Daniels, Dieter 1994. Ars ex machina - Zur Kunst auf CD-Rom. In: ArtIntAct 1. [unknown address]:Hatje Cantz Verlag

The text starts with the following question: ‘Can a CD-ROM be a work of art? This might be a foolish question but it seems hard to avoid with the current success of this new medium.’. What now seems to be obsolete again was one of the current topics in 1994. Therefore Daniels tries to identify how this “new” medium can find its place in art. Yet he argues that ‘This [comparison between Duchamps’ Rotoreliefs and CD-Roms] demonstrates the general difficulty in placing artistic models and visions in relation to industrial and technological reality, even though the artistic vision anticipates the technological developments decades in advance.’

Further he says ‘the medium used determines the cultural context in which the work is perceived, and each new medium asks for a new definition of the social role and aesthetic function of art.’. He then also points out the critical discussion about the uniqueness of digital art, that due to the reproducability of binary code might be lost.

This text is also availble in:

• German in: „ArtIntAct 1", Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe and Cantz Verlag 1994, p. 7 – 24
• Spanish in: Media Culture, ed. Claudia Giannetti, Barcelona 1995, p. 55 – 60
• Japanese: in: Image Forum, Tokyo, 6/ 1995, No. 185, p. 38 – 45