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The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction
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It is this emphasis on the exhibition quality of art that has led to mechanically reproduced artwork imitating traditional fine art. A photograph in an advertisement does not usually attempt to portray itself as a precious or "authentic" object. Nor does offset lithography, by virtue of the medium, often claim a space for annual reports or public relations brochures on the gallery wall. It is not the medium that suggests itself as a piece of art worthy of exhibition, but the medium used in imitation of traditional art media that does so. Indeed, in printmaking, the numbering of lithographs in relation to the edition provides the buyer of the work with the illusion of a sole and "authentic" object, such as the print numbered 25 out of 50. It is the exhibition value of traditional art that maintains and controls the production and distribution of mechanically and digitally reproduced art. Currently many galleries are showing two-dimensional art titled computer graphics, computer art or digital art. These terms are often interchangeable and, I would argue, misnamed. This work, like a print or a photograph, is one manifestation of a reproduction process. Instead of the film negative in photography, or the block, etching plate, or screen in printmaking, the reproduction of such two-dimensional work originates from the storage of binary code on a computer disk, hard drive or other media. Such reproduction does not differ in any significant way from mechanical reproduction, except, perhaps, in the ease with which techniques difficult in the darkroom or printmaking studio can be achieved in a digital environment. In all three cases, work is printed on a paper or another support suitable for exhibition, with the potential for multiples at the artist's discretion. Whether the artist has used digital tools, light-sensitive photographic tools or ink and plate or screen, the result is the same. That such work uses the computer as a production tool to imitate mechanically reproduced art (which is imitating the exhibition quality of traditional fine art) does not change the nature of the work. |
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