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In 2019, I’m Aiming for Mars
Fifteen years ago, I joined the “new media” revolution.
In the mid-2000s, I decided to dive into a new art field called “new media.” As defined in 2004, new media combined traditional media creation methods for internet and digital consumption. Some of new media’s aesthetics and storytelling tropes were borrowed from older sci-fi media authors such as Issac Asimov, Jules Verne, or H.G. Wells; cyberpunk culture; and Japanese anime and manga like Aeon Flux, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop. New media was globalized art you can consume outside of gallery spaces and theaters. It was art for the masses.
It is now fifteen years later. Digital media arts is no longer called new media. The digital media revolution is now in its adolescence. When it’s commercialized, it’s called “digital content.” Its aesthetics used to sell records and shoes. Netflix and YouTube are now global brands. VR has made a comeback and looks like it will stick around this time. So it’s time to push digital media into overdrive and pilot that ship to Mars.
I was a black kid from the swamp. Why did I think I could ever become a digital artist? It was a field that didn’t exist when I was growing up. I don’t know. Maybe I was going through an Afrofutristic phase I never grew out of. Maybe I should blame my high school and the late…