KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS OF NEW MEDIA ARTISTS

Knowledge-based economies regard a high importance to knowledge and technology for the productivity and economic performance of societies. Its importance extends to the cultural sector, where it is considered to have an important role to creativity. The formation of knowledge networks in the sector responds to the common formation of social networks and its function as a way to access and share knowledge. In the artistic genre of new media art, which is based on the intersection between art, science, and technology, the constant acquisition and reconfiguration of explicit and tacit knowledge is important, which is most often approached by the means of interdisciplinary collaborations. Based on empirical data collected through 14 interviews to new media artists, this research answers the research question: To what extent do social networks of new media artists foster processes of creation, transfer, and adoption of knowledge? Furthermore, in order to answer this main question, this research delve into the study of the networks and the ways to access to them; as well as the motivations, the learnings, and the contexts present in these knowledge-related processes. Mexico City was chosen as the empirical setting for this study. This research contributes to the available information and understanding about new media art by looking into social phenomena that affect the production of artworks. Also, the results provide relevant information about the way in which learning processes happen between actors of interdisciplinary practices. The results confirm the importance of knowledge networks for new media art and the contexts in which knowledge is created, transferred, and adopted. They highlight the importance of horizontal relationships in interdisciplinary collaborations and projects, a characteristic that fosters the flow of knowledge between the actors involved.