New philosophy for new media - Mark B. N. Hansen

In New Philosophy for New Media, Mark Hansen defines
the image in digital 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 digital 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 digital age, arguing that we filter the
information we receive to create images rather than simply receiving images as
preexisting 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 digital revolution: a digitized image 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 image 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 color) from the
works of these and many other new media artists.