Digital art can be purely
computer-generated, such as
fractals, or taken from another source, such as a scanned
photograph or an image drawn using
vector graphics software, using either a mouse or
graphics tablet. The availability and popularity of photograph manipulation software has spawned a vast and creative library of highly modified images, many bearing little or no hint of the original image. Using electronic versions of brushes, filters and enlargers, these "Neographers" produce images unattainable through conventional photographic tools. In addition, digital artists may manipulate scanned drawings, paintings,
collages or
lithographs, as well as using any of the above-mentioned techniques in combination. Artists also use many other sources of information and programmes to create their work.
Let’s face it: In March 2001 the art world’s acceptance of digital art was marked by the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition: Bitstreams: Exploring the Importance of Digital technology in American Art. Some month later the Brooklyn Museum of Art staged its Digital. Digital prints are now part of the permanent collections of New York’s Metropolitain Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and so on…
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Naturally, criticism has been leveled at the new medium from many sides. But why? Because it is the new medium. It seems to threaten, but this is a grave misconception. The new medium is not here to displace but to enhance, just as did the invention of paper, photography, the airbrush, and the endless list of other tools that have preceded us and our "machines". A main question is if technical methods including automation do diminish the value of creative works aided by them? We don’t think so. Look back into history again: Michelangelo used teams of assistants, as did Leonardo daVinci. Painters as Caravaggio, Ingres, Velasquez and Vermeer used a camera obscura or a camera lucida lens system to speed up and improve the initial drafting step in their paintings. In his book “Secret Knowledge : Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters » David Hockney makes a solid argument that artists were enthusiastically using lenses and mirrors (the highest of high-tech at the time) in creating their art. Hockney’s book opens people’s eyes to the fact that technology has always been an important part of art creation. It is erroneous to think that the “computer does it for you”. The computer and other digital tools are just that – tools. Used in a hand of a perceptive, talented artist, a computer is not subordinate to brushes, palette knives or enlargers. The fact is that the artist’s own hand lies heavy on most of the steps in the making of digital art. Using cameras, scanners, digital tablets, and a whole host of image-editing software, artists have a personal relationship with their images as they guide them through the various stages of creation, manipulation and printing. The aesthetic decisions are always the artist’s. The artist has a range of techniques at his disposal with which to creatively express himself. With the exception of machine art, this is not mechanical art; this is imagery that emanates from the mind and the soul of the artist.
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Art Experience understands Digital Art as any artwork which the computer has acquired, manipulated, transformed or influenced. Our understanding of DA major offers the widest range of experience possible. For us, artists continually experiment with and adopt new technologies. Art Experience wants to contribute promoting this new medium and their artists.
Sources: wordIQ Dictionary & Encyclopedia
Christiane Paul “Renderings of Digital Art”
Harald Johnson “Mastering Digital Printing”
David Hockney “Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Old Techniques of the Old Masters”