New media art in Lithuania

Abstract

This article strives to illustrate the main trends of Lithuanian digital art, to name the relevant artists and activists, and to distinguish applicable creative strategies as well as the most significant features of the artefacts of the new generation. From the moment of its expansion, digital media has become the object of reflections as well as the means of expression and experiment of the artists of the new generation. New media has opened up possibilities to create simulation models of institutions, to test them, to apply new methods of cooperation, communication and creation, and to re/construct new identities as well as to have a closer look at the models of societal behaviour. Lithuanian media art is heterogeneous – it combines linear and non-linear media, audio and visual information, textual data and images; it exists in the spaces of on-line as well as off-line experience. Namely, the latter media art (most often presented in the form of visual and video installations) has soon established itself within the realm of national art and has acquired institutional status. Meanwhile, the net art, interactive installations, multimedia art or projects of virtual reality have become an integral part of youth subcultures – a certain “counter-culture” phenomenon.