New
Media, Old Art Forms:
Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction
- Technotopias: Texts, Identities, and Technological Cultures
- Department of English Studies, University of Strathclyde
- International Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, July 10, 2002
Abstract
As studio artists begin working with new media, tension builds between the method of production and studio art traditions—fostered by academia and maintained through the norms of exhibition. In many cases, the artist’s use of new media functions primarily as a production tool in the service of creating art that maintains the exhibition quality of previously defined art media categories: photography, printmaking, drawing, etc. This work has often been labeled “computer graphic” or “computer art,” which merely serves to separate the method of production from the media of the work and does little to put new media into a historical or traditional studio art context.
Using Walter Benjamin’s essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" as a foundation, this paper considers the work of art in the age of digital reproduction, arguing that digital production is no more relevant to traditional studio art categories where exhibition quality is privileged than non-digital production methods. Further, this paper considers artwork experienced on a computer monitor rather than in traditional exhibition, and claims that such work does not necessarily constitute a “digital art” experience. Finally, this paper focuses on interactivity as the primary signifier of what constitutes digital art and considers how digital reproduction may change both the structure and nature of art.
Introduction
As studio artists begin working with new digital media, tension builds between the method of production and studio art traditions—fostered by academia and maintained through the norms of exhibition.
Studio art has traditionally been taught experientially with student/apprentice learning from the teacher/master, a model that has deep historical roots, creating an environment in which resistance to high tech production tools mirrors generational resistance to technology in the culture at-large. That is, as younger generations experience technology in ways not possible for previous generations, discontinuity in expectations about technology between generations occurs. Technological solutions are normalized for younger generations who have grown up programming VCRs, using ATMs, and accessing the Internet. In the art studio, however, the historical traditions that preference painting and drawing over printmaking and photography also preference older, more traditional tools over technological tools, and such preferences are maintained through the apprentice/master model where authority resides with those less technologically experienced.