my definitions:
tool: a device that amplifies human 1-capabilities.
medium: vessel through which thought is enabled to be concretised & expressed.
material: an artist uses tools to synthesise material — both tangible & intangible — to eventually deliver it via a medium.
sourced:
from “Creating with the Digital: Tool, Medium, Mediator, Partner”, by Linda Candy.
A tool is a device designed precisely for a purpose, like a file to shape nails or a drill to make holes in wood or plaster.
^ also related: a brief rant on the future of interaction design, by bret victor.
Seen as a medium, an algorithm determines the visual appearance, sound, movement and the mechanism for delivering it: the type of screen, canvass, aluminium base or the environment into which it is conveyed. For artists working with digital technologies, there is a distinction between the code as medium and the tools used for performing supplementary tasks. The computer code is not just an instrument for making something but it is also the very material of the work itself.
from: https://guides.highpoint.edu/c.php?g=859095&p=6155521:
The term MEDIUM can be applied to both the type of art in question (i.e. painting, pottery, photography) as well as the MATERIALS that go into making a work of art.
So, a sculpture can be produced in the medium of marble or stainless steel. A painting can be in the medium of oil paint or watercolors. An architect can build a building using the media of steel, glass or poured concrete.
Footnotes
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one might argue that a good tool for a dog may not amplify human capability. the correct word is ‘user of the tool’, but i work under the assumption that this definitions holds true for tools made for human-beings. ↩