New media artists—and, more broadly, those who consider themselves to
be “creative” technologists—increasingly find themselves questioning whether or not to use
tools that are owned or administered by companies that engage in activity that they consider
to be problematic, such as surveillance, cooperation with discriminatory law enforcement
practices, or toxic work cultures. However, it is difficult to conceive of a tech-based art
practice that functions without utilizing $2 of the dominant technologies that we find
ourselves surrounded by on a regular basis. As a result, artists who work with technology
are inevitably thrust into perpetually shifting situations or environments, controlled by
the tech industry, which then directly impact the creation of their work; its longevity;
and, often, their own perceptions of it. This paper represents the beginnings of an
investigation into the relationships between new media artists, the tools they use for their
work (including data sources and APIs, hardware and software, operating systems, and project
storage), and those who control these technologies. I seek to portray this creative
community as one that exists in a state of constant uncertainty, and that finds itself in
this position at the behest of the interests of the tech industry—which both uses artists’
work as a way of positioning itself as cutting-edge and original, and as a means of locating
potential sites of intentional misuse and subversion. Artists are thus forced to constantly
adapt their processes to the demands of those who control the technology, ultimately
reinforcing the authority of these dominant systems.
From ‘Stillness Becoming’ to ‘Making Time’ Digital Surface within My New Media-Art Practice
