Digital art

The question of what is Digital art for me rather practical and not theoretical because digital is an adjective, it is a characteristic or the way of representation of art. For instance, it can be a canvas on the wall, a fresco in a cave or a picture created in Photoshop but all of this can be presented on a screen.

At first, we need to define what does “digital” means:

- recording or storing information as series of the numbers 1 and 0, to show that a signal is present or absent;

- using or relating to digital signals and computer technology;

- showing information in the form of an electronic image;

(Cambridge dictionary [Online] Available from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/digital [Accessed 23/06/18]).

"All digital media (text, still images, visual or audio time data, shapes, 3-D spaces) share the same digital code. This allows different media types to be displayed using one machine – a computer – which acts as a multimedia display device." (Lev Manovich (2001) The Language of New Media. The USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Lev Manovich gave a detailed analysis of the new media via which we can emerge the ‘digital’:

…the popular understanding of new media identifies it with the use of a computer for distribution and exhibition rather than production… There is no reason to privilege the computer as a machine for the exhibition and distribution of media… New media is analog media converted to a digital representation. In contrast to analog media, which is continuous, digitally encoded media is discrete.

After defining the way of representation we can combine it with a meaning of art.

Digital art - art created or modified using a computer or other digital medium. (Oxford Dictionaries [Online] Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/digital_art [Accessed 23/06/18]).

Digital art is an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as an essential part of the creative or presentation process. Since the 1970s, various names have been used to describe the process, including computer art and multimedia art. Digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella term new media art (Wikipedia [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_art [Accessed 23/06/18]).

Of course, such a representational feature contains a lot of theoretical aspects such as size, time, colour and others. “The computer screen also functions both as a window into an illusionary space and as a flat surface carrying text labels and graphical icons.” (Lev Manovich (2001) The Language of New Media. The USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Nicholas Mirzoeff said “the digital is all about space” I again agree with this in the extent that physically we can count the quantity on bytes or codes of numbers in digital art. But if we are thinking about the sense of “Black Square” then here are the same subjects for analysis are applicable as for non-digital art.

In order to recognise the value of this representational phenomenon, it will take time and the next generations will revalue it again.

Bill Viola Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) (2014) a high definition video installation incorporating four plasma screens set on carbon-steel frames [Online] Available from: https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&tbm=isch&q=Bill%20Viola%20Martyrs%20(Earth%2C%20Air%2C%20Fire%2C%20Water)%20(2014)#imgrc=9BaS8tartNAFnM: [Accessed 26/06/18]