Art circles in
India, as elsewhere, have poor understanding and appreciation
of digital art works. Some see it as a threat to the integrity
of fine art traditions. Among artists, gallery owners, and collectors,
digital paintings are looked down upon. Digital art works have
low value among art lovers; something fishy and tricky. The prints
of digital creations are not considered 'paintings'. Even etchings,
lithography, leno, collage and other print works of the artists
have better profile than the prints of digital artists. The fine
art of original paintings in digital medium is yet to gain its
due recognition. "How can you call something done mechanically
without brush, canvas and colour, a painting?" Well-meaning
artist friends invariably say, "This is very good, you should
do it on canvas."
TYPES OF
DIGITAL ART
All digital art
or computer art is not digital fine art. A number of terms are
in use for computer-based art works - Computer Art, Digital Art,
Cyber Art, mixed media, 3D-art, animation art, Web-art, etc. Internet
art-portals have 'computer art' or 'digital art' as one of the
categories, often the largest one. The generic term 'Digital Art'
stands for a variety of computer based applications in the field
of art. The diversity is difficult to classify in a few categories.
Various attempts have been made. I list the following to clarify
myself. The "fine art of original paintings in the digital
medium" (item 5) is a minor category of Digital Art.
1) Digital
art market: Digital copies of the original
works of artists and photo-graphers (made from digital cameras
or scanned from prints) for presentation, promotion or sale. Some
Web sites deal with prints of worldwide artists - past and present.
Some digital 'artists' make digital copies of classic art works,
or works of eminent artists, and sell the prints. Web sites of
Art Galleries are of this type.
2) Applied Graphic
digital artists: Works of images, drawings,
photographs, graphics, paintings created for illustrations, advertisements,
Web-designing, software development, projections, presentations,
animations, models and architectural works, training, cartoons,
games, videos, media and cinema. A great variety of tools and
technologies are in use. This is the frontline of digital technology
and products are of a high quality and very appealing. Most of
this work is demand, client or customer oriented. A very large
proportion of employed digital artists in the market are in this
category. Sometimes, whole teams of digital artists work on the
same project. This includes use of pre-prepared clips, models,
drawings, photographs, etc. that are freely copied, modified and
used. Many of them use 3D software and animation tools to create
three-dimensional moving images. There is no rivalry or competition
with conventional art in this field.
3) Part-time
digital artists: Some professional artists and photographers
experiment in digital medium as an additional line. In India a
number of eminent artists have done such exploratory works on
computers with good results. Some well-established artists abroad
use computer to first try out a variety of digital drafts before
starting work on canvas. These part-time digital artists however
continue to work in their regular medium and retain their identity
as conventional mainstream artists and photographers.
4) Original
Mixed Media and 3D digital art: Some digital artists use
photographs, clips, and scanned images to digitally modify (using
a variety of software packages) and recreate strikingly new original
images. Some of these works are very impressive. Many of the well-known
digital artists on the Internet are of this mixed media type and
produce stunning original 'photographic' or virtual images. They
produce original works and are different from graphic designers.
Special software packages are available for them. This is perhaps
the more common form of digital art on the Internet. Some Web
sites specialize in this type of digital art. Some Digital artists/photographers
combine 2D and 3D tools in their works with very good results.
They use paint tools but do not generally start with painted compositions.
5) Digital
Fine Art: Then comes the category of digital artists who
primarily create original fine art paintings in the two-dimensional
digital medium. They generally start with compositions from basic
paint tools or a combi-nation of photographs and paint tools.
Some prefer to start with 3-D paint tools or mathematical art
tools. Distinction between type 4 and 5 is heuristic. Their works
are placed on the Internet galleries and Web sites as digital
fine art. Even exhibitions and competitions are held on the Internet.
Some digital artists convert their digital images on canvas for
exhibition or sale. Others exhibit prints of their works in regular
art galleries. However digital fine art primarily exists in the
cyberspace of the Internet for the community of international
(rather border-less) practitioners and surfers.
DIGITAL FINE ART IS PERVASIVE
Original fine art has never been in
history created on such large scale and so democratically shared
worldwide as is in the case of digital fine art. This is perhaps
a serious challenge to the conventional close-circle expose and
deals of original fine art. Rejection of digital fine art by these
elite art circles, at par with conventional fine art is understandable.
