What is New Media?
Jodi.org changed the way many people think about the Internet, demonstrating that it didn't just provide a new way to publish information; it could also be an art medium like oil painting, photography, or video. Like other works of New Media art, jodi.org exploited an emerging technology for artistic purposes... To "old media" companies, these nascent technologies indicated a move away from traditional outlets, such as newspapers and television, to emerging forms of interactive multimedia. -- New Media Art by Mark Tribe and Reena Jana
Put simply, New Media art projects "make use of emerging media technologies and are concerned with the cultural, political, and aesthetic possibilities of these tools". (Tribe and Jana)
Why does it matter?
New Media art addresses current and timeless societal issues using the same technology that both enables and disrupts modern life. Using the visual coding of older media from previous generations, new media art is the continuation of the mass-mediated-communication traditions with the addition of the benefits of newer and more-capable technology. Often, the themes explored in New Media art directly correlate with the mediums that materialize them, reflexively commenting on the conceptual or material nature of the medium or technology and how it effects its users and society more broadly.How is New Media Art created and who creates it?
As stated in the above What is New Media section, new media art uses emerging technology as expressive mediums, much like older art mediums like painting, photography, or film. New Media Art by Mark Tribe and Reena Jana, states that the accessibility of the internet in the 1990s and the advancements in personal computing hardware and software around the same time has since allowed anyone with access to be creators, form New Media art groups, and proliferate new media art (pages 8-9).The diversity of creators, therefore, is very diverse and becomes more so as access to the means of production becomes more equitable. Rather than explain how New Media art is created, it is better to show existing examples of new media art. This gallery is a topical glimpse into the broad array of topics that make up New Media Art. This is in no way an exhaustive or definitive display of what new media art is, but this gallery is here as a visual aid to briefly introduce unfamiliar web patrons to the topic.
For more definitive reading on the topic, Mark Tribe and Reena Jana's New Media Art, among others, is a very good resource and a good place to start. The introduction to their book is where many of the following artists in the gallery were sourced, and their coverage on the topic is immensely more thorough than the scope of the gallery.