Multi-media

Multi-media is a term first used in the 1960s to describe mixed-media works that contained an electronic component. Unlike simple «mixed media», where traditional materials are combined, multi-media implies the introduction of technological elements — light, sound, film, video, slides, and later computer systems — into an artwork, often within a performance or environment. The development of multi-media was spurred by the happenings and events of the Fluxus movement, as well as by experiments at the intersection of art and technology. A landmark example of early multi-media was Andy Warhol's «Exploding Plastic Inevitable» with the band The Velvet Underground, which combined music, film, light projections, and dance. Multi-media practices were advanced by video artists, notably Nam June Paik, regarded as one of the founders of video art. With the advent of digital technologies at the end of the twentieth century, multi-media expanded into interactive installations and new-media art, becoming one of the leading forms of contemporary artistic creation.