HISTORY OF DIGITAL ART

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.

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.

Ben Laposky, Oscillon 40, 1952.

Paul Klee, High Roads and Byroads, 1929. Frieder Nake, Hommage à Paul Klee, 1964.

By the 1970s artists with a fine arts background--as opposed to a scientific or mathematical background--started to get more involved in born-digital art. This increase in interest led to the creation of the Experimental and Computing Department at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, one of the first universities to fully integrate born-digital art into their curriculum.

One of Slade’s most notable students was Paul Brown, who developed a program that consisted of three tiles that would rotate and create abstract designs with the use of a plotter. Additionally, he wrote another program using a programming language made solely for scientists and computer engineers called Fortran, which was highly ambitious for an artist coming from a fine arts background. Like in the previous decade, the born-digital art of the 1970s was still quite abstract and free of narrative and figuration. However, because of the technological developments that occured, one could also discern a change in the quality, and how well-defined the lines and shapes are in Paul Brown’s work, notably in comparison to Frieder Nake’s oeuvre.

With the creation of Microsoft and Apple, computers became more commonly found in regular homes in the 1980s, and more people had access to them. Inkjet printers which are still in use today were also first conceived during this time, so outputting art created on the computer became a much easier task, particularly since everyone had access to computers. Born-digital art therefore became a huge part of popular culture during this period, and we began to see it being used for the creation of popular video games and even for film effects.

With the creation of Microsoft and Apple, computers became more commonly found in regular homes in the 1980s, and more people had access to them. Inkjet printers which are still in use today were also first conceived during this time, so outputting art created on the computer became a much easier task, particularly since everyone had access to computers. Born-digital art therefore became a huge part of popular culture during this period, and we began to see it being used for the creation of popular video games and even for film effects.

It is an ineluctable truth that born-digital art has been fully integrated into our daily lives since the 1990s, as by then specific programs and devices have been created to assist artists in creating this type of art. It has become a major part of every design process, from digital concept sketches to 3D design prototypes, and has opened up a variety of career pathways for artists. Nowadays, programs like Illustrator or Photoshop are widely used, and digital enthusiasts are constantly conceiving new developments for artists to express their creativity, as art continues to transcend the canvas and the paper.

Paul Brown, Untitled Computer Assisted Drawing, 1975.

Kenneth Snelson, Forest Devils' MoonNight, 1989.