Whilst my previous entry (Is it a warning?) may have touched on the subject of technology within art, I feel I need to upload something more accurate than a fear stricken SOS call from the depths of my paranoia.
I could go into a lengthy essay about the relevance of digital reproduction through tools such as adobe's software packages, or the painterly accuracy of wacoms hardware, but as these things are all commonplace nowadays, it almost seems strange that someone would still purchase a paintbrush.
Yet I find myself faltering between the ease of use, publication and production of digital media, and the romance, skill and effort that goes into letterpress, hand rendered illustrations or artworks and the dying use of celluloid for capturing film.
I've said before, I'm a fan of rehashing the feel and look of that which has gone by, but the gaps between what we consider 'retro' or as the coined phrase would have it 'lo-fi'.
The fact that we have lo-fi, as a major movement within a digital world should speak volumes about the need for technique and craftsmanship without the aid of technology.
Yet within digital arts there are new vehicles which turn technology and art into an immersive experience, for the past number of years, the advancements in computer graphics alone has been astonishing, and it's now commonplace to see a games console beside the television in any household.
But these machines, and their 'graphics engines' are being utilised for something more than just interactive gaming, as Jonathan Leggett highlighted in Dazed (ref; vol.2 issue 70).
Leggett highlights the works of Mavros' Nodes a 'modder' who uses game engines as a foundation with which to create environments out of the structures and mapping systems used in mainstream computer games such as half-life.
Removing the gameplay element and turning these virtual environments that gestate and manipulate in flux and form as you move within them and interact with their aura as such. Some of these creations are truly bizarre, whilst some are completely engaging sensory experiences (check out moddb.com for examples)
It makes me wonder if we will reach a point where digital art no longer needs a gallery or space with which to exhibit within, rather creating an architectural or sculptural digital form which *is* as much the gallery, as it is the artwork
