Digital art and music have evolved greatly over the past 40-100 years, with tools revolutionizing creation and performance but also disrupting business models. New technologies allow artists to create new forms and aesthetics, while computers are a metamedium that can simulate any other medium and expand artistic possibilities in unprecedented ways. The impact of computers and digital tools has encouraged many artists to reformulate their visions and innovate beyond established conventions.

1. ART AND MUSIC DISRUPTION

2. 5. DIGITAL ART & MUSIC
Digital Art has a history going back 40 years. Digital music can trace
its roots back nearly a hundred. Music has seen a dramatic
disruption, visual art through video and photography has changed
completely. Tools have revolutionised creation and performance and
they have decimated business models, particularly in music. Digital
music is now the mainstream so why isn’t digital art, or is it? So what
are the key features of the digital aesthetic and how are the arts
being changed?
Suggested Reading for next week: Gere, C. (2004), Digital Culture. Reaktion Books: Leonardo Journal http://www.leonardo.info/

3. “Digital is not here to put an end to anything.
Rather it is here to expand all things, to combine
and to make more things attainable. For the artist,
it is the edgiest work of all; the biggest, most
exciting challenge in a long history of the
synthesis between technology and hand and mind
and heart.”
J.D. Jarvis
http://www.dpandi.com/jd/index.html

4. (WESTERN) ART HISTORY In 5 minutes

6. The Cardplayers, Paul Derain 1905 Boats at Collioure's Harbour
Portrait of Dr. Gachet,
Cézanne, 1892
Vincent van Gogh, 1890
Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck,1434 La donna velata, Raphael,1516
New
technology
allows
artists to
create new
forms and
new
aesthetics
Robert Delaunay, Circular forms, 1930 (detail) Pollock, “Autumn rhythm (Number 30)

7. It [a computer] is a medium that can dynamically
simulate the details of any other medium, including
media that cannot exist physically. It is not a tool,
though it can act like many tools. It is the first
metamedium, and as such it has degrees of freedom
for representation and expression never before
encountered and as yet barely investigated.
[original emphasis] (Kay 1984: 41).
Northern Lights Volume 5 © 2007 Intellect Ltd
Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/nl.5.1.39/1
Alan Kay’s universal media machine
Lev Manovich

8. “Our culture and our species thrive because of
our repeated creative innovations in our basic
tools and now that we are in this age of
computers, where many of our creative minds
are now overloaded with information, we must
bring creativity support to our tools.”
Marc Vass

9. Many of the artist contributors noted how working with computers has stimulated
them to move their thinking forward. One discusses the importance that digital
technology has had in encouraging him to shift the very idea of what he considered
to be art.
Others found that using computers caused them to reformulate the boundaries of
their artistic vision, for example, by adding time as a dimension of the work, research
issue.
Many artists have been encouraged to break with established conventions. a core
element of truly innovative practice.
For most artists, the importance of using and having access to expert technological
knowledge cannot be overemphasized. As a study of collaboration revealed, some
find it vital for each member of the team to have a clear and well-defined role. On
the other hand, by their own account, some artists have been struck by the way
digital art collaboration leads to the blurring of the distinction between artist and
technologist.
Ernest Edmonds and Linda Candy
Creativity, Art Practice, AND Knowledge

10. Ubiquity
ISSUES Copying
Piracy
Remix
Generative /Algorithmic
Impermanence
Desensitization
Value/Dealing
Interaction

11. PIECES
V&A history of Computer Art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678EaXPekFo
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/computer-art-history/ Interactive art with wooden mirrors - The wooden mirror (1/4)
La Historia de la Animación Abstracta http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZysu9QcceM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8oZ4KE8868 Life Lights Interactive Art by Morgan Rauscher & Miles Thorogood
Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMiAlkGWDyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOZqRJzE8xg Color Gun - Interactive Art Project
1969 Interactive Art Objects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBVsIf1XxZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT-Eyybajfo LIQUID SPACE 6.0 Interactive art by Daan Roosegaarde in Japan
John Whitney-Permutations (1966) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBowlRsyjnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB31mD4NmA Face-Scrambling Interactive Artwork
Future Canvas - iPad Interactive Art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dh2ghiwJW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehf8o-n23L4&NR=1&feature=endscreen Century of Light : Early Interactive Sculpture
Live Painting Final Output 720-1.mov http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98-NyYN7CMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=jqudpXWVK0M&NR=1 Locative Painting, by Martha Gabriel - Interactive Locative Art presented
From Data to Digital Art: Animating Air Traffic, Texting and Thom Yorke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0UYuUU5CMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SETcTrdcU4 [ Stories of a Cell Phone ]
Kinect for Xbox 360 Interactive Art Installation by Seeper featuring Sylvie va http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99dDTQIsMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHG50Z5gQZE Secret Passions - William Latham
Eye-tracking Interactive Art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6ngsckRZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCHthmDTbyU
ACCESS - an interactive art installation by Marie Sester

12. PIECES
Van Gogh Starry Night Interactive Animation (music by Gig McKell)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91mSLGOfH2E
Mobile Phone Concert: Artist Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3IhQKRob9g
Multi Touch Music Wall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qmmdGonQW4
Generative music in Supercollider & Processing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMbcqv8rxnA
Generative Music in the Blues Scale using AudioCubes and Ableton
Operator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cty3inVBbo
Generative Music - Cellular automata and blip blops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYjevNIJztw