Art is one of the key facets of every culture, allowing individuals to create and negotiate the meanings attached to the world around them. Whilst art has traditionally be associated with a range of forms, it has, by default been associated with a presumed tangibility. With new emerging forms of online media and communication, art has been taken into a virtual simulacra of the Internet in which art can be created, distributed, modified, linked, shared and explored. With a plethora of new artistic opportunities, what then, is the role of digital art in our world?
Art has often been used as a means of social commentary. As Margaret Simons (2007:204-206) suggests, online publications provide a free way for users to engage and be informed about contemporary issues, and thus, we must look at the ways in which online art can become a vehicle for communication and political expression. Drew Berry, a biomedical animator uses scientific data to create medical animations in order to represent the ‘activities occurring within our bodies that could otherwise only be seen at a magnification of 100 million times’. Drew Berry uses digital art to educate individuals about the way the body works, whilst raising social awareness about diseases like malaria through powerful visualisations that deconstruct the disease and explain how it can be cured. Berry relies heavily on online communities to distribute his ideas, which are re-blogged and shared around the world by individuals and online communities.
TEDxCaltech - Drew Berry - Visualization: Biology and Complex Circuits: found here
Graham Meikle, who highlights the flexibility of online artistic expression through his analysis of Critical Art Ensemble, suggests that the many forms of digital art can be used to present criticism creatively by drawing on the construction of signs and symbols that pervade our modern world (2002:113-119). Digital artist David McCandless, uses infographics to synthesise a range of data, translating it into colourful and creative works of art that are relinked and redistributed throughout cyberspace. McCandless’ website, Information is Beautiful, uses online art to paint sharp, profound, and at times hilarious realities with the digital brush. For example, McCandless’ ‘Colours in Cultures’ graph (pictured below) allows audiences to questions their preconceived understandings of cultural symboles, whilst learning something new about how colour is seen within other cultures. Much like the work of Berry, McCandless’ art provides us with food for thought.
It would seem that through online art, we are heading in a new, digital direction that will allow us to better understand the world around us. Sharing our thoughts with online communities across the world presents a world of limitless possibilities, and this is only the beginning.
References
Meikle, Graham (2002), ‘Turning sings into question marks’, Future Active, New York, Routledge, pp. 113-139.
Simons, Margaret (2007), ‘The gift economy and the future’, The Content Makers: understanding the media in Australia, Camberwell, Victoria, Penguin, pp. 204-217.
Art really is a mind-bogglingly expansive slice of the cultural pie, isn't it? Kind of scares me off a bit when it comes to producing a feature about it - how could you possibly address all the important issues?
ReplyDeleteBut then, no one artist hopes to solve the world's problems every time he or she picks up a brush. They just reflect a little part of their own corner of the world. Being online, I think it'll make it easier for us to do the same.