HISTORY
OF DIGITAL ART
By Iva Ajtoski
Born-digital art can be simply described as a form of artistic production that is created with the use of digital technology or presented through it. And while nowadays it is common to hear criticism of born-digital art being thrown around on the basis of how it is not a “real” or “legitimate” art form, artists have been creating these types of artworks starting from as early as the 1950s. The creation of born-digital art throughout history is what pushed the development of various programs we still use in our day and age to create graphics, as well as animation in both films and video games. The earliest forms of computer-generated art were created with the help of a scientific device used to display the waveforms of electric signals, known as an oscilloscope. They captured these images through long exposure photography, as the waves displayed by an oscilloscope are in perpetual movement. Furthermore, since computers at the time were not advanced enough and scientific equipment like the oscilloscope was not widely available or cheap, many artists with a background in fine arts did not have access to them. It is for this reason in particular that the first pioneers of born-digital art were mathematicians and scientists. Ben Laposky, Oscillon 40, 1952.
The most famous computer artist of this time and considered to be the greatest pioneer of digital and analog art was an American Mathematician called Ben Lapovsky. He first gained recognition for his collection of abstract photographs titled ‘Oscillations’ and created with the help of an oscilloscope. Lapovsky’s earliest works started off in black and white as these were the only colours available for use at the time, particularly since the scientific equipment being utilized at the time was not made with the intention of creating vibrant and colourful art. n the 1960s, artists began to program devices like computers for the purpose of making art, therefore allowing them to be more creative with their work. For producing the actual work, the most popular devices used were a plotter, a device that connects to a computer and allows it to draw with a pen or a brush, as well as an impact printer, a device which was similar to a typewriter and applied ink directly onto the paper by force. Because of how limited and primitive the devices were for creating born-digital art, they fixated their gaze largely and solely on geometry and abstract art, instead of realism and figurative art. Artists were still exploring new mediums, so their art consisted of randomized forms which allowed them to experiment freely and without worrying about the actual content of the works. Frieder Nake best displayed this when he gained popularity for his work Hommage à Paul Klee which was a plotter-made piece of digital work inspired by Paul Klee’s High Roads and Byroads. Nake used Paul Klee’s oil on canvas as a reference, and then provided the plotter with instructions so it can recreate it. While the work’s context and general design do not belong to Nake, they nonetheless allowed him to focus more on the arbitrariness and aesthetics of the work as opposed to its contextual meaning.
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