Widely Defined Digital Art

The term digital refers to numbers. Amazingly, files read and stored by computers are comprised of pieces of information which utilize the digits 0 and 1 in different combinations and sequence. To be able to store and retrieve a complex image or piece of music by use of only two digits seems rather impossible on the surface and frankly is just as magical as the needle of a phonograph reproducing music from the vibrations and grooves of a piece of molded plastic. We take technology for granted, and I am not even sure the experts totally understand how it works.

From a rigid point of view, any art created on the computer is considered digital art; but in actuality it is more open than this. It includes images which might have been photographed or scanned and could have come from just about anywhere.  Once they are put into a digital form, they are stored on the computer and fit into this category. Making any sort of adjustment to such a file by using the computer,  undeniably puts it in this category - even if the adjustment was one command from an art or photo program with a simple click of a mouse 

Some work is exclusively created on the computer, some combines computer and photography, some combines more traditionally done art with the computer ... all of these fit into the above category.

Despite being a term that is widely used and has the defining characteristic of being connected to computer technology, digital art is almost too open to really mean anything.

On the positive side, categorizing doesn't always help. Art should stand on its own regardless of the medium. Culturally, we value skill - we respect those who have developed their technique.  We might find ourselves comparing the skill of the computer program designer with that of an artist  - the beat box technician with that of a drummer.  Technology can make art easier.  It has the