Until now, only the introduction of the camera brought about such a dramatic change in artistic creation, but since the Internet and the advent of digital possibilities, digital art has also shaken up the art scene. Digital Art, broadly speaking, includes all artistic creation that in some way incorporates digital technologies in the creation or presentation process. Even though Digital Art is not a clearly delineated art movement, it is nevertheless gaining more and more attention in modern society, probably not least because technologies and digital trends are enjoying great popularity. Video, internet, social media have become indispensable and are indispensable in conceptual art. Works in the direction are summarized under the broad term “media art”.
Digital technologies as a new medium for artists
Whether television, PC, Softwares or the Internet: The art scene is eager for new, innovative and bold ways to give their creations a new voice. Instead of brushes, acrylics and oils, artists could now paint with light, sound and pixels using electronic technologies. Digital collages and three-dimensional graphic works could be created on screen-not to mention multimedia projections. Recent examples from the art world show that artists have not only mastered digital means, but are using them to optimize traditional techniques and redefine the boundaries of art. One example is the emerging artist Albert Janzen, who uses digital drawing tools to set his lines precisely despite fast and dynamic strokes.
Digital art
International artist David Gomez Del Rio also uses the new technological possibilities and fuses photography, texture and drawing studies with digital art. In a first step, he draws analog on paper with charcoal pencil and then digitizes them. After digital processing, these drawings are transformed into entirely new works, and in this way Del Rio creates a digital masterpiece out of the analog.
Another example is the German photographer Margarete Schrüfer: The artist makes digital use of the centuries-old art of origami. Her still lifes of flowers are created from a multitude of digitally superimposed, transparent photographs. With this technique, she achieves a three-dimensional effect.
Her artist colleague Stefanie Reling creates machine, structural matrix-like works, combining scripts or error messages, for example, and recombining them. In the process, insoluble and unreadable formulas, series, repetitions and fractions are created. A kind of graphic or matrix is created that represents a pictorial composition.
Exhibition of digital art by Stefanie Reling
But the artists not only use the technologies as a new medium, they often challenge the viewer to think about the impact of the information age on society at large: Questioning the digital in and with the digital.
“Go viral” – opening up art to a wide audience.
Digital art also revolutionized how art can be disseminated and seen. While some works such as art installations or complex sculptural components require a traditional venue such as museums or galleries, digital technologies allow media such as photography and painting in particular to be more easily transported and communicated. As technologies have moved into everyone’s lives and become ingrained in society, the sole digital component in artwork has lost its appeal. However, digital technologies open up the art market to those interested in art and allow for the playful and easy operation of artistic practices. Tutorials on artistic practices can be found on every corner and inspire the online community. Autodidacts find recognition and a broad audience on the social network – and become artists themselves. Previously existing boundaries are being eroded, but they certainly enrich artistic discourse and bring art into modern society.
New technologies are being developed day by day, stretching the imagination of modern man. Media art with high-tech software is no longer a rarity and enriches the artistic discourse. We will undoubtedly continue to witness an explosion of media art as this journey continues and untapped potential emerges. It remains exciting to see how the broad, ever-changing digital landscape evolves artistically and whether digital technologies can assert themselves as a serious alternative to traditional means of artistic creation.