I’ve been helping out with an art camp here on campus, it’s for art teachers in the field to help them try new things and get university credit at the same time. This year they worked with clay, prints and video. The later is where I was helping out.
The instructor for the video section, made an interesting comment on the nature of digital media when it comes to art. Essentially she noted that with physically created work, there is that element of touch and feel and innate knowledge of how to change something, but in the digital realm, that is not there. In digital, things are quantized and required additional knowledge that is hidden within the tools.
This is pretty much how I think of things as well. There is a lot to know about paints and clay and the sort, but by mucking, you can get something to work, in the digital work, it is the same – mucking works, but only if you understand you are mucking with the information, the data and that the tool is secondary. The computer is not the tool for the art, it’s how you manipulate the data that creates the art – much like the camera in the era of film (I know it’s not dead yet… but it’s wobbling… just look at Kodak last night cutting back) – the camera was on the tool and light was the media that was used to craft an image, brushes are just tools for paint.
In deciding how to create a digital art project, you need to decide on the tool first, but after that it’s all about the information.
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