Art in Digital Times: From Technology to Instrument

Abstract

The author's approach to selecting digital art encompasses four major themes. The first relates to reprocessing information and the use of sampling as a means of representing the culturescape we inhabit. The second involves the emergence of interactive environments and installations. New forms of storytelling frame the third view and the final theme relates to bridging the categorical gaps, as demonstrated in computer generated multimedia work.

The tenth anniversary of the New York Digital Salon offers an opportunity to assess the extraordinary shift that has occurred in art and, more generally, in the cultural production of this past decade. Ten years ago artists using digital technology were few; they somehow belonged to a marginalized minority, as they produced work that seemed more driven by technology. Indeed, they had to conceive and build their own solutions, engaged with engineering as much as they were with their own ideas. Those artists were more likely to be affiliated with universities or research centers, while others had chosen to work in the corporate sphere. Technology was scarce, expensive, and still very contained, and technical expertise was hard to access.

Today, however, digital technology has permeated the entire culture, is mass produced, and is consequently becoming readily accessible to everyone, including artists. Equipment is improving, not only in terms of its versatility, but also with its ease of use. Work from recent years reveals the extraordinary new spectrum of possibilities brought by this new device: The personal computer originates a vast array of art forms being presented today. In the late 1960s, the advent of the Sony Portapak™ gave way to a whole range of experimentation with the moving image in the arts. Similarly, the release of powerful and true multi-media personal computers in the mid-1990s has had a profound effect on the way artists incorporate digital technology in the creative process. Furthermore, akin to the effect brought by the Portapak, the Apple Powerbook G3 has fostered a whole new range of experiments, more specifically in the field of sound and performance visuals. The digital sphere is no longer limited to a few technophiles. Rather, its ubiquity gradually makes it possible for an enlarged audience to relate to these new forms without necessarily thinking of them as marginal or geekish.

The multiplicity of software combination on the same platform gives way to reformatting, collage, etc., which furthers the convergence of disciplines and methods: The common tool has fostered this intersection of know-how, a more fluid exchange between specific expertise. What was once a set of delineated artistic practices is now an open field of experimentation, where the context and venues inform artistic production no less than the disciplines they originate from. One example that comes to mind is Christian Marclay's Video Quartet. Using an off-the-shelf prosumer software-hardware solution, the artist has created a remarkable image and sound composition, which borrows equally from traditional visual culture (collage) and deejay remix strategies. The use of similar hardware and comparable software solutions lets the likes of Ryoji Ikeda stage extraordinary audio-visual performances. Participatory screen-based non-linear narratives by such artists as Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn (Entropy8Zuper!) are also produced with the same type of gear.

The ubiquity of technology has also affected its place in our Western, post-industrial culture: From subject, it has become object. No longer a wonder, its sole use cannot legitimize an art project. Rather, as digital tools become as readily accessible as the pencil or clay, mastery tends to be about pushing technology to the back of the stage, where it really belongs. With computing, the notion of representation is further established in the realm of filtering, editing, and reconstructing, so as to create new meaning. The digital, in that sense, has established itself in the natural continuum of art history and in the ongoing relationship of art with technology, from the tube of paint to the camera-from the moving image to multimedia.

Reprocessing Information: Sampling as a Means of Representing the Culture Scape We Inhabit

Beginning with collage in the...