Multi-media' is a word commonly used to describe creative work where artists of different disciplines converge to create art that can only be described as hybrid. The nature of this type of work is to cross boundaries between the arts, consequently creating a very fluid area that has so far successfully avoided being categorized as a specific movement.
Installation art is one area that provides a context to mix different artistic disciplines.
This pulling together of elements from different artforms to create a 'gestalt' that cannot exist in its composite parts but only as an integrated whole emphasises the necessity of experiencing artwork first hand rather than from inadequate reproductions. The viewer enters an installation and actually physically inhabits the same space as the artwork therefore affecting the piece by their presence. Some installations play more on this interaction and encourage the viewer to become actively involved in the piece. In addition installations are usually temporary and so are very much located in the present tense. They focus on the relationship between different elements in a particular context at a specific moment in time.