Digital art has been present in the most important contemporary art scenes, but it sometimes feels extremely odd and disparate in meaning. We explore part of its background and some of the meanings conveyed to approach what is out there and what is being created.
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It’s the XXI century and the digital world is everywhere, we carry it on our bodies every day and we depend on it to wake up, to work and also to relax. Just like the digital realm has permeated in many aspects of our lives it has also shaped everything we do, from science and medical research to entertainment, and of course, the art world is included in this. Let’s take a look into the current digital realm of Computer Generated Images (CGI). Entertainment and advertisement industries have been constantly investing large sums of money to develop ever-increasingly complex and detailed scenarios. Whether it’s a sci-fi action film charged with aliens on a battlefield or a film in which we watch an actor represent a character through many decades of its life, where CGI allows us to visualize how the same actor would look at 10 or 80 years of age.
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Quality and complexity of image in films and the digital world have become so advanced that if the image does not look real then it is considered bad CGI. In response, many software companies have developed programmes that allow to create such scenarios, and while the most profitable studios hire large groups of designers to create these universes, artists have adopted the few resources and existing software to come up with their own creations.
Challenging the concept of realism and its physical limits, many artists have used the digital tools to create artworks which play with the absurd, satire, and question meaning, form and even political power provided through image. Some videos play with the absurd and completely bizarre universes like Cool3DWorld. Other defy the limits of body form and movement, filling it with colour, like Extraweg. Many other motion graphic designers like Esteban Diacono or Kim Asendorfs include political motifs in their own creations.
The possibilities are constantly increasing, the formats, software used and themes are constantly increasing in which is for sure a constant expanding future of contemporary art. A good tip to bear in mind when looking at these sort of art is to think what it might be challenging, physical barriers, limits of visual understanding, politics, form itself and interpreting the intentionally ill-looking shapes and characters that dominate these sorts of scenes.
Written by Eduardo Alva Lòpez
Cover image: cool3dworld.com
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