Digital Arts

Cat Hope, John Charles Ryan

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781780933214
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Digital Arts presents an introduction to new media art through key debates and theories. The volume begins with the historical contexts of the digital arts, discusses contemporary forms, and concludes with current and future trends in distribution and archival processes. Considering the imperative of artists to adopt new technologies, the chapters of the book progressively present a study of the impact of the digital on art, as well as the exhibition, distribution and archiving of artworks. Alongside case studies that illustrate contemporary research in the fields of digital arts, reflections and questions provide opportunities for readers to explore relevant terms, theories and examples. Consistent with the other volumes in the New Media series, a bullet-point summary and a further reading section enhance the introductory focus of each chapter.

1INTRODUCTION

From online information searches and e-commerce transactions to mobile phone messaging and flash drives, we are immersed in the digital realm on an everyday basis. Information about the world, encoded in the form of digital data, expands exponentially. Consider a yottabyte (YB). It is equivalent to all the books ever written in every language, 62 billion iPhones or one septillion bytes. The American states of Delaware and Rhode Island, divided into city block-sized data warehouses, would currently be what is needed to store a single yottabyte using the average capacity of PC hard drives today. Yet, in the not-so-distant future, a yottabyte could be contained in a miniscule area no larger than a pinhead. Technologies and data rapidly evolve and spread out. Through this kind of futuristic perspective, it could be argued that everything in the natural, material world will soon have a digital, virtual counterpart, of one form or another, or even be replaced by it. These counterparts – as digital data – offer not only unprecedented possibilities for science and technology but also for cultural identity, creative practice and interdisciplinary thinking.

The proliferation of technologies has greatly impacted the arts, leading to what artists and critics now call ‘the digital arts’. Artists love to experiment with new technologies, and they have done so throughout history. In Chapter 1 we explore existing theoretical perspectives on the digital arts and discuss the spectrum of artistic approaches that have appeared as digital technology and data continue to progress. The explosion of new media has revolutionized the production of art – redefining the nature of arts criticism, creating more complex markets for art and enhancing public access to the arts. We suggest that an essential first step towards understanding the digital arts is distinguishing the term from discrete but related art forms, including new media, electronic, computer, internet, behaviourist, telematic, virtual and unstable media art. The principal perspectives and contexts explored throughout the volume are democratization, globalization and interdisciplinarity. Towards the end of this chapter, we introduce subsequent chapters in the book and explain key student-focused components, including case studies, reflections, questions and group exercises. Central to this introductory chapter and others is the idea of digital art as part of the ongoing continuum of technology that artists have been fascinated with throughout history – a theme further developed in Chapter 2. But first, we will talk about how to define digitality – the technological foundation of digital art.

WHAT IS DIGITALITY?

The term ‘digital’ is a ubiquitous part of our vernacular in today’s ever more globalized world. The digital revolution of the 1990s introduced computer power to the public at an unparalleled rate (Lovejoy et al. 2011: 2). This period entailed a significant transfer in the production, storage and distribution of data to digital technologies. Multimedia or hypertext documents combining text, images, sound and video have become standard. Living in the ‘digital age’ now, we frequently come across ‘digital technology’, ‘digital information’ and of course, ‘digital art’, but what does it mean for something – including creative work – to be digital? Indeed, to understand digital art as a movement, we need to start from the ground floor and examine briefly the mechanics of digitality. Typically, the digital is defined as new technology in contrast to older, pre-digital or analogue forms. In digital media, input data – as light (images), sound (audio) or spatial configurations (text, graphs, diagrams) – is converted to numerical patterns, which are then processed and manipulated in various ways by a computer’s hardware and software (Lister et al. 2003: 14). Through digital processing, the physical properties of phenomena become numbers or abstract symbols.

In this sense, ‘digital’ simply means the ‘assignation of numerical values to phenomena’ (Lister et al. 2003: 15–16). Hence, ‘digital’ is a mathematical format and process for storing, transferring and modifying information. Algorithms in computer software subject the data to numerical processing. For example, digital image files consist of discrete modular components; assembling these modules into an image requires a series of mathematical executions (see Chapter 3). The numerical system behind digitality is binary, employing variations of 0s and 1s to produce alternating states that underlie how devices function: for example, off or on, current or no current. The conversion of data to a binary schema enables the transfer and storage of information to memory technology (hard drives), digital disks (CDs or DVDs) or online repositories (file hosting and storage services). The modern mathematical processes behind digital technology were founded in the work of German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), English inventor Charles Babbage (1791–1871) and in the 1930s, English mathematician Alan Turing (1912–54) (see Chapters 2 and 6).

