NEW MEDIA is the process of creating media that did not exist before. The thermometer was once a new medium: It was invented to observe an event and communicate that observation beyond the event itself. The thermostat took the concept one step further by creating a feedback loop between observation and action. As human needs and the environments we live in change, we at times need to innovate new media to help us understand and adapt to these changes.

From 1969 onward, media innovations were concentrated in the area of Information Technology. and many media innovations looked like art projects before they became part of mainstream culture. In courses including Data Arts, Game Design Methods, and Video Art, UC Berkeley students study the history of these innovations, methods for pursuing and realizing ideas collaboratively, and methods for critically understanding the impacts of new media on humans, communities, systems, environments, cats, and other living things.

An outstanding example of new media art is work of Alumnus Ian Cheng, who created a new way of making art with his autonomous interactive agents, and of many others who contributed to the development of new games, new cultures, and ultimately, new ways of life.