What is Digital Art?

The following paragraph from an article by Paul Matthaeus from the January February Issue of Communication Arts, page 52 makes a good argument for where Digital Art is heading.  the article is  about the transition in commercial TV away from expensive special effects houses to desktop multi-media platforms.

"In the mid-"80s, print was revolutionized by an innocent little box called the Macintosh, and programs like Pagemaker and Illustrator. Suddenly the ability to manipulate text, design, texture and color was in the hands of the proletariat. Typesetters decried the technical deficiencies. "The Macintosh will never have the kerning pairs of a Mergenthaler!" And over a decade later, it still doesn't. But it enabled millions the opportunity to manipulate the media. Iteration after iteration, layer upon layer, the breadth and depth of design exploded, producing some wildly interesting work from the uninitiated and design illiterate. People who had no idea what the "rules" were, and felt no loss when they were broken"...had no business doing what they did, but thank God they did.  . . . desktop video may never reach the highly controlled and calibrated quality of conventionally-produced high-end Video. . . but like in Print, it just won't matter."

Whereas the integrity of an Artist's work must always be the major concern, Digital Artists must currently avoid being suckered into corporate maneuvering that limits creativity and access based on old standards, materials and money.
The Digital Artist will have to work for many years, now, to counter the already faint-hearted gallery owners who use ink longevity and desperate clinging to old materials as an excuse to ignore THE WORK that digital artists create. In the new world we are currently creating, high cost will no longer signify superior work. Galleries and critics alike will soon have to realize that creativity, vision, diversity and craftsmanship have returned as the benchmarks of "value".

Digital tools can make Art that is accessible; Art that everyday people can afford to take home and live with.  Digital artists now are akin to the Japanese print makers of the 1700 and 1800s. Their colorful, masterful, fast moving artworks served a living purpose. A purpose that was inextricably bound to expanded creative and commercial bandwidth brought about by new tools and techniques. The market for those prints roared with the life of mass approval.

Digital Art: The Quest for Presence

"Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. In all arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. We mustexpect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art."
Paul Valery, "The Conquest of Ubiquity"

It has been over 60 years since Paul Valery wrote those words and in that time we have seen his predictions materialize two or three times. And now  we again see the emergence of technological tools that will reshape or expand nearly every aspect of art. It is time to put down the operating manuals, lift our eyes from the luminous screen and look at where we are, and where we may be heading.

Where does digital art fit into the history of fine art? Does work created on the computer constitute a new art form? Or, is the computer simply a new tool for making old art? How does digital art fare in the word play of post modernist theories and esthetics? Those of us who are working on computers  to create art need to consider all this and more if we are to see that work advance into its rightful place. In fact, unless we grapple with these fundamentals we will not be able to describe where that "rightful place" is, nor will we be able to argue that such a place does, or should, exist.

Human beings have always found artful ways to employ their culture's latest, emerging technologies. From charcoal drawings on cavern walls through cast iron, paper making, porcelain, and the vaulted arch, science and art have merged to advance math, geometry, perspective, oil paints, printing presses, engraving techniques, global navigation, the solar centric planetary system, anatomy, magnetism, electrical energy, domed architecture and the academies of classical art.  Images have always served a purpose outside what we now call "art." As old ways broke down, Art led the way with a seemingly endless chain of "isms"... Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism... Each of these brought changes in techniques, subject matter, materials, as well as the purposes, politics and standards we held for art and artists. Not all these changes were easily accepted.

Photography is a truly mechanized means of creating art, the photographic camera presented the art world with its first "point and click" dilemma. Could something so easy be Art? Could anyone with a camera be an Artist? If the camera can be used to create exact reproductions, how does this affect the authenticity of Art? Where is the original and who owns it?  These are the same questions that digital artists confront today. In the minds of many critics and art dealers the hard won legitimacy of the photographer's art has not been instantly or seamlessly applied to the work of digital artists. Why?

Although digital artworks make use of photography as a tool, even barely touched photographs are not the original likeness. They have been manipulated; changed. That change, sometimes barely noticed, has created a new image, a new work of art. (This is no different from a photographer of a hundred years ago altering what came out of his camera in the darkroom.)

The work of the digital artist today is in large measure one of "teaching" the public to see. "What you see is what you get."  Conversely, "What you get is what you see."  The trick is to look at an image and see what is there.  A seemingly natural human tendency is to try to transform any image into something they already know - "It is like . . " Many of the best digital artworks are not like anything you have ever known as a work of art. that is their value. They move you into a new space, they engage your imagination, and now, even your interactive skills.  They can say "Click Here," and you will open up a new world.

So Digital Art exemplifies the current stage in the evolutionary unification of art and science. It is like the words on a map "You are Here."

Next:  Basic Design Principles

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