Yes it is. These different forms of cultural theory can enter into a reciprocally productive relationship. This cross-disciplinary exploration exceeds the realm of qualifications of cultural products, such as art works produced with digital means. It should instead be discussed within the wider context of what I would (naively) call 'visual culture'.
To narrow the discussion down to art criticism and the qualification of works of art produced with digital media, it is first of all necessary to question how the structural characteristics of new media redefine the existing categories of judgment and discourse. It should then be possible to propose some fruitful connections between art criticism and media theory.
The implementation of new digital media in the practice of (visual) arts engenders a radical redefinition of the categories of judgment, both on the level of the formal characteristics of the works themselves, as well as their contextualization. To understand these changes these works have to be provided with an expanded theoretical framework. This can only be properly developed by forging strategic connections between the existing discourses of art criticism and media theory.
Formal Characteristics
Changes can be found within the following categories:
Time: Static; Dynamic; Linear (Time Based Arts); Non-linear (Interactive Art / Network Art)
Space: Representation; Virtual Space (VR); Networked Space
Discipline: Writing; Sound; Interaction
(as new categories of practice in the visual arts)
Reception: Light; Interactivity; Distribution Channels
Contextualization
The shifts in the contextualization of new cultural products produced with digital media, should be discussed at two distinct levels. The works of art firstly start to function within the new context of the general media space. This is a phenomenon which is not particular to the use of digital media. These shifts in context can be identified in a wider realm; arts for television, art on video-tape, multimedia art works on CD-ROM, network art.
But more important, yet, is the social and cultural impact of the new media technologies themselves. It is important to recognize that the development of new (media-) technologies is largely driven by interests that lie outside of the cultural sphere (i.e. economic and military incentives). The proliferation of these technologies through all levels of society, in particular of the computer (the 'digital revolution'), continuously de- and re-constructs the societal context in which all cultural products function. This shift pertains not only to the economic, but also to the political functions, the structures of social communication, and the distribution channels and production means of visual culture and visual signification.
The current state of the (visual) cultures of the post-industrial (or information-based) societies can be diagnosed as a state of immanent 'crisis'. The shifts that implicate these cultures can only be properly qualified by forging these connections in media- and arts-discourses. The history of the arts enters this discourse as the discourse of cultural memory, which informs my naive notion of visual culture.