Dick Higgins
“A composer is a dead man unless he composes for all the media and for his world.” I like this statement. The concept is essential to consider when discussing new media and the climate of art in an evolving technological world. Persons who use traditional media must be aware of how their audiences are receiving information and how that is reflecting on the way they are interpreting art. As artists we must consider all mediums.
Higgins begins to talk about intermedia as if it was not conceivable if it not for the traditional tools and associations in modern art. This is something that I agree with firmly. The foundations of modern art must be considered, but as he moves on he discusses the impact that new technologies have had on how artists solve the problems associated with art. He does however seem to be quite cynical and critical of “dangerous forces” and the Vietnam war, in which case, if he were to have been developing these concepts during the last decade his opinion may be a little different. Then again maybe not. Maybe the climate of today’s society is not shaped by the technologies themselves and that these technologies can be appropriated in the name of art. Obviously that is his point… all I’m saying is maybe it would be a little different in the age of cell phones, wire tapping, corporate media, Internet, etc… Since his time the system Higgins locked arms against has become a beast with a bigger head. How ugly and beautiful it all is.
Higgins associates social issues with the development of intermedia. He talks about joining forces to raise the awareness of the masses and make changes… how this should be the subject matter of the intermedia artist. Something I disagree with. I do like some art that would fall into this notion of resistance, I just think that intermedia shouldn’t be discussed as the medium for the political artist. Anyway artists like Picasso and Courbet and any other that have dealt with pushing administrative forces fall into this “intermedia” category according to Higgins.
Picasso is an artist who profoundly represents what an intermedia artist would be according to Higgins. Appropriating found objects into his sculptures and collages, Picasso pushed the boundaries of existing media not only with subject matter but also by incorporating a new ideological structure of what can be considered art. Picasso also was politically motivated at times. Andy Goldsworthy re-appropriates media in a similar fashion taking on nature and the elements to show a new way of looking at the outdoors and photography and the artist and artist’s role
