Medium specificity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medium specificity is a principle in aesthetics and art criticism that developed during the period in art history called Modernism. According to Clement Greenberg, who helped popularize the term, medium specificity holds that "the unique and proper area of competence" for a form of art corresponds with the ability of an artist to manipulate those features that are "unique to the nature" of a particular medium[1].
Today, the term is used both to describe artistic practices and as a way to analyze artwork. Critic N. Katherine Hayles, for example, speaks of "media specific analysis." [2] As discussed by critic Marshall Soules, medium specificity and media specific analysis are playing an important role in the emergence of new media art forms, such as Internet art [3].
Applications of the principle appear throughout Modernist and Contemporary art.
[edit] References
- ^ Clement Greenberg. Modernist Painting.
- ^ N. Katherine Hayles. What Cybertext Theory Can't Do.
- ^ Marshall Soules. Animating the Language Machine: Computers and Performance.
