The West Midlands as an 'Electronic Super Highway': BOM and the Emergence of New Art Infrastructures

Newman, Karen

doi:https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0019.214

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The West Midlands as an ‘Electronic Super Highway’: BOM and the Emergence of New Art Infrastructures

Karen Newman

Birmingham Open Media

Journal of Electronic Publishing

Volume 19, Issue 2: Disrupting the Humanities: Towards Posthumanities, Fall 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0019.214

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Abstract

Applying Clayton Christensens’s theory of Disruptive innovation to seminal artworks and the development of film and photography, Newman considers the new art infrastructures emerging through the sharing economy. Newman considers the importance of manufacturing and industry in the West Midlands and suggests the region could claim the position of an authentic “Electronic Superhighway” (a term coined by artist Nam June Paik in 1974), as well as providing fertile ground for new collaborative spaces and the local manufacturing of artists'’ ideas.