what is digital art?

We can say that the definition of Digital Art is a creative discipline of the plastic arts, a new trend that has emerged around the application of vector and gratifying programs, which includes works that use digital elements that are essential in the process of production or on display, manifesting these works  through digital media or at least technologically advanced.

The Digital Art breaks completely with the classical representation of objects   cheating doubly the viewer because what he sees is neither naturalistic representation nor is what is represented, since what is behind is a mathematical code, one of The strengths are its ability to create alternative worlds, although not physical, as a form of expression , but with an exceptional reality, using techniques such as programming the physics of the environment and the behavior of objects in that environment.

Digital art is a matter that brings together any artistic work that has been created by a digital medium, mainly using the computer, that is, it is a work that is made from computer technology. Currently, technology is about a procedure that gives us the possibility to create, according to the artists of this style of art, there is no great difference between a graphic palette and a brush. Even more common is to find several groups of this type of art that are based on the support they use: Net.art, CD-Rom – art, video art, interactive installations, among others.

A digital representation is the visual result of a development in which the magnetic supports of the video, the chemical supports of the photography and the function of light have been replaced in a mathematical calculation carried out by the computer . From the late 1950s, computers worked with images and sounds, and although at the beginning it was somewhat limited in the 21st century, the computer makes various reproductions and representations of works in different styles of art.

Digital art today

Today we can know many types of art, both those that are traditional and those that go beyond the traditional.

Art has been developed with different disciplines such as literature, theater, music, painting … and thanks to the use of technologies, art has been reflected and enriched especially in photography and cinema, including digital art.

The digital art had rapid acceptance and growth, but has also had criticism. It is rejected by some who see it more as a technical skill than as an artistic manifestation, this attitude of rejection coming from the ignorance of computerized art, even some critics have wanted to call it rather as new media art, art of new media and rejected by some purists cataloging more as a simple technical skill than an artistic manifestation.

Origin of digital art

The first exhibition of this type of art, represented by an electronic machine, was in 1953 at the Sanford Museum. At that precise moment, which on the other hand the art styles that were highlighted were abstract expressionism and informalism, the reproduction of graphics thanks to the machines began to multiply until in the end it achieved the expected success. This expected success was from the end of the sixties to the beginning of the seventies since the practice of this art modality spread throughout many countries.

Today, thanks to the technological revolution, digital art has been innovated by computer programs and by the manufacture of a wide variety of digital cameras.

Types of digital art

There are several kinds of digital art among them are photography and digital image, digital sculpture, interactivity, Net art and finally generative art.

  • 3D modeling : it is a   three-dimensional art, which creates graphic art works with the help of computers and special 3D programs.
  • Airbrushing: This is called digital airbrush art, this art is used to color copies, retouch positives and negatives, hide the joints of collages, add elements and eliminate unnecessary defects or backgrounds.
  • Pixel art: is art created through a computer using raster graphics editing programs, where images are edited at pixel levels.
  • Typographic art: It is the art or technique of reproducing communication through the printed word, transmitting words with a certain skill, elegance and efficiency.
  •  Vector Art: in this art an image created in a plane is created from a point and lines , in the middle of the design, the vector graphic gives the facility to manipulate shapes and figures of different sizes without damaging the quality of the image.
  • Generative Art: Generative art is a variant of this type of art in which it gives the possibilities of creating a work entirely from computer programs that have variable parameters chosen by the artist. This method is used for example in cut-up literature, fractal art and electronic music.
  • Net Art: The net.art refers to all the works made for the internet and that have the network as their theme.   Its power is based on representing content from complex structures that unite sounds, images and texts, it is also based on the ability to communicate with the user.
  • Interactivity: In this modality we can distinguish two types of digital works, one of them is created to be reproduced on supports of conventional material and the other is to spread it throughout the network. It is for this reason that we can differentiate between closed structure work and interactive structure work. This kind of art is a potential source of action as it has ample possibilities.
  • Digital sculpture: These types of sculptors use a virtual space to be able to represent their works. They use 3D software, innovating the traditional notions of sculpture every day through new contexts of exhibition and distribution.
  • Photography and digital imaging: The digital images are usually created directly on the computer, such as algorithmic art and fractal art, orcan also catch other source, such as a drawn image, a scanned photograph, only Vector graphics software and a mouse or graphics table are required.

