Art has been a form of human expression for thousands of years. It is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects. [1] As human kind has advanced, so has its means of expression, art has occasionally been used to represent present issues and social views. Regardless if it has an agenda or not, artists tend to express their perceptions of the world as they see it so their art can presumably be a good time capsule to understand the era in which it is set.
Therefore the intertwining of art and technology is not surprising in this digital age. It is difficult to categorize art into a single component because one can consider most media to be artistic on one way or another. Film as an art form has been ever changing and advancing thanks to technology, it thrives on it; television as well. Technology has changed the way artists can manipulate an image and display it to their audiences. Even more traditional forms of art have manipulated technological advancements to their advantages. Automation has provided missive improvements on the distribution process of music, literature and with the world wide web, anyone around the globe has the potential to access it.
Today The average American adult spends approximately ten hours a day on a digital platform, making it strongly influential to the human brain and experience. Art, being a reflection of experience,will reflect that. [2]
The combination of art and technology can refer to art complying with advancements such as seen with film, yet it can also refer to art created out of technology, an expression of excess in 3-D sculptures. In today's age, advancements and updates come around at least once a year, leading to immense amounts of waste when things become obsolete, some artists use this material for their work rather than working simultaneously with new media.
Various Forms of Art & Technology in the 19th & 20th Century
Radio
The development of the radio began in 1893 with Nikola Tesla, who developed wireless radio communication in Missouri. Initially intended for use by the Military, radio soon became a household item. A technology of the time, the growing popularity of radio led to music and spoken stories airing across the country; soap operas and cowboy stories began captivating the culture and radio became an art form.
- Many people imagined the "space" in which this information traveled through in to reach its receiver as ether and that could possibly aid in communication with the dead, a strange space of unknown.
- It allowed for listeners to visualize the things they were listening to, creating a more intimate art form between speaker and listener. Artists used radio technology to communicate their works openly for interpretation, they were exposing the audience to an alternate means to experiencing their art through sound verses visuals.
Today, Radio art still thrives in the form of DJ's and producers and those who broadcast through airwaves that radio technology provides.
Film & The Moving Image
There were many inventors in the late 1800s that had a keen interest in the moving image and producing Film. Among theses were Louis Le Prince, Thomas Edison and the Lumière Brothers.
The dawn of film was filled with inventors trying to improve modern technology, and for an artistic purpose. This time of creation marks an important intertwining of art and technology on a global scale. In fact, the timeline of film is coated in technological advancements, continuing to present day.
When film hit the market, The low price and availability made it more accessible then most media for all classes to immerse themselves in. At its most basic form, it was a projection of moving light. Theatre began popping up all across the world and the production of Films was massive. Artistic preferences began to change, images now were not stolid, but fluid, they moves, making it more complex. Many jobs in the film industry require a great deal of artistic talent including editing, directing and set design, to name a few.
A pure form of this technology and art merging is painting color on filmstrips. Before the creation of color in film and television, long before the digital age, editors and film makers would go into each shot in the film reel and add color with regular paint.
There is a theory that with the digitalization of film, the technological art that drew many to it, has vanished. The material is much simpler to use and the time and knowledge needed to set up the equipment has drastically shrunk. Granted, with more access to the medium, there is more artistic expression from the general public, but the physical art form of original film is gone.
The Joshua Light Show
Emerging in the mid 1960s, the Joshua Light Show created dazzling images by harnessing basic technology. Created by Joshua White and a few colleagues, it became one of the earliest forms of using technology alternatively to produce amazing results. "The group employed a panoply of image-making apparatus to achieve diverse visual effects: three film projectors, two banks of four-carousel slide projectors, three overhead projectors, hundreds of color wheels, motorized reflectors made of such materials as aluminum foil, Mylar, and broken mirrors, two hair dryers, watercolors, oil colors, alcohol and glycerin, two crystal ashtrays, and dozens of clear glass clock crystals." [3] In doing so, they managed to produce fluid, trip images that they began to display during concerts. The group performed with big artists such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and many more.
Modern Day Art & Technology
With the creation of the Internet, modern technology provides new outlets for artistic expression via software programs.
Video Games & Coding
Video games have been popular since the mid 80s. From simple programs like Pac-Man and Snake to more complex story lines like Super Mario and today, games like Halo and Assassin's Creed captivate players and provide sensory, interactive images that tell a story. the advancements in software have allowed for thise with a keen interest in computers to display their artistic side. Some may argue that programming is not an art, more of a knowledge based, skill, yet with passion can be considered a variation of art. Just look at the Grand Theft Auto V. Set in Los Santos, California, the action adventure game has lifelike stories and incredible detail.
Photoshop and Flash
Programs like Photoshop and Flash are provided by Adobe, a company that designs software for artistic and design purposes.