When traditional media (e.g. newspapers, video, records) are digitized, they become dematerialized at the same time. The process of digitization involves the shift from the physical domain described by physics, chemistry, biology and engineering to the symbolic domain explored by computer science (Lister et al. 2003: 16). In other words, the materiality of the original (i.e. paper, magnetic tape, vinyl) is superseded by an immaterial binary pattern and, therefore, the original medium becomes largely redundant. Requiring specialized technology, such as specific software, digital data (released from their physical media) can be compressed, accessed at high speeds and readily manipulated (Lister et al. 2003: 16).

Whereas digital media exist in a state of flux, analogue media are comparatively fixed. Analogue media, including newspapers, photographs, tapes and films, tend to be associated with technologies of mass production. Yet analogue processes transfer data to another physical object (an ‘analogue’), such as light, sound or handwriting, where it is encoded and stored to a physical medium (i.e. grooves on a vinyl record, magnetic particles on a tape or ink on a sheet of paper). An analogous relationship is thus forged between the original data and the tangible medium. For instance, the analogue reproduction of a book employs movable type and ink to produce a physical imprint of the original on paper (Lister et al. 2003: 15). In contrast, a book written on a computer undergoes a different process; every letter of the manuscript generates a binary value in response to the touching of the author’s fingers to the keyboard. The resulting digital document can be exported in various ways (e.g. as an email attachment, PDF or ZIP file) and eventually published as an e-book without ever being printed to the traditional, material medium. Electronic broadcasting media were also historically analogue. For example, the physical properties of images and sounds were converted to wave forms of differing lengths and intensities, corresponding to the voltage of transmission signals.

Reflection

What are some of the ways that digital technologies have revolutionized your life and the society you live in? How often and for what reasons do you use digital devices? Can you think of any disadvantages to using ‘the digital’ over ‘the analogue’? We will return to these sorts of questions in Chapter 2.

WHAT IS DIGITAL ART?

‘Digital art’ is a name that shifts in the sands of digitality, culture, history, science and art. Impossible to define as a single phenomenon, it represents instead a fluid set of artistic techniques, technologies and concepts – often associated with the history of the computer. There are a great many names for digital art, some of which are more current or useful than others. An important first push for students is to become familiar with the terms in circulation and how they overlap and differ. Indeed, it is difficult to find an academic commentator who will commit to a straight-forward definition, but Beryl Graham has come the closest. She defines digital art simply as ‘art made with, and for, digital media including the internet, digital imaging, or computer-controlled installations’ (Graham 2007: 93). However, what we now think of as ‘digital art’ has undergone a multitude of name changes, from ‘computer art’ in the 1970s to ‘multimedia art’ in the early 1990s to ‘new media art’ more recently. In many ways, ‘digital art’ is outdated language, subsumed within the category of new media art by the end of the 1990s.

Nevertheless, the variety of related words in currency demonstrates that digital art and its naming are ‘characteristically in a state of flux’ (Graham 2007: 106) – reflecting, in part, the mutability and constant evolution of the technologies used by artists. The bevy of names (often erroneously used as synonyms for digital art) includes – in addition to new media, multimedia and computer art – software art, hypermedia art, emergent media art, unstable media art, electronic art, internet art, net art, browser art, behaviourist art, cybernetic art, telepresence art, virtual art, interactive art and participatory art, among others. The meaning of each term should be considered variable and highly contingent on the historical time frame, the commentator’s background (e.g. artist, programmer, curator, archivist or critic) and the technology explored as a medium by the artist. Furthermore, certain terms are subsets of the broader practice of digital art; for example, internet art is based on the internet, browser art makes use of internet browsers and software art involves computer software in some manner. Other terms, such as behaviourist, interactive and sound art are more inclusive than ‘digital art’ and encompass a continuum of analogue and digital art practices, from site-based installation works to internet-based telerobotics projects. Still, others are period-specific and seem like anachronisms to us now; for example, ‘net art’ designates the internet art of practitioners working in the 1990s (see Chapter 6).

