ART AND THE COMPUTER
While the artistic and technical temperaments are often
viewed as opposites, the techniques of artists have always
shown an intimate awareness of technology, including the
physical characteristics of the artist’s tools and media.
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The development of computer technology capable of generating,
manipulating, displaying, or printing images has offered a
variety of new tools for existing artistic traditions, as well
as entirely new media and approaches.
Computer art began as an offshoot of research into image
processing or the simulation of visual phenomena, such as
by researchers at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, dur-
ing the 1960s. One of these researchers, A. Michael Noll,
applied computers to the study of art history by simulat-
ing techniques used by painters Piet Mondrian and Bridget
Riley in order to gain a better understanding of them. In
addition to exploring existing realms of art, experiment-
ers began to create a new genre of art, based on the ideas of
Max Bense, who coined the terms “artificial art” and “gen-
erative esthetics.” Artists such as Manfred Mohr studied
computer science because they felt the computer could pro-
vide the tools for an esthetic strongly influenced by math-
ematics and natural science. For example, Mohr’s P-159/A
(1973) used mathematical algorithms and a plotting device
to create a minimalistic yet rich composition of lines. Other
artists working in the minimalist, neoconstructivist, and
conceptual art traditions found the computer to be a com-
pelling tool for exploring the boundaries of form.
By the 1980s, the development of personal computers
made digital image manipulation available to a much wider
group of people interested in artistic expression, including
the more conventional realms of representational art and
photography. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop blend art
and photography, making it possible to combine images
from many sources and apply a variety of transformations
to them. The use of computer graphics algorithms make
realistic lighting, shadow, and fog effects possible to a much
greater degree than their approximation in traditional
media. Fractals can create landscapes of infinite texture
and complexity. The computer has thus become a standard
tool for both “serious” and commercial artists.
Artificial intelligence researchers have developed pro-
grams that mimic the creativity of human artists. For exam-
ple, a program called Aaron developed by Harold Cohen
can adapt and extend existing styles of drawing and paint-
ing. Works by Aaron now hang in some of the world’s most
distinguished art museums.
An impressive display of the “state of the computer art”
could be seen at a digital art exhibition that debuted in
Boston at the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference. More than 150
artists and researchers from 16 countries exhibited work
and discussed its implications. Particularly interesting
were dynamic works that interacted with visitors and the
environment, often blurring the distinction between digi-
tal arts and robotics. In the future, sculptures may change
with the season, time of day, or the presence of people in
the room, and portraits may show moods or even converse
with viewers.
Implications and Prospects
While traditional artistic styles and genres can be repro-
duced with the aid of a computer, the computer has the
potential to change the basic paradigms of the visual arts.
The representation of all elements in a composition in digi-
tal form makes art fluid in a way that cannot be matched
Air, created by Lisa Yount with the popular image-editing program
Adobe Photoshop, is part of a group of photocollages honoring the
ancient elements of earth, air, water, and fire. The “wings” in the
center are actually the two halves of a mussel shell. by realional media, where the artist is limited in the abil-
ity to rework a painting or sculpture.
Further, there is no
hard-and-fast boundary between still image and anima-
tion, and the creation of art works that change interactively
in response to their viewer becomes feasible. Sound, too,
can be integrated with visual representation, in a way far
more sophisticated than that pioneered in the 1960s with
“color organs” or laser shows. Indeed, the use of virtual
reality technology makes it possible to create art that can be
experienced “from the inside,” fully immersively The use of the Internet opens the possibility
of huge collaborative works being shaped by participants
around the world.
The growth of computer art has not been without mis-
givings. Many artists continue to feel that the intimate
physical relationship between artist, paint, and canvas can-
not be matched by what is after all only an arrangement of
light on a flat screen. However, the profound influence of
the computer on contemporary art is undeniable.
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