It is perhaps a defense mechanism (self protection) from being overwhelmed
by the sheer quality, quantity, variety, popularity and availability
of digital fine art beyond their protected "boundary"
which is artificially imposed on art.
The artistic quality is a unique combination
of forms, colors, lines, design, rhythm and composition through
which an artist gives shape to his/her visions. This quality is
achievable in digital medium also. I believe, art is not in the
medium or tools; it is in the mind and heart - if it is there, it
will show. "At some point you pass from playing the piano to
playing music". Those with artistic sense will judge the aesthetic
appeal of artist's work, and not worry what medium or tool has been
used. Fine Art is "creative art, especially visual art whose
products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative,
aesthetic or intellectual content"(Oxford English Dictionary).
WEBISM - a community of international digital artists who create
and share art onlin e in cyberspace worldwide is a fine example
of this movement. So are the museums of computer art and a large
number of Web sites dedicated exclusively to digital art of various
categories. The number of Web sites, digital artists, and digital
art works on the Internet is simply overwhelming. It is difficult
to hazard an estimate of the total Internet traffic to all these
Web sites worldwide, but I can safely bet that it is likely to be
many, many times more than the visits to real life galleries per
day.
THE MYSTRY OF DIGIAL FINE ART
A unique feature of digital fine art
is the mystery and technology surrounding the process by which digital
paintings are created. The viewers, fellow artists, and art critics
when they see a regular (physical) work of art rarely do they ask,
"How is it done"? But in digital art, the technology (the
hardware and the software) - creates a mystery, a lingering suspicion.
Why can't a digital painting be appreciated for its intrinsic artistic
worth and aesthetic value? Conventional fine art is no way devoid
of the magic or mystery of the medium and style. Strangely these
doubts emerge only with regard to digital fine variety not with
regard to other categories.
where the Lack of a clear understanding
of the variety of steps and procedures through which digital fine
art is created has contributed to the mystique that feeds suspicion.
The digital artists need to pay more attention to their obligation
to the community of art lovers and write openly about the steps
and process behind their digital fine art creations. There are many
Web sites where artists share their digital techniques behind specific
effects, or teach others about software they use. These examples
are piecemeal and sporadic; not specific to artwork of a digital
artist. There are some good examples where this has been done in
some detail. These examples are too few and not well known.
MAN AND MACHINE IN DIGIAL FINE
ART
It is commonly misunderstood that "digital
art is done by the computer" and that "software creates
art automatically". Computer and software does not create art
automatically. There are some things that the artist does and some
things that the computer/software does. In digital fine art the
artist does (decides and chooses) more and computer does less. In
simplistic terms I could say that computer software offers a variety
of 'actions' each with a series of possible 'options' for each action
and a range of 'value' for each single option. It is the artist
who must click the mouse after choosing the action, option and value.
Then only computer does something automatically as per the software.
So when computer does something, it is done through a series of
choices and decisions of the artist. Computer software requires
feedback from the artist about 'which option' and 'what value' without
which a given action cannot be executed. Artist interacts with the
software tools and options, back and forth, sometimes decisively
and sometimes tentatively, to modify/improve the result. If artist
finds the outcome unsatisfactory she clicks "undo" and
feeds another set of options/values. Artist compares the output
with the ideas or vision in her mind. Or the output may suggest
a new possibility or direction. Artistic sensibilities guide this
interaction between man and the machine. Digital art represents
images created and refined on a digital canvas by the artist with
the help of software tools. Artist's mind interacts with digital
tools of the selected software and sometimes creatively transcends
the limits of her initial vision or the limits of software options.
Repeated exploration of options and
limits of the software tools is a challenge in the digital medium.
This leads to a creative learning through trial and error. Exploration
and experimentation is essential ingredient of digital medium -
much more than in the conventional fine art. Never before in the
history of fine art has it been possible for the artists to repeatedly
do and undo various alterations or effects, and compare the result
of various permutation and combination of various options, and then
finally select, through her artistic sensibilities, the direction
in which the artist wishes to pursue his creation in finer detail.
And all this within a very short span of time compared to redoing
a canvas. It is because of this process of "do, undo and choose"
that digital fine art is likely to be aesthetically more rich, focused
and mature than the conventional fine art (of comparable experience),
where the artist does not have the same freedom of trial and error.
