Art and Technology
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Mitch Resnick
Member
July 16, 2009
In connection with afternoon's session of the Creative Computing workshop....
* How does technology inspire you to think about art in new ways?
* How does art inspire you to think about technology in new ways?
I believe that technology does allow access to the discovery of artistic interest and the stimulation of artistic ability. Could Paint or Photoshop late at night in the privacy of your own room be enough to generate the next Picasso or Spielberg?
Art is generally part of the physical world and its creation involves interacting with or acting on that world, but what makes a particular act or product art and another not?
As technologies expand, the possibilities for art expand.
Hopefully, visual design is an important part of engineering and constructing using the technologies at hand (of everything that we create and live with).
I agree that there is value and satisfaction in "traditional" methods like drawing, but it is great to also see innovation. As a librarian, I really like the feel of a book, the binding, end-papers, fonts, even the smell-all those tactile qualities. But I see the value in the playaway and the Kindle, and there value to me would increase if they somehow spoke more to my senses like a book.
I see in the media labs we visited, the focus on trying to make the technologies work with the "human", sense elements to make the products more appealing. Bravo.
Technology has always been part of the art making process!
jiove.com/PROCESS/phase2/lascaux_horse.jpg
The Lascaux cave painter, whoever he or she was, had to figure out how to make his/her media (mineral-based pigments, carving tools, etc) using whatever materials were available 16,000 years ago. These were state of the art technology at the time. Plaster, marble, bronze, oil paint, photography, motion pictures, and plastics were all "new media" once. Now that there are expensive museums full of artworks made with these media, it's easy for us to think of them as more "real" or "serious" than other kinds of work.
I still love working by hand, and I think traditional drawing is a valuable skill to teach students. There are a million ways to combine the traditional and digital arts - for example, you can sketch a pencil drawing, scan it and clean it up in Photoshop, print it out and retrace it in ink, scan it again and color it in Photoshop, then print it out to a high-quality color printer. Or whatever you like. I'm interested in helping students break down the arbitrary division between the physical art object and the digital image.
I am facinated by the connections between mathematical ideas and art. I think technology helps us to see those connections. It is also inspiring to see how technology can be beautiful and the ways that art can inspire technological form and function.
To really answer this question I would need to define art and define technology. If technology is any tool, then the creation of any art requires some kind of technology like a pencil or a paintbrush. If I define art as a product of human creativity then everything we have done with Scratch is art - as it has requred a fair amount of creativity on my part to create my projects.
"If technology is any tool, then the creation of any art requires some kind of technology like a pencil or a paintbrush." from Liz Davis
I never thought of art using technology in this way, but this is a great example. Many people think that technology is just about computers (at least my students think that), but you are right that the tools used in art are technology.
Scratch can integrate art into the techology class and I think it can help students who might not think they are good at art have a medium that they can be successful with.
Since I'm not really an artist (although I can be creative), technology helps me create works of art. It gives me tools to do things I never imagined. It empowers me the artist in me. I can be more creative and am able to think about creating in new ways. I can combine media and end up with a product I never imagined. Technology helps express my ideas and thoughts.
If I look at art as a starting point and consider how it inspires me to think about technology, I realize that I can interact with works of art -- reinterpret them using technology; I can examine them at a pixel level -- understand technique and mastery; I can explore mathematical relationships -- examine perspective and proportions, etc.; I can use art as a focal point for exploring technology and its tools.
If I think about it long enough it seems impossible to separate the two ... like an Escher drawing ... the art inspires technology and the technology inspires art. (The pen draws the hand which draws the pen which draws the ..... )
Technology and art were not traditionally thought of as complementary. When I thought art, I immediately think of paint and museums. When I thought technology, I think of software/hardware/productivity and then gaming, internet and interactive programs.
David's projects pointed me in a totally different way. The Nobel Fields was an artist wonder. The technology was the art form that made the historical information pleasurable and intriguing. I was inspired by the Word Well and the Holocaust Museum's interactive participation.
I do not consider myself traditionally artistic with paint, although I love to color. I feel that technology medium can level the playing field and make us all "artists" in the true sense of the word.
Technology has the ability to allow people who don't think of themselves as talented in the traditional sense of an artist, to create amazing and beautiful pieces with the aid of technological resources. In schools, It can act as an equalizer for those students who don't always shine in the classroom.
Technology is another medium to creatively communicate information, beauty, and emotions through Art. Technology allows people to participate and engage in Art.
Rosemary