Digital Art: Refined and Redefined

Digital art is a type of art that has been growing in popularity over the past 20 or so years. With the arrival of NFTs, it seems stronger than ever.

So it seems like a good time to stop undermining digital art because it doesn’t have brush strokes, or there isn’t any actual physical labor involved in its production. Some even argue that this lack of tangibility is one of the things which make it so special. So let us discuss and possibly redefine digital art terms.

What Does Digital Art Mean?

The definition of digital art is art created using software, computers, or other electronic devices. 

Digital art is the umbrella term for a number of art mediums that use digital input, sensors, or virtual reality to generate an end product. 

Digital art forms are typically created on a computer or interactive electronic device. In other words digital art has given us the tools to make unbelievable artwork, and the only requirement is to be tech-savvy and willing to learn. Through innovations in software and hardware, artists have been able to do things that would have been considered impossible beforehand.

How Does Digital Art Work?

When it comes to the ins and outs of digital art, the following are the most important terms to bear in mind. 

Networking 

Networking refers to a group of people who are linked by a common interest, and share information about their personal or professional lives via the internet, email, chat rooms, or other social media. For example: connecting with others via the internet for information, knowledge sharing and building relationships is known as networking. Digital art artists have gotten very creative in how they use social media to “network” with their peers. This sense of community is very important, yet often misunderstood by the public. Networking has lots of benefits that help promote and expand the artist’s career and their art. It helps establish their brand, which is very important in our society of instant gratification. It also allows them to build a following and gather more information about the customer and their needs. Artists should keep in mind connectivity between artists, customers, and communities while creating their digital art. There are many web sites that promote networking between others, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn. Email is a great way to network without social media since it is not constantly changing; however email is not used as heavily anymore due to the rise of social media over the past decade.

Media in Art Redefined

Artists are now able to create art with such precision and high quality that it can compete with real life paintings and sculptures. Joseph Kosuth’s “One and Three Chairs” (1969) was created by placing an actual chair in front of a camera at a 45 degree angle as well as creating two printed copies of the image that were identical except for one being mirrored or rotated 90 degrees. The actual chair is so close to the camera that it is at a 90 degree angle, but the other two images are mirrored or rotated allowing the viewers to see how identical they are. The viewers wonder what if the pieces were actually different, would they still look identical? Or would they look different even though they still have the same proportions? This piece is an example of how digital art can be used as a completely new medium.

Sensors and Sensitivity

Sensors help us perceive our surroundings through an objective perspective by converting whatever enters them into data we can understand. In 1979, Michel Journiac used sensors as paint brushes that took photographs and turned them into paintings of his surroundings. His piece, Sensor Paintings, were made by installing infrared sensors in a room that were connected to cameras. The cameras took photographs of the room and then the sensors translated the light waves into data into paint strokes on canvas within seconds. By using technology to manipulate many things in our environment we have become more sensitive to our surroundings and have learned to see beyond what our eyes are able to catch. Sensors are used today not just for painting works but also house thermostats, medical equipment and control robots.

Hardware & Software

Computer graphics have become a popular medium which is used to create stunning works of art. In order to create such a detailed image this technology needs hardware and software, hardware is the hardware inside the computer and software is what makes things work. Software is what you use to make the computer work, this includes a program that tells the graphic card what can be drawn on an image and how it should be painted or made. Hardware builds up these programs into chips, which are then connected and powered by a user’s computer system. The graphics card may not actually draw anything for you in real life but it could tell you whether or not your drawing will be correct when it is printed out on paper and looks exactly like it did when you drew it on your screen. Software and hardware are both used in the process of creating your design.

Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality

Virtual reality is when you can see, feel, taste and even touch things that aren’t actually there. The most popular example of virtual reality is the technology that is used to create video games because it makes you feel like you are in the video game world. On another level virtual reality can also be used for art by using a head mounted display to make an image so realistic that it seems real. But mixed reality only combines virtual reality with the real world to enhance our visual experience rather than completely replace it with a digital environment. Mixed reality is more useful when you need to interact with the real world while also experiencing something else.

Digital Art and Photography

Photography is an art in itself, it allows the artist to express themselves through light, color and a camera lens. Digital art uses photography as one of its main mediums, but photography is not always digitally made. Digital art would also be considered as a new genre of photography because it has been modified using software or hardware. Software programs such as PhotoShop are used to manipulate images in order to create something that didn’t exist before or make an existing image better. Photography is a vast field of art, it can be done in many ways and shows how technology has changed how it is possible to do. There are so many different kinds of photography but digital art is the perfect example to show that there are new ways to express yourself and you can use a program such as PhotoShop to