It is a fact that many conventional artists today, secretly or openly,
make use of computer applications to explore their "sketches"
on the digital canvas before putting brush and colour on the real
canvas.
THE EASE AND PLEASURE OF CREATIVITY
IN DIGITAL MEDIUM
Many digital artists have expressed that the outcome
of their creative exploration through trial and error is sometimes
startlingly different from the original they start with, yet artistically
so potent. Conventional art is bound by the limits of artists'
imagination, and physical limits of brush, canvas, colour, time,
and space. Digital fine art is able to transcend beyond these
limits and is emergent through interaction between man and machine,
mind and software. It is something of a new dimension of fine
art, so to say. Digital artist is sometimes guided in a new direction
by these unforeseen outcomes when working on computer. As some
digital artists have expressed, these meta creations "speak"
something refreshingly new to the artist. The artist then responds
creatively to the "voices" of emergent forms, invitation
to work in a new direction, sometimes much different from the
one originally conceived. Some digital artists have expressed
emotional bond they feel with their emerging work.
One aspect of the conventional style is iteration
of similar medium, similar form or composition, similar tool (colour,
brush, etc.), and a unique treatment. This creates an underlying
similarity in the different works of the same artist - a distinct
unmistakable flavour unique to an artist. This is formalistic
meaning of style. In another sense all works of an artist, if
truthfully coming from the sincere application of the same mind,
heart, and spirit, have a deeper underlying unity despite variety
in form. Since digital fine art takes shape through interaction
of mind, software, and machine, style in digital fine art is as
much a matter of a learned sequence of mouse clicks (actions and
choices within a software environment).
THE PHYSICAL OUTPUT OF DIGITAL
FINE ART
Another unique feature of digital
art is the nature of physical output. The "painting"
is created on the "canvas" of monitor within a given
software environment. The actual "original painting"
exists in the hard disc of a personal computer in a binary digitised
format. But once the "painting" is copied on a floppy
or a disc, or uploaded on the Internet, there is no limit to the
number of PCs, anywhere in the world, that can display it. Contrast
this with the pride of a buyer of a painting in possessing a work
of art, one and only one, in the whole world. Physical paintings
can be viewed by a selected few in the galleries or exhibitions
only once in a blue moon. Copies of digital paintings can be viewed
or shared by multitudes through the Internet, anywhere in the
world, at the same time. Digital fine art is more democratic,
universal, and close to popular cyber culture.
A print from a printer is the standardized physical
output of the digitized image. There is great range of the number,
size, and variety of prints that can be made of a particular digital
painting. It is for the digital artist to decide how he produces
his work or restricts its access. In real fact these restrictions,
such as of copyright, are more symbolic than real.
I think one's 'beliefs' (ideals, visions) are powerful inspiration
(instrument) both for self-realisation and for altruistic social
objectives. But I do not think beliefs (ideas, visions, ideals
such as afterlife or God); have to be "real" (physical
facts) or scientifically valid. There is a borderline between
"vision" (beliefs) and "reality" (physical
facts). The thickness (or visibility) of this borderline depends
upon the perception of the viewer shared by some others who have
similar vision-view. Yet visions (ideas and beliefs) have an existence
of their own independent of, or even interacting with, the physical
reality.
Perhaps a similar borderline separates the digitised
"original" in computer language stored in the hard disc
and its display on desktop monitors through Internet worldwide.
Compare again the hard "copy" of digital art (on paper
or canvas) through a printer for physical display and the "real"
painting on canvas, which in effect is a copy of the vision in
the mind (brain-cells) of the artist.
TAIL PIECE
Those who underestimate digital art are concerned
less with the intrinsic aesthetic and spiritual qualities and
more with "market" value, privileged (unsharable) possession,
and vested interests. Digital art is not considered collectible
because it is not as scarce (rare) as a real art canvas (the supply).
Something becomes collectible when the supply is low and demand
is high. The market managers thereby put low value in money on
the digital art. The digital artists need to learn this equation
and practice it in action - restrict the supply of real product
(print) and increase the demand for it through aggressive promotion
and marketing to increase the price. Or, conversely, why bother
about privileged art-circle and their art market; just reduce
the price and increase the sale (pavement sale) so that many can
possess it. Or better still, place it on the Internet and share
it for free for anyone who cares!
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Quotes
About Digital Art