I would locate myself as more of the first word art artist, at least as for now, because I’m still experimenting with different tools and ideas to see what I like & suits me the most. A year in college has already greatly expanded my understanding of the field art+tech; In specific, I now know that media art isn’t limited to filmmaking/3D animation/ games, and that there are thousands of machines, algorithms, and codes that we can implement to create art. Since I haven’t tried out the majority of the implementations in my practice, I’m currently located at the front of the spectrum, at least in my perspective of media art.
I find the development of industries be the main factor that shapes media art tools and practices. For example, media art and www based art were initialized when the devices began to generalize. Drawing on the canvas that cannot be physically seen or touched without a help of a device probably felt weird and hard to understand to people back in the 20th century. The new technologies shaped our culture in such way that visualization of an idea became easier and clearer to deliver to others, helping the artists to express themselves better with fewer hindrance.
At the same time, I find those development in culture and artistic practices to shape the technological developments; The more people begin to use the new technologies as their tool of expression, the more people find and realize the limitations of these technologies. Hence, it is the thirsty one that digs the well, i.e. these artists begin to develop their own customized softwares that can help them visualize their ideas.