The Avant-Garde and Media Arts

Abstract

The avant-garde has served as an agent of change in the arts and correspondingly in aesthetics throughout the twentieth century, as well as earlier. As a major force in the development of the arts throughout the twentieth century and beyond, the avantgarde has functioned in two different roles: to challenge and attempt to depose the traditional arts, and to generate new art through innovation. In its quest for the new and rendering obsolete the past it parallels other developments in the production of industrial commodities and fashion. The emergence of electronic media arts signals the beginning of new possibilities for avant-garde art. As an element of the human mind grounded in human nature, the avant-garde will continue to be a factor in the future of art independently of its singular fate.