Within the medium of digital art there are several distinctive recurring themes which, while explored through other forms of art, are more compatible to the digital environment. These primary themes include, but are by no means limited to, artificial intelligence and “life”, lively and vibrant ways to view otherwise static data, and remotely interactive robotics and presence. Herein we will examine why these themes are more prevalent in digital media, and why this form of art provides the artist with an ideal atmosphere for exploration of each of these areas of subject matter.
Unlike a subject carved in stone, or painted on canvas, digital media has the advantage of staying active or fluid. A pixel unlike pigment can be reorganized, removed, tweaked or adjusted in hue or saturation of color, giving a great deal of movement or adaptability to the digital medium. This mobility of subject matter and the variables that can be programmed behind the mobile pixel are most often the components of form taken on by “artificial life”. The various forms that can be created can be programmed with specific behaviors which can be modified by the “digital creature” itself as it receives and adapts to information within its own digital environment or as it is provided additional input from an outside source. The programs behind them can provide mutation, growth and even replicate a digital world where only the strongest survive. Utilizing the Darwinian model these “creatures” represent an extremely close representation to an evolving life form.
Using if/then commands these same types of programs can make simple decisions that when strung together can determine complex courses of action. This type of “intelligence” was proven effective in the 90s when Microsoft’s Deep Blue defeated the then world champion chess player Garry Kasparov.
These digital “beings” move and make decisions within their own realm using data, the source of which is defined by the program or “beings” creator. In our increasingly data dependant world sources of data that can be used for this purpose are seemingly limitless. The number and strength of tropical storms could change the color or aggressiveness of the creature while the data provided by a grade school lunch appreciation survey could determine when it slept or ate; the number of visitors to the website that forms its virtual cage might determine its number of offspring, or probability of survival. Watching this type of physical representation of data certainly provides a more dynamic viewpoint than a stagnate list of figures.
Other themes made possible by digital technology are signified in the areas of telepresence and telerobotics. Telepresence and robotics have become standardized business tools in the form of teleconferencing to meetings, and with telecommuting workforces; similarly in art, telepresence and telerobotics provide an extension or remoteness of vision, place, and interactivity. The work of art itself can be changed, manipulated or influenced from almost anywhere in the world depending on the input source.
The predominant themes in digital art subsist within that realm because of the interactivity and life-like capacity that computers have provided us in this modern age. Leonardo Davinci, one of the greatest foreword thinking minds, insightful artists, and imaginative inventors historically, never heard the term Artificial Intelligence, never imagined the possibility of Artificial Life, and could never have dreamed of the impact that computers would have on humanity, and the role that those computers would play in redefining the art world. These principal themes exist digitally simply because they could not exist anywhere else.
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