Artists have always been early adopters of emerging media technologies, from Albrecht Dürer and his use of the printing press in the 16th century to Nam June Paik's experiments with video in the 1960s. The advent of the internet as a popular medium catalyzed a global art movement that began to explore the cultural, social, and aesthetic possibilities of such new communication technologies—the web, CCTV surveillance cameras, cell phones, hand-held computers, and GPS devices.

Focusing on New Media art as a specific art historical movement, this book explores its technologies, thematic content and conceptual strategies. New Media art often involves appropriation, collaboration, and the sharing of ideas and expressions, and frequently addresses issues of identity, commercialization, privacy, and the public domain. Many New Media artists are profoundly aware of their art historical antecedents, making reference to Dada, Pop Art, Conceptual art, Performance art, and Fluxus.