Chinese Artists Work with Contemporary Science and Technology

Chinese Artists Work with Contemporary Science and Technology Editorial Chinese artists are becoming increasingly aware of the significance of science and technology in the development of fine art. The effect of fine art upon the people and their lives is closely related to new achievements in science and technology that are employed by artists and the new media adopted by them. The Chinese artists’ interest in science and technology and their adoption of new media take varied forms. Some artists working in traditional ink and wash painting and in color and ink painting are exploringnew ways and new materials while maintaining traditional stylein their works. Someothers, mostly young artists, are trying new materials, new ways and new techniques in spite of tradition, with a purpose of bringing about a new kind of art. In the course of such experiments, Chinese artists are fully convinced that it isabsolutely necessary to keep an eye on and assimilate what is new in the world. Indeed, the daringand fruitful explorations in this field carried on in foreign countries have stimulated and enhanced the fervor on the part of Chinese artists. However, they realize at the same time the significance of their own explorations for their counterparts in other countries. As a Co-Editor of Leonard0 I have solicitedarticleson the new materials and new media employed in lacquer painting, mural painting and Chinese traditional ink and wash painting as well as on recent explorations in sculpture. I am confident that these future articles will rouse deep interest among the journal’s readers. Shao Dazhen International Co-Editor * * * Seeing and Making Editorial Seeinghas become the specialityof the artist. Throughout history it has been the artist who has shown others how to see. The ancients saw in one way. Then came the Renaissance, and perspective was discovered; Westerners began to see in another way. Later the Impressionists saw light in a new way, and then the Cubists said that one does notjust see straight on, but from angles;and Cubism was born. Newer artists claimed that photography extended human perception and caused one to see in yet another way. Others who came after photography, after the motion picture, have said that one sees from angle to angle; they know the eye moves. And so on and so forth. All of this seems to me to refer to a certain way of seeing-seeing with an object, not seeingper se. These evolving ways of seeing are merely the result of being carried away by technology, confusing means with content. The truth is that seeing is simple,and we make it difficult because we enjoy being a complicated species. Seeingis simpler even than taking a photograph. Throughout history, there have been people who have seen, and the majority who did not, and the percentage of those who were able to see has always been tiny, because it is a gift like any other. Sometimes this gift has been bestowed on an artist, and then it has done wonders. Of course one must use the technology available to one to express what one sees, but this isperipheral to the act of seeing. One must use the footrule, the perspective,the photograph or 0 1988 EAST Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/88 S3.00+0.00 LEONARDO, Vol. 21, NO.1, pp. 1-2,1988 ...