To page 246 in The New Media Reader

TIME LINE:
1960's: Idea of intrinsic importance of medium gains popularity.
1966: Founding of E.A.T.
1968: ARC Technological demonstration.

The main focus of this portion of the book was on artists, mostly of the sixties, and their views and usage of New Media in art; as well as the meaning of computer and electronic media in the artistic sphere. What I found quite interesting was Macluhan's take on meaning within a medium itself. He describes a light bulb as being a medium in and of itself, as a transmitter of information. Any information actually transmitted, in the form of words or light, actually constitutes a separate medium. This led me to start thinking about the computer and the internet in these terms. A computer, while often a medium in and of itself, as become the main method for transmitting information and other media. The transition medium (computer, light bulb), may actually have more intrinsic meaning than the media transmitted.
It was ideas like Macluhan's that clearly led to the founding of the E.A.T. I have always been personally fascinated by the exploration of technology as a means of artistic expression, so this portion of the text was really interesting to read. The piece that I found most interesting in its melding of technical and artistic intent was John Cage's piece in which sound and light were generated by the nuances of a tennis match, which used a chaotic game to control the output of a rigid technological structure.