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Recently I read one of the rules for a prestigious visual art competition
and was disappointed that I could not enter my latest works because they had
specified that no manipulated photos or digitally created works would be
accepted - nor could any part of the work be computer generated. I wondered if
the painters who painted from photos considered that their work had some
digital content in the process?
Why is it that we are so resistant to change? History tells us that new
ideas and even some old ideas revisited, have been met with anger and rebuttal
from the traditionalist, murders and even war. Yet change is one of the
characteristics of life. Is it that we prefer the death of staying the same or
have we the tendency to invest too much in the present or past, so much that it
would be uncomfortable or costly to invest in the future…too costly to change.
Without thinking we place the highest values on our own values even if we have
never even consciously thought about how valuable they really are.
How long did it take for the art of the impressionists to be accepted into
the “mainframe" of what was considered valuable “art"? There are still some who
would refrain from calling it, “good art". Poetry like fashion is clothed in
styles that affect its acceptability and/or respectability and promotion and if
we look at history we will se that art is the same. For some poetry still has
to rhyme, and art is not art if it is not “photographic" (but not a photo!) or
created using what we presently think of as “paint"! Ink is acceptable in some
places but “print" is still the second class citizen of many art or would be
art ‘academies’ in the mind!
Some say that process rather than product is what art is about. Some say
that art is about idea rather than technique. Yet it is the technique that has
delineated a new direction and “newness’ has been one of the criteria we have
chosen to distinguish the creative process from other processes. We are full of
contradictions! We say we value newness because we value the creative. Yet we
hold on supposedly for ‘dear life’ to the old ways, the things we know, the
things we have always done. If it sameness we want then as the saying goes…if
we always do what we have always done we will keep on getting the same!
We are well into a digital age and the temporary and disposable nature of
products seems to have increased or at least our knowledge of the temporary
nature of products has increased. Is immortality at the heart of our
understanding of what the best art is? Do we think that art that lasts, like a
song or poem that outlives the rest, is truly good, because it “stood the test
of time"? If so then digital art has the potential for a great future, as long
as we keep the technology and knowledge needed to view it and store it
suitably. It will not change like paint and plaster that flakes and needs
another coat to refurbish it. If we make limited edition prints of it, we can
replace originals as the paper or ink wear out more quickly and with less
change to the original than those art works created in the past.
If I created a constantly changing sunset, I could call it art and it would
be art, at least to me. If we use an animal to produce something visual, we can
call that art and it is art to some. If we use a machine to make visual
products we can call that art and for some that will be art too. Process,
product or idea, art is art - some of us ‘know it when we see it’!
What we value changes…history tells us this. The digital technological world
is upon us and in the future people will look back at our products and only
what has been ‘saved’ can be considered for inclusion in the “Art" stakes and
those who acquire it early enough will make the best profit as it rises in
value and the smallest loss if it doesn’t. But we are not left to the mercy of
others or the whim of some invisible art wind. We can actively influence the
world to value what we value. Marketing and publicity can change values and
even if the product is lost like some of the 7 wonders of the world, the future
may still remember what was said about what we called ‘Art’.
Jennifer
Phillips has won awards for her computer generated art. Take a look in her
online gallery HERE.
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