ABSTRACT
The technological basis of art responding to the internet forces a look at technological predecessors. This sounds obvious but its suppositions are worth examining. What do we mean by “technology”? And why would a handheld video performance of the 1970s be intrinsically connected to an experiment conducted on social media? Why would the relation between a self-regulating machine of the Cold War-era and an iPhone be seen as signifi cant, but the connection between an iPhone and a refrigerator be a more surprising one to make? Many histories of “media arts” are organised simply by their common sign of a use of new technologies; under this broad heading, we can fi nd, at times, video art, new media arts, digital arts, net.art, sound art, and even post-internet art.
