Abstract
In the field of art documentation, media provide measures necessary to communicate and preserve visual information composed of colors and forms, as well as relevant textual information.
The aim of this essay is to examine the aspects of media's functions in art documentation and to determine characteristics of various media.
First, it points out the necessity of systematic comprehension of media through observing the relationship between images and language.
Second, the birth and dissemination of visual information media are historically traced, and their influence on the social structure is examined in connection with the technological progress.
Third part of this essay analyzes a variety of visual information media and describes the social change in which the duplication of the visual information has become more conspicuous than ever, thus making the distinction between
"originals" and "copies" meaningless.
