The relations that operate dynamically within artmaking systems need to be elucidated when teaching new media either as practice or as history. Toward that end the author proposes an extended conceptual structure of cybernetics that includes the motivations within a system and its coherence.

This paper takes a brief look at the early years of computer-graphic and video-synthesizer–driven image production in Australia. It begins with the first (known) Australian data visualization, in 1957, and proceeds through the compositing of computer graphics and video effects in the music videos of the late 1980s. The author surveys the types of work produced by workers on the computer graphics and video synthesis systems of the early period and draws out some indications of the influences and interactions among artists and engineers and the technical systems they had available, which guided the evolution of the field for artistic production.

This paper reviews the first “Consciousness Reframed” conference. A number of artists' works in media such as virtual reality and interactive installations are discussed, and various issues relating to “technoetic” artworks are raised. These issues include questions such as the potentially dehumanizing nature of technology, the transcendent states claimed for cyberspace, the nature of immersion, and aspects of the problem of consciousness. The author offers some suggestions regarding how technoetic art might tackle such issues.