Musings on digital art by B. Allen Bayard

"The advent of the archival digital ink jet print is truly a breakthrough in the realm of making art, in much the same way the development of the camera turned the world of art on its ear well over a century ago . It took a long period of time before there was mainstream acceptance of photography as art, and interestingly, a similar conversation about the acceptability of digital work as art is currently taking place. My guess is that people will come to terms with this new media quickly and without too much fuss. At least I hope so as, the rewards will be tremendous.

What is very exciting, apart from the new images we will see created with digital technology, is how this development will affect other, more traditional techniques. When photographic images first appeared like magic in the developing tray, it changed the way artists approached and recorded their subjects. Since the rendition of subject matter was so accurate in the photograph, the artist no longer needed to render reality in portraits and landscapes, and so was freed up to explore other ways of seeing and then painting those observations.

This resulted in impressionism, expressionism and the myriad of artforms that developed throughout the 20th century. Many forms incorporated the photograph: dadaism, post-abstract expressionism, pop; or elevated it: photorealism, video—to the great advantage of better understanding our humanity by exploring such a broad scope of images. Some of these images even foreshadowed major breakthroughs in scientific thought, but that can be left for another column.

The photograph itself eventually achieved independent status as fine art, and artists began using that medium in ever increasingly different ways. It has been a major influence in the way we think about and perceive reality. The digital work we are seeing now—and will see in the future—also will certainly change the way we view the world. It will require a reexamination of what is true about our assumptions and beliefs. The electronic collage, digitally generated and manipulated images, web-based art and all sorts of variations on the new technology will redefine what it means to be human.

Maybe there will be a fuss after all."

- Content from Babyard.com