A Question of Media

Relating to the previous entry written concering the stylings of Contemporary magazine, and thinking about the artistic practice of Douglas Gordon, I am am going to pose the question, Is It Important To Have A Specific Medium?

Firstly, the idea of what a medium is neds to be clarified. According to Dictionary.com, the definition is:

1. a middle state or condition; mean.
2. something intermediate in nature or degree.
3. an intervening substance, as air, through which a force acts or an effect is produced.
4. the element that is the natural habitat of an organism.
5. surrounding objects, conditions, or influences; environment.
6. an intervening agency, means, or instrument by which something is conveyed or accomplished: Words are a medium of expression.
7. one of the means or channels of general communication, information, or entertainment in society, as newspapers, radio, or television.
8. Biology. the substance in which specimens are displayed or preserved.
9. Also called culture medium. Bacteriology. a liquid or solidified nutrient material suitable for the cultivation of microorganisms.
10. a person through whom the spirits of the dead are alleged to be able to contact the living.
11. Fine Arts.
a. Painting. a liquid with which pigments are mixed.
b. the material or technique with which an artist works: the medium of watercolor.
12. a size of printing paper, 181/2 × 231/2 in. (47 × 60 cm) in England, 18 × 23 to 19 × 25 in. (46 × 58 to 48 × 64 cm) in America.
13. Chiefly British. a size of drawing or writing paper, 171/2 × 22 in. (44 × 56 cm).
14. Also called medium strip. Midland U.S. median strip.
15. in medium, Movies, Television. with the principal actors in the middle distance: The scene was shot in medium.
–adjective
16. about halfway between extremes, as of degree, amount, quality, position, or size: Cook over medium heat. He is of medium height.

The only point of real reference to this would be 11b, 'the material or technique with which an artist works'.

My initial thoughts on the question would be pose another one, being, 'should an artist be defined by the media you use?'. As a young artist, I often get asked, 'what do I do', of which the answer would be expected to be the name of a type of media. Even suggesting the answer of 'mixed media' leads to the conclusion that media is what I would first think of when starting a piece of work. The only general term I could muster to discribe my work would be conceptual art.

So then, could the term 'conceptual' be a type of medium? If a medium is a techique, for conceptualism could this be thinking? Perhaps I only believe that a medium is not imporatant as I do not fit in with the traditional ideas of medium. However if new ideas such as those trying to be put forward here are made known, the medium is once again made to be an important factor.

I think the point I am trying to get at here is that if a new medium is estalished which through this all types of set medium may be used to express it, the idea of having a specific medium may be ok. This seems rather contridictory, but if ownership of a medium is important, a new one needs to be created for those who put control into thought, which would be visualied through any stablished medium.

So as usual, I appear to have made a few random points without really answering the original quesion. Perhaps I should come back to this one.