrant worker problem?
• Daniel, Sharon Website for digital media artist and theorist Sharon Daniel.
• Daniel: New Media Documentary: Technology for Social Inclusion Artist/theorist Sharon Daniel lecture on participatory culture and digital tech for social change.
• Day With(out) Art project (Visual AIDS) Art world response to AIDS deathtoll.
• DAM (Digital Art Museum) Berlin, Germany. Online & office galleries.
• Dia Art Foundation Web Projects Net art inspired by Dia.
• Digital Art & Design. Collection from Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
• Digital Storytelling A multicultural revival via digital media of the ancient art of community storytelling.
• Digitizing 'Chinese Englishmen' Creative archive aimed at decolonizing English orientalism.
• dpi: Feminist Journal of Art and Digital Culture
• Drawing the Line at Place: Environmental Justice Project Article on an unusual art project linking toxic waste and social injustice in Louisiana.
• Electronic Disturbance Theatre 2.0 Reincarnation of a key aesthetico-hactivist collective; now with a particularly strong focus on US-Mexico trans-border issues.
• Electronic Literature Organization A central resource for born digital lit.
• Feminist S/F Wiki Science fiction and fantasy have been major mediums for exploring gender as a social construction and technofeminism as a liberation strategy.
• Frameline National organization supporting gay and lesbian filmmaking.
• From the Center Digital storytelling from feminist working for prisoner justice.
• Fusco, Coco A multimedia/performance artist many of whose works brilliantly reflect on race, gender and technology.
• Future Stories Stunning augmented reality projects created or curated by stellar digital storyteller Caitlin Fisher.
• GuerillaGirls They call themselves the "feminist conscience of the art world," and have worked tirelessly for decades to bring greater gender and racial equality to the art and museum scene.
• Hapa Project Visually deconstructing mixed-race messages.
• Haozous, Bob A Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache sculptor who explores the deep complexities of contemporary Native identities.
• Heyman, Daniel Artist whose work includes striking portraits of Iraqis tortured by the US and its surrogates.
• Holzer, Jenny Brilliant digital feminist artist avant la LEDtre.
• Illuminator, The. Collective of guerrilla projection artists growing out of Occupy Wall Street.
• ImaginArte Digital archive of Chicano/Latina art.
• Jaar, Alfredo Chilean artist/architect much of whose work darkly illuminates political atrocities and injustices.
• Jordan, Chris. Photographic artist whose work includes portraying e-waste & other environmental issues caused by consumerism.
• Kruger, Barbara Genius godmother of the feminist meme.
• Latin American Net Art Database with dozens of links.
• Lin, Maya Famous as the creator of the Vietnam War Memorial, Lin is currently working on a major site-specific installation tracing the multicultural history of the Columbia River in Washington.
• Longhouse Media Project to involve Indian youth in new media production.
• Luna, James Site for this renowned Pooyukitchum (Luiseño) and Mexican-American performance artist and multimedia installation artist.
• ManifestAR International collective of augmented reality artists erasing the real/virtual border.
• Martinez, Marion Latina artist who comments on the traditional spirituality and new media via art made from electronic detritus.
• Mesa-Bains, Amalia Site for this important Chicana installation artist, known especially for her political redefinition of the altar.
• NetArt.net Extensive portal to net-based arts.
• Neural Journal of critical digital art and art hactivism.
• New Media Caucus Transnational non-profit org dedicated to new media art. Includes an extensive resource bibliography.
• Obadike, Mendi and Keith New (and old) media artists whose works often richly address race and gender.
• Piper, Keith British multimedia artist brilliantly treating the complexities of racial representation.
• Pitt, Lillian Wasco, Yakama, Warm Springs Indian whose work explores synergies between traditional and contemporary Native arts and cultures.
• Pocha Nostra Homepage for Mexican/Chicano political performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña and friends. Gomez-Peña has been among the most active users of digital media and digital metaphors to explore race and gender, particularly with regard to the cultures along and across the southern border of the US.
• Political Graffiti Art. 50 examples from Banksy to truly unknown guerrilla taggers.
• Public Secrets A searing multimodal exploration of exploitation of women in US prisons by Sharon Daniel.
• Reel Grrls Terrifically successful project empowering young women from low income communities to become video and film artists.
• Rent-a-Negro by Damali Ayo. A solution to liberal guilt?
• RetroType by Jessica Ivins. Play a female avatar stereotype from the not so good old days.
• Rhizome Art Base. Large collection of digital art works.
• Rosler, Martha Long one of the finest progressive multimedia artists and critics.
• Safavi, Reza Michael Digital multimedia artist and teacher at Washington State University.
• Sansour, Larissa Jerusalem-born mutlimedia artist much of whose work illuminates the injustices and political struggles in the Middle East.
• Shimomura, Roger Artist who combines Asian styles with pop culture graphics to illuminate cross-cultural social issues, like the Japanese internment of WWII as echoed in the occupation of Iraq by US forces.
• Sligh, Clarissa Multimedia artist with a long-time commitment to art for social justice.
• Tate Intermedia Portal to featured intermedia art from the Tate galleries of London.
• They Rule Digital art aimed at letting users map the US power elite.
• Third World Newsreel Longstanding collective that has produced many of the most important documentary films about social injustice in the US and worldwide.
• UCLA Digital Mural Lab
• Voices from the Gaps Rich site on Women artists and writers of color, US and beyond.
• Wilson, Fred Starting point to explore work of a key African American installation artist.
• WomenArt Links to many contemporary women artists.
• Women Who Rock Creative intervention into the history of music.
• World's Women online International women's art site.
• X-Mission Ursula Biemann project reflecting the Palestinian response to occupation.
• Yes Men Fix the World Finally, a global corporate conscience, or at least the pretense of one.
• Z, Pamela Multimedia sound artist/vocalist who plays with the politics of voice and cultural identity.

Studying New Media Art

• Bibliography from College Art Association's New Media Caucus