Digital Art

Artists have always been among the first to reflect on the culture and technology of their time, and decades before the digital revolution had been officially proclaimed, they were experimenting with the digital medium. -Christian Paul

Computer Art? Multimedia Art? New Media Art?

What is new? What is new in fact is that digital technology has now reached such a stage of development that it offers entirely new possibilities for the creation and experience of art.

Old

New

tool

medium

Rain Room, Random International, 2012

hybrid

Human/Dog Hybrid, Patricia Piccinini 2002

A short history of technology and art

Military Industrial Complex

Noun a country’s military establishment and those industries producing arms or other military materials, regarded as a powerful vested interest.

ENIAC 1946

UNIVAC 1951

ARPANET 1969

Douglas Engelbart first mouse for interface

Douglas Engelbar bitmap

DADA

DADA

DADA

Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968

Marcel Duchamp Bicycle Wheel, 1913

Marcel Duchamp The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even, 1923

Marcel Duchamp Nude Descending a Staircase, 1913

Marcel Duchamp L.H.O.O.Q. 1919

Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics), 1920

Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray Rotary Glass Plates (Precision Optics), 1920

Marcel Duchamp Rotary Demisphere, 1925

Marcel Duchamp Tongue in Cheek

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy Photogram 1925

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy

Lazlo Moholy-Nagy Light Space Modulator, 1922

Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray Rayogram, 1922

Man Ray

John Cage, new-Dada, Fluxus

Fluxus

Allan Kaprow

Fluxus

Water Yam, George Brecht, 1963

Yoko Ono Cut Piece,

Cut Piece First Version for single performer: Performer sits on stage with a pair of scissors placed in front of him. It is announced that members of the audience may come on stage–one at a time–to cut a small piece of the performer’s clothing to take with them. Performer remains motionless throughout the piece. Piece ends at the performer’s option.

Nam June Paik Random Access, 1963

early computer graphics

Michael A. Noll

Bella Julesz

Georg Nees

Frieder Nake

George Whitney

Charles Csuri

Vera Molnar

Vera Molnar

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz., 1977

Robert Adrian The World in 24 Hours, 1982