Use of new media technologies in public art

In the modern city structured with digital equipment, artists have both made the chaotic structure of metropolises visible and expressed their opinions on political and social events through art in the public space. As the most current material of this expression, new media technologies shape public spaces. With the development of the Internet and its use in art, a new publicness has emerged and art has gone beyond physical spaces. With real-time installations and performances, physical spaces have functioned as spaces open to the participation and intervention of audiences from all over the world. Elements that structure public spaces such as sculptures and architectural surfaces are reproduced with digital screen and video projection technologies, while virtual object and space designs take place within physical spaces with augmented reality and virtual reality applications. This thesis is a research that reveals the reflections of new media art in public spaces in a broad perspective from the world in general to the developments in Turkey in particular. For this reason, the second chapter begins with a theoretical definition of the public sphere, emphasizing its changing meaning and development until modern times. The public art activities in Turkey, which progressed in a politically and socially different line from the development of public art, were discussed, and the transition of the historical process that started with Atatürk sculptures to international festivals was analyzed through examples. In the third chapter, a conceptual analysis of new media art is discussed, and the genres of art with the technologies used are discussed within their historical development. The fourth chapter, which deals with the relationship between artificial intelligence and art, has been examined comprehensively due to the insufficiency of thesis studies in the field and has been handled as a separate chapter. In the fifth chapter, the reflections of new media technologies on public art are categorized and explained with examples, and both international and Turkish events are evaluated comparatively. In the study, which adopts an artist and work-oriented approach, public art productions involving new media technologies and their effects on space are discussed through interviews with Refik Anadol, Erdal İnci, Ferdi Alıcı and the Nohlab team.