The question should not be "How is digital
media effecting young artists?" but should be "How are young artists
using digital media to express themselves?" We want to show how the digital
intersects with other media and with other aspects of their lives.
What we've found is hybridity running throughout the stages of research, production,
distribution, and community. Both virtually and physically, pulling from all
available resources, tools, communities, networks has become an important skill
for young artists. Their talents start with being able to organize clusters
of information, draw inspiration across various media, and translate their findings
into their chosen medium.
Professor Henry Jenkins and Vanessa Bertozzi co-authored the chapter "Artistic
Expression in the Age of Participatory Culture: How and Why Young People Create"
for the Curb Center for the Arts and Enterprise, with the Wallace Foundation.
Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life, co-edited
by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper, is due out in October of 2007.
Research: Digital media has enhanced what Gee termed "affinity spaces"
no longer bounded by physical space. Young artists research usually starts with
community of peers, helping to encourage and critique their work, giving pointers
and teaching each other techniques. All types of media and cultural materials
can be found at kids' fingertips—through their computer keyboards that
is. The massive and deep amounts of information on any given topic are there
for any young artist who chooses to seek it out. The so-called "Napster
generation" is being accused of "stealing" but maybe these appropriations
are more like a form of apprenticeship wherein kids learn valuable structural
lessons and technical skills which prepare them for originality. Appropriation
seems to be a stepping stone to originality. Through creating projects and sharing
them with an audience, young people invest themselves in their own work. When
"the tables are turned," young people must work through questions
of copyright and ethics on a personal level.
Production: New media means more options, thus more decisions, more boundaries
to play with. Young artists are spending a lot of time staking out what certain
types of media mean to them and how working in a medium informs their identity
to a certain extent. There's a push and pull between high tech and lo-fi modes
of production wherein young artists struggle to formulate and articulate their
own philosophies. Most of the young artists see production as a process through
which they learn skills and come to a sharper understanding of their subject.
Whether it's done with "old-fashioned" media such as needle and thread
or cutting edge technology such as Adobe AfterEffects, it comes down to the
kids expressing themselves.
Distribution: Young artists today know themselves and subsequently know how
to target an audience. They are pushing the limits of technology to get their
work out there, but at the same time tap into real life social networks. The
Net acts as a distribution channel. Networking is a survival skill. There is
a striking flow back and forth between the virtual to the live and a reassertion
of the face-to-face encounter within this creative process.
Community: Affinity groups provide valuable feedback and also enthusiastic recognition.
At the same time, these kids are often stepping into an adult (or mixed aged,
sometimes this isn't even apparent) realm. The initiation from naivete to savvy
can sometimes be tricky. It's a question of opening kids up to being vulnerable
while also providing them with opportunities.
Getting at the risks— and the need to prepare young artists for them—as
well as the triumphs is key. It is too easy to focus on one side or the other.
But what we need right now is a realistic midground approach which helps us
to identify what skills (including interpersonal skills) kids need to function
in a world they are entering.
