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A few months ago I was asked by a museum curator, "Why have a digital art exhibition on walls? Don't you think cyberspace is the natural venue for such an exhibition?" The query took me by surprise. I thought we were beyond such questions. My response was the usual: Physical space is different from virtual space; one is not better than the other but different. When people view art in physical space, they have a sense of the scale and presence of the work. To see a work in reflected light on a wall is a very different experience from viewing a work in projected light on a monitor. Some images and projects can only be viewed in the digital realm, others can traverse different media.
 Those were the obvious answers, but the query inspired me to think about just how far digital art has come. I reflected on the past 20 years, the present, and the future. In the past, major questions of the arts community had been: How do you show digital art? How does one translate the digital realm to the physical world? Is the art object archival? Why use a computer to create art? Is the value of the work diluted by the possibility of the computer producing endless originals? In the early days, besides looking at the work itself, we were always trying to figure out how the art was created. Like a puzzle it was fun to get the "right" answer. It seemed that every artist using a computer was always exploring new ways to create and visualize ideas. Artists were inventing new methods. Exploration was a constant in the creation of the work and in the showing of the art. Inventing ways to output the work could be just as much a part of the art as the visual content. It all came with the territory. What was clear to us from the beginning was that the computer was here to stay. In time, the computer would prove to influence the ways in which we approach and show artworks by allowing new delivery systems. Initially, the Internet was used for text communication and data exchange between academic institutions and government offices. The part of the internet known as the World Wide Web was proposed less than a decade ago by Tim Berners-Lee as a way of organizing information into a set of hypermedia documents. Transmission of pictures displayed on individual work stations wasn't possible until 1991, when Mosaic, the first graphical Web software, was put to use. Mosaic and its successor Netscape were the impetuses that drew the attention of the general public to the World Wide Web. Daily access to personal computes has stimulated a new visual literacy in the general public. For example, the concept of typography has been a revelation to many. The barrage of images experienced through TV and film—including special effects—was the first step to making the public at large more visually aware, but even with this stimulation, type was still all but transparent. It wasn't until more people had the opportunity to select fonts for their own correspondence, as well as to create their own ads and brochures, that they came to appreciate typography as a communication device. Choosing appropriate images and using a number of different fonts in a variety of sizes enhanced their visual perception. A more visually attuned public is an important link to understanding the sudden success and explosion of the World Wide Web. The ability to instantly share a personal pictorial vision with a global public is a profound concept. Gertrude Stein's statement that "a rose is a rose is a rose" has new meaning in a world where a picture of a rose is understood and interpreted by all who know what a rose is. Images, sound, and type styles are powerful communication tools in global community where different languages are spoken. The visual is one way to universally understand an idea in such a diverse world. People, in an effort to communicate, are putting out information at a frenzied pace. They have created a whirlwind of Web sites and home pages. These sites are fast becoming a two-way window onto the world. This two-way interaction could become the major way we communicate in our daily lives. The idea of the window reminds me of some science fiction movies that feature two-way visual communication devices. One way we may reach out and exchange personal visions will be on a large, seamless, floor-to-ceiling wall system. So in a sense we might still have digital art displayed on a wall, but that same wall system will also be able to reach out into cyberspace. Another scenario will exist where different spaces meet. For example, one could be in a real physical space with art created in a nondigital manner along with digital art transmitted through the same floor-to-ceiling delivery system. The co-existence of the two spaces—physical and ethereal—could bring about a deeper understanding of the real and the virtual experience. The dawn of the digital age is pointing to a future where we will all have the opportunity to learn, create, and explore new and limitless possibilities. It's a big open space out there. Beam me up, Scotty. |
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