Digital art, also known as the digital arts, is an artistic discipline employing digital technology throughout its creative or exhibition phases. Alternatively, it encompasses computational art that actively utilizes and interacts with digital media. Since the 1960s, this artistic domain has been designated by various terms, such as computer art, electronic art, multimedia art, and new media art. Its manifestations range from works preserved on physical substrates, like digital paintings, to virtual galleries hosted on online platforms. Furthermore, digital art intersects with the broader field of visual computing.
History
During the early 1960s, John Whitney pioneered the creation of computer-generated art through mathematical algorithms. Subsequently, in 1963, Ivan Sutherland introduced Sketchpad, the inaugural user-interactive computer-graphics interface. Between 1974 and 1977, Salvador Dalí produced two substantial canvases, Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at a distance of 20 meters is transformed into the portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko), and prints titled Lincoln in Dalivision. These works were derived from a computer-processed portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Leon Harmon, originally published in "The Recognition of Faces". This methodology bears resemblance to what subsequently became known as photographic mosaics.
Andy Warhol produced digital art utilizing an Amiga computer, which was publicly unveiled at the Lincoln Center in July 1985. A monochrome image of Debbie Harry was captured via video camera and subsequently digitized into a graphics application named ProPaint. Warhol then manipulated this image by applying color through flood fill techniques.
Art Made for Digital Media
Artworks characterized by their intensive computational nature, presentation via digital media, and explicit engagement with digital technologies are classified as "art made for digital media". This category is distinct from art employing digital tools, where digital technology is integrated into the creation process but the final output may manifest outside the digital realm.
Digital art historian Christiane Paul posits that it "is highly problematic to classify all art that makes use of digital technologies somewhere in its production and dissemination process as digital art since it makes it almost impossible to arrive at any unifying statement about the art form".
Art That Uses Digital Tools
Digital art encompasses purely computer-generated forms, such as fractals and algorithmic art, as well as works derived from external sources, including scanned photographs or images rendered with vector graphics software via a mouse or graphics tablet. Works are designated as digital paintings when their creation process mirrors traditional painting, yet employs software on a computer platform, with the final image digitally outputted, often simulating a canvas.
Notwithstanding diverse perspectives regarding digital technology's influence on artistic practices, a prevailing consensus within the digital art community acknowledges its substantial role in expanding the creative domain, thereby broadening opportunities for both professional and amateur artists.
Art Theorists and Art Historians
Prominent art theorists and historians specializing in this domain comprise: Oliver Grau, Jon Ippolito, Christiane Paul, Frank Popper, Jasia Reichardt, Mario Costa, Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Dominique Moulon, Roy Ascott, Catherine Perret, Margot Lovejoy, Edmond Couchot, Tina Rivers Ryan, Fred Forest and Edward A. Shanken.
Digital Painting
Digital painting refers either to a physical artwork created using digital electronics and spray paint robotics within a fine art context, or to pictorial imagery composed of pixels on a computer screen that emulates traditional painting and illustration styles.
Artificial Intelligence Art
The application of artificial intelligence in artistic creation dates back to at least the 1960s. Since their inception in 2014, some artists have employed Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a machine learning framework where two algorithms iteratively compete, to produce artwork. This technology is capable of generating images that exhibit visual characteristics akin to traditional fine art. The fundamental concept behind image generators involves users providing text descriptions, which AI then transforms into visual content. Consequently, individuals can translate textual input into pictorial representations using such generators.
Digital Art Education
The proliferation of digital hardware and software has significantly expanded digital art education. This includes a wide array of hardware, such as graphics tablets, styluses, tablets, 3D scanners, virtual reality headsets, and digital cameras, alongside diverse software applications like digital art software, 3D modeling, 3D rendering, digital sculpting, 2D graphics, digital painting, 3D terrain generation, 2D and 3D animation, raster and vector graphics editors, mathematical art software, and video editing tools.
Scholarship and Archival Practices
Beyond the creation of new artworks, artificial intelligence (AI) has facilitated the development of research methodologies for the quantitative analysis of digital art collections. This advancement stems from the extensive digitization of artworks over recent decades. While the primary objective of digitization was to enhance accessibility and facilitate exploration of these collections, the integration of AI for analysis has introduced novel research perspectives.
