The Art Academy in Trondheim (now part of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)) was the first educational institution connecting technology directly to its educational programme. In the 1990s the school established the 'Intermedia Department', the first Norwegian art training within the field of new media.

The history of the new media in Norway is more than anything a history of independent production networks, workshops and one-night arrangements, and in the late 1990s a whole scene of units and independent projects came to the fore. Internet was taken into use, especially by the music scene. An early project was Nood by Per Platou and Ulf Knudsen. The first large institutional exhibition devoted to electronical art in Scandinavia was Electra in 1996 at the Henie-Onstad Art Centre. Ståle Stenslie, Knut Mork, Kate Pendry and Marius Watz´s work sense:less was an important Norwegian contribution at this exhibition.

One year later, the Art Academy in Trondheim arranged the international project Screens together with Trondheim Museum of Fine Arts, a project devoted to exploring the possibilities opened up by new technology when considering the aesthetics of the computer and video screen. The House of the Artists in Oslo also arranged the exhibition e-on and in 1999 the electronic art exhibition Detox travelled around Norway with artists such as Knut Mork, Atle Barcley and Thomas Kvam. In 1998 the Arts Council Norway established a grant for art and new technology with the aim of strengthening art production based on the so-called new medias. In the few years this grant has existed Norway has seen an explosion in the use of digital sound and visual medias. In 2001 the production network Produksjonsnettverk for Elektronisk Kunst (PNEK), followed by four different substructures in three different cities, was established. The substructures are Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (BEK), Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre (TEKS), Atelier Nord, and Norwegian Network for Technology, Acoustics and Music (NoTAM). The intention behind this decentralised model was to develop and spread the professional knowledge to different cities, and make the technology available for a larger amount of artists.

Representative examples of projects and artist groups on the new media scene in Norway the recent years are for example the artist group Motherboard which, through live performances and installations, has shown a strong relationship to the electronic art field. Other names are Ståle Stenslie, Hans Christian Gilde, Marius Watz, the sound art group Ballongmagasinet, Thomas Kvam and Frode Oldereid, Noemata.net, Jørgen Larsson and Sol Sneltvedt. Independent theatre groups such as Force Majeure, Bak-Truppen, Verdens Theatre, 'De utvalgte' and Mobile Homes has also experimented with integrating electronic art in their theatre/dance/performance acts. In 2003 the National Museum of Contemporary Art arranged a large retrospective exhibition entitled Written in Stone - a ne-art archeology. For people working within the electronic art field this was an important signal, indicating that Norwegian institutions also wanted to take active part in the development of this expanding field. In addition, a vital sound and contemporary music scene has emerged in recent years. The art radio station Pilota FM (see http://www.pilota.fm/) as well as artists/musicians such as Kim Hiorthøy, Deathprod and Alexander Rishaug are examples of the playfulness and artistic freedom within this field today.