Query Publics in the Next Society: 'Artistic Technology Research' as [Dispositif] and Synergetic Discipline for the Agency of Research and Development in Next (Media) Cultures

Critical Media Arts do not only reflect on new technologies and how they transform society, they also offer a crucial laboratory for the development of new techniques and forms of presenting, structuring and conveying knowledge. New Media Arts in the 21st century work with distributed publics and identities, as the new media artists present their artistic processes “coded”[1] in the fragmentations of global networks. Terms such as “post-internet art” (Marisa Olson), “really new media art” and “internet aware art” (Guthrie Lonergan) describe a contemporary artistic and creative practice with a world view and concept of reality that emerged from virtual space permeating real life, creating a fusion of both and leading to something new: the hyperlocal world as we know it today (cf. Pang). Inke Arns writes about a “post-medial condition”[2] that can be succinctly described with the idea “code is law” (Lessig, Code is Law). “Medialities, dispositives and performances accompanying and elaborating medial processes” (translated from Mersch) are essential to describe, reflect and visualize a contemporary practice in New Media Arts – should it be needed to keep this categorization or name alive.