The analysis of digitized art commonly employs two computational methods: close reading and distant viewing. Close reading concentrates on specific visual attributes within a single artwork. Machine-based tasks in close reading encompass computational artist authentication and the analysis of elements such as brushstrokes or textural properties. Conversely, distant viewing methods enable the statistical visualization of similarities across an entire collection based on a particular feature. Typical applications of this method involve automatic classification, object detection, multimodal tasks, knowledge discovery in art history, and computational aesthetics. Essentially, distant viewing involves the analysis of extensive collections, while close reading focuses on individual artworks.
While 2D and 3D digital art offers the significant advantage of preserving historical artifacts that might otherwise be lost to events such as natural disasters or warfare, it raises complex questions regarding ownership of these 3D scans, specifically concerning digital copyrights.
Computer Demos
Computer demos are typically non-interactive computer programs that generate audiovisual presentations. This distinctive art form originated during the home computer revolution of the early 1980s. Within the broader classification of digital art, computer demos are most accurately characterized as real-time, procedurally generated animated audiovisuals.
This artistic genre emphasizes not only the aesthetic qualities of the final presentation but also the intricate complexities and technical proficiencies required for its creation. Consequently, its full appreciation often necessitates a substantial understanding of pertinent computer technologies. For instance, Hua Jin and Jie Yang assert that employing computer-aided design software in art design education "is not to advocate computer-aided design instead of hand-drawn performance, but to make it serve the profession earlier through a more reasonable course arrangement."
Conversely, numerous works within this category are primarily aesthetic or entertaining, rendering them accessible and enjoyable for a broader public audience.
Digital Installation Art
Digital installation art encompasses a diverse spectrum of artistic practices and forms.
Certain digital installations bear resemblance to video installations, particularly large-scale works incorporating projections and live video capture. Through the application of projection techniques designed to heighten an audience's sense of sensory envelopment, many digital installations aim to construct immersive environments.
Other installations extend this concept further, striving to facilitate complete immersion within virtual realms. These installations are typically site-specific, scalable, and lack fixed dimensionality, allowing for reconfiguration to suit various presentation venues.
Scott Snibbe's "Boundary Functions" exemplifies augmented reality digital installation art, reacting to individuals entering the space by delineating lines between them to signify personal boundaries. Similarly, Noah Wardrip-Fruin's "Screen" (2003) employs a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) to construct an interactive, text-based digital experience that fosters multi-sensory engagement with the viewer.
Internet Art and Net.art
Internet art is a form of digital art that leverages the specific characteristics of the Internet and is exhibited online. The broader category of "net art" encompasses internet art, with practitioners often anticipating the network's historical evolution. Consequently, "post-internet art" emerged to categorize works that transcend direct internet exhibition, even if influenced by internet culture.
"Protocols for Achievements" serves as a notable illustration, presenting a digital photo frame that challenges kitsch aesthetics and integrates individual artistic agency within established institutional frameworks.
Digital Art and Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology, particularly Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), has become a prevalent medium for digital art following its significant surge in popularity during 2020-2021. The process of minting digital artworks as NFTs enables artists to assert verifiable ownership. Nevertheless, this technology has attracted considerable critique due to numerous vulnerabilities concerning plagiarism and fraud (attributable to its largely unregulated status).
Moreover, global auction houses, museums, and galleries have begun incorporating NFTs and partnering with digital artists. They display these artworks (linked to their corresponding NFTs) in both virtual exhibition spaces and physical venues utilizing screens, monitors, and televisions.
In March 2024, Sotheby's conducted an auction that underscored the substantial contributions of digital artists from the preceding decade, marking another in a series of record-setting digital art sales by the institution. These auctions comprehensively examine the cultural influence of digital art in the 21st century, showcasing pieces by artists including Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Vera Molnár, Claudia Hart, Jonathan Monaghan, and Sarah Zucker.