Digital sculpture and digital technologies 

For some time now, virtual space has been separated from real space by the computer monitor. However, digital sculptors use virtual space as a creation area using 3D software, and with this, traditional knowledge that was held in sculpture was displaced through innovative contexts of creating works.

Thanks to the technology that exists today, many virtual sculptors transfer their artistic works to a physical medium through rapid prototype machines, among other objects used in engineering laboratories. Within digital art, it should be noted that there are some artists, such as Joaquín Cervera and Elizabeth, who use digital technologies to manufacture their work of art, but the models and plans are made using traditional techniques.

Digital image and art photography 

In the 20th century, imaging technologies have undergone very radical changes that have given rise to various debates. The reason for this is that the techniques used in digital art have made a great impact in the world, especially in publishing, although they have always been related to graphic design. Images in this style of art can be created using a computer or created from other sources such as from a drawn image or a photograph that has been scanned.

Digital art artists

These are some of the most important digital artists in the different areas of this art, some are innovators and some are pioneers.

George Nees: was born in 1926 in Germany. He studied Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy and is one of the first artists and theorists of Digital Art. In 1965 he made the first exhibition of computer graphics together with Friedrich Nake and Michael Noll; In 1969 he presented his doctoral thesis, Computer generated graphics,  under the supervision of Max Bense. 

Manfred Mohr: born on June 8, 1938 in Pforzheim, Germany, he was both a Pintos and a jazz musician, the influence of music being of great importance in his works; his creations are sustained and based on the structure of cubes and hypercubes, the relationships between their planes and lines. In 1971 he presented his first major exhibition  Une esthétique programmée  at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Vera Molnar: was born on January 5, 1924 in Budapest. At the age of 18 he began his studies of Painting and History of Art and Aesthetics at the Higher School of Art in Budapest. In 1948 she made her first geometric drawings inspired by a Dürer engraving entitled “Melancholy” , in 1967 she co-founded the group Arte e informatique at the Institut d’Esthétiqueet des Sciences de l’Art in Paris, in 1968 it was very important for what would be the rest of his artistic career since it was the year where he made his first graphics using a computer, following this path.

Laurence Gartel: was born on July 5, 1956 in New York. He studied and graduated in 1977 from the School of Visual Arts, NYC, NY, BFA Graphics, being one of the most important pioneers of the digital art movement. In his works the Commodore-Amiga personal computer as a tool with which to explore new aesthetic possibilities, creating fun collages by manipulating his own photographs. ”

Margaret Eicher: was born in 1955 in Germany. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, his artistic specialty being collages and since 2001 he exhibits especially large-format tapestries in which he combines contemporary images and content.

Myron Krueger: was born in 1942 in Indiana, being the first artist to use interactivity for an artistic purpose,  whose objective is to achieve an interaction between the viewer and the work, one of his most important work is “Little Planet”, it consists of a small globe that can be flown over in an extremely short time.

Yves Netzhammer: is a Swiss artist and architect born in 1970. His work in Digital Art focuses on creating 3D animations that aim to tell a story lacking in logic, surrealism, managing to captivate the viewer by using these elements Graphics combined with musical effects.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: was born in 1967 in Mexico City. At the age of 22, he obtained a Diploma in Chemistry and Physics at the Concordia University of Montreal, Canada, in addition to a diploma in Art History. Between 1987 1992 he was co-presenter and producer of “The Postmodern Commotion” , he has received countless scholarships and awards.

Over time we have been able to see thousands of art modalities but as a writing called Diego Levis said “The tools alone do not represent anything, it takes the creativity that the artist puts in order for a work to have deeper factors” and has A lot of reason, because although many people think that art on a computer is not art, they have to think about what that kind of art transmits to them.

 

by Abdullah Sam
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