Dear ASPECT friends:

After ten years, twenty-six DVDs and the published works of over 200 artists, the staff and board of ASPECT have decided to stop publishing our DVD periodical. Looking back on what we have accomplished, it is no understatement to say that we took on the art world and changed the way it looks at new media art.

When ASPECT published our first DVD in 2003 there were few, if any, dedicated new media programs at the graduate or undergraduate level in the world. Youtube and Facebook did not yet exist. At that time the idea of getting video directly from artists and publishing it for the use and consumption of universities, students and other artists was considered impossible. A DVD periodical was an unknown idea, and it took several years to educate the public as to the potential of such a format.

Today, new media art programs exist at universities around the world. Many artists publish their work on their own website or on video sharing services. Video art is a much more accepted and understood medium, and the broader genre of new media art has been accepted and integrated into galleries, museums and academia. However, the concept of pairing primary source material and critical analysis in the same publication remains unique to ASPECT.

The world has changed around us and accepted the genre, format and approach that ASPECT has been highlighting. Therefore it is time for us to say thank you to all the artists who have contributed their work, the commentators who have lent their time and expertise, and the staff and volunteers over the years who have made this publication possible.

Bill Arning, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and a renowned expert on new media who was involved with ASPECT from its beginnings recalls, “When ASPECT started there was great confusion about how art lovers and students were to experience time-based artworks, with no clearly defined distribution systems in place. ASPECT’s vision was to put DVDs directly into the hands of eager viewers until the art world mechanisms could catch up to what the best artists were making. I am proud to have been part of this history.”

In Spring 2013, we will be publishing our final release, Volume 21: A Good Place to Stop. We hope you have enjoyed ASPECT over the past ten years, and will continue to use our disks and online resources for years to come.

Thank you.

Michael Mittelman
Founder