Abstract

Two series of works will be presented and some general questions concerning new media art will be discussed. These works,  which were made in the past two decades, are the Programmed Machines and the Collective Intelligence Machines, which have at times been considered as belonging to a conceptual side of technological art, examples of a technological-conceptual art, less inclined to an aestheticising or spectacular use of digital technologies. 
It will be argued that in digital art there are two main tendencies, whose differences should be considered with greater attention: 
- on the one hand there is a more narrative and aesthetic production, based upon the "virtuality" of outcomes (images, metaphores, representation, simulation...); 
- on the other hand there is a more conceptual production, based upon the "effectuality" of the device (in interactive installations this concept is not limited to hardware and software but is extended to include the members of the public), and its minimal, abstract and purposeless activation. 
It will be underlined that this latter approach is deeply related to XX century pre-technological avantgarde. 
Differences among these two major tendencies will be discussed also in relation to other technologies which are going to enter artistic production, such as biotechnologies (entailing crucial ethical problems for example in transgenic works) and  nanotechnologies (which might have an impact in terms of the "derealization" of matter). It will be concluded that these developments could make the distinction between a device-oriented and an outcome-oriented technological art even more relevant. 

- programmed machines
- collective intelligence machines
- virtuality of results and effectuality of devices
- minimal and purposeless activation of digital devices 
- biotechnologies and nanotechnologies