Despite the name-game, the tendency to hybridize across media boundaries is characteristic of digital art, as we will see in Chapter 2. Thus, by shifting between media and employing a range of techniques, digital artworks eschew categorization according to their genre or form. Installation, film, video, animation, photography, internet art, software art, virtual reality projects and musical compositions can fall under its umbrella (Paul 2003: 70). Rather than venturing definitions, critics tend to foreground the attributes of digital artworks. For example, Bruce Wands points to the new forms that emerge out of digital art practices: ‘intricate images that could not be created by hand; sculptures formed in three-dimensional databases rather than in stone or metal; interactive installations that involve internet participation from around the globe; and virtual worlds within which artificial life forms live and die’ (Wands 2006: 8). As Christiane Paul (2003: 7) argues, digital art comprises a broad array of practices but lacks a single, unifying aesthetic approach. She makes the critical distinction between digital technologies as tools and technologies as media (see Chapter 2). In this book, we use ‘digital art’ to refer to the artistic movement encompassing a variety of digital practices. In many instances, we also use the pluralized term ‘the digital arts’ to stress the diversity of art forms and media (e.g. internet art, software art, telematic art, etc.) included within the singular term. As we see in the next section, an introduction to digital art is very much an exploration of terminology in relation to the history of art and technology.

Reflection

Describe a few examples of digital art that you have seen or experienced in the last week, either online, in public or in a gallery or museum setting. What is distinctive about these digital artworks?

DIGITAL ART AND ITS RELATIVES: UNDERSTANDING THE TYPOLOGIES

New Media Art

Although ‘new media art’ is often used synonymously with ‘digital art’, ‘computer art’, ‘multimedia art’ and ‘interactive art’, there are some key differences between these terms to consider. Understanding what constitutes digital art entails understanding the way everyday language changes in the context of technology. For instance, the terms ‘digital media’ and ‘digital new media’ have been used to refer to ‘new media’ (Lister et al. 2003: 14). In the early 1990s, with the release of the first commercial internet browser and the beginning of the digital revolution, the term ‘new media art’ began to be used by artists, critics and curators working with emerging technologies (Tribe and Jana 2006). Indeed, the appearance of new media art paralleled the proliferation of information technologies. Early new media artworks included interactive installations exploiting a variety of media, virtual reality experiments, telerobotics pieces and web browser-based projects, all using the latest digital technologies of the time. Mark Tribe and Reena Jana define new media art as ‘projects that make use of emerging media technologies and are concerned with the cultural, political, and aesthetic possibilities of these tools’ (2006: ‘Defining New Media Art’).

In situating new media art as a distinct movement, Tribe and Jana (2006) distinguish between the categories ‘art and technology’ (in reference to the collective Experiments in Art and Technology founded in 1967) and ‘media art’. On the one hand, ‘art and technology’ encompasses computer, electronic, robotic, genomic and biological art involving up-and-coming technologies, but not intrinsically media-related. On the other, ‘media art’ includes television, video and satellite art, as well as experimental film and other forms of art that make use of media technologies that were no longer considered new or emerging by the 1990s. For Tribe and Jana, new media art represents the intersection of both movements, but with an emphasis on ‘new’ media technologies: the internet, social media, video and computer gaming, surveillance systems, mobile telephony, wearable technology and GPS (Global Positioning Systems) devices. New media artists critically or experimentally engage with new technologies. However, there are many art-historical precedents that have shaped new media art, including other art movements that questioned the relationships between art, culture and technology. In particular, Dadaism (see Chapter 6), pop art, conceptualism (Chapter 2) and the video art of the late 1960s, exemplified by the work of Nam June Paik (Case Study 2.3), have influenced the trajectory of new media art since its inception. Common themes in new media works include collaboration, participation, appropriation, hacktivism, telepresence and surveillance (Tribe and Jana 2006: ‘Themes/Tendencies’) (see Chapter 2).

Electronic Art

The typology ‘electronic art’ is perhaps the most inclusive for our discussion, aside from the broad category of ‘art’ itself. It is also the term that has evolved the most since its initial historical emergence. Often interactive and participatory, electronic art incorporates electronic components in the production or display of a work. The range of electronic technologies is vast, and comprises the internet, computing, robotics, mobile devices and virtual reality platforms, as well as the ‘old’ media of radio, teleconferencing, video, television and film. Moreover, dance, music, performance, writing and installation pieces can be classified as electronic art if they incorporate electronic dimensions. Encompassing both old and new media, electronic art should not, by default, be classified as digital art. However, the adjective...