October 28, 2007: Digital Arts is too big
Making sense of any field takes time.
When we say contemporary art- we could say we are talking about the artworks that are shown in art galleries, and museums- in exhibitions, biennials and events, and that are being discussed in a variety of art books, catalogues, magazines, and newspapers around the world.
When I try to do apply this to Digital Arts I get swamped- if we say that Digital Arts includes any art that uses digital technologies, including all digital media found in galleries, on the internet, digital videos, web sites, virtual projects etc. That’s a lots of stuff. Given how much more sophisticated search engines have become- searching any topic is huge- there is a fast flowing flood of information that keeps growing daily.
Digital arts is too big.
As a category Digital Arts ends up being to all inclusive and needs focus. I propose to consider what are the essential qualities, that make Digital Arts distinct from other forms of contemporary art. Digital Arts then, would refer to work that not only utilize digital technologies- but that wouldn’t be possible without them- the artworks only exists because of these digital technologies.