Computer-Generated Visual Media
Digital visual art encompasses either two-dimensional visual data presented on an electronic display or three-dimensional information mathematically rendered and viewed via perspective projection on such a display. The most straightforward manifestation, 2D computer graphics, parallels traditional drawing methods using pencil and paper. However, in this digital context, the image resides on a computer screen, and the input device could be a tablet stylus or a mouse. The resulting on-screen output may simulate drawings created with a pencil, pen, or paintbrush. The second category, 3D computer graphics, transforms the screen into a portal to a virtual environment, allowing users to arrange objects for digital "photography" by the computer.
Typically, 2D computer graphics primarily employ raster graphics for source data representation, while 3D computer graphics utilize vector graphics, particularly in the development of immersive virtual reality installations. A third potential paradigm involves generating art, whether 2D or 3D, exclusively through the execution of algorithms encoded within computer programs. This approach can be regarded as the computer's intrinsic art form, with its historical overview accessible through an interview with computer art pioneer Frieder Nake. Illustrative examples include fractal art, datamoshing, algorithmic art, and real-time generative art.
Computer-Generated 3D Still Imagery
Three-dimensional graphics are produced through the design of imagery derived from geometric shapes, polygons, or Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) curves. This process facilitates the creation of 3D objects and scenes for diverse applications, including film, television, print, rapid prototyping, games/simulations, and specialized visual effects.
Numerous software applications exist for this purpose. This technology fosters collaborative endeavors, promoting sharing and enhancement through a collective creative process akin to the open-source movement and Creative Commons, where participants can jointly develop artistic projects.
Computer-Generated Animated Imagery
Computer-generated animations are digital sequences produced by computers, either from models crafted by 3D artists or through procedural generation. This designation typically refers to works created exclusively using computational methods. The film industry extensively employs computer-generated graphics, commonly known as computer-generated imagery (CGI). During the 1990s and early 2000s, CGI technology advanced sufficiently to enable the creation of realistic 3D computer animation for the first time, despite films having incorporated significant computer-generated elements since the mid-1970s. Several contemporary films are recognized for their substantial integration of photorealistic CGI.
Generation Process
Users typically define input parameters, which encompass detailed visual elements such as scene composition, character attributes, environmental conditions, interpersonal dynamics, or specific objects. Additionally, users can specify artistic styles, display formats, image resolution, and brightness levels. Subsequently, image generators produce multiple analogous images based on these inputs, commonly yielding four distinct outputs. Upon reviewing the generated results, users have the option to select a preferred image or request the generator to produce a new set of images.
Awards and recognition
Karl Sims received the Golden Nica award at Prix Ars Electronica in both 1991 and 1992 for his 3D AI animated videos, which utilized artificial evolution. In 2009, Eric Millikin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, among other accolades, for his artificial intelligence art that critiqued governmental corruption in Detroit, leading to the incarceration of the city's mayor. Christie's auction house in New York sold an artificial intelligence artwork titled "Edmond de Bellamy" for US$432,500 in 2018; this piece was created by the Parisian collective "Obvious."
Stephanie Dinkins received the Creative Capital award in 2019 for developing an evolving artificial intelligence system rooted in the "interests and culture(s) of people of color." In 2022, an amateur artist utilizing Midjourney secured the first-place prize of $300 in a digital art competition at the Colorado State Fair. Concurrently in 2022, Refik Anadol developed an artificial intelligence art installation for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, drawing inspiration from the museum's extensive collection.
List of digital art software
List of 2D digital art repositories
Digital art repositories for 2D and vector graphics provide artworks available for download, either individually or in collections. Proprietary platforms necessitate a purchase for image licensing or usage, whereas freemium models, such as Flaticon and Vecteezy, offer a selection of images free of charge, with additional content accessible through tiered payment structures.
Subtypes
Related organizations and conferences
- Artfutura
- Artmedia
- Austin Museum of Digital Art
- Computer Arts Society
- EVA Conferences
- Los Angeles Center for Digital Art
- Lumen Prize
- onedotzero
- Rhizome
- V&A Digital Futures
- AI art
- Computer art
- Electronic art
- Graphic arts
- List of 2D graphics software
- Theatre of Digital Art
- Virtual art
References
- Media related to Digital art at Wikimedia Commons
- Dreher, Thomas. "History of Computer Art."
- Zorich, Diane M. "Transitioning to a Digital World."
- Chitrakala. "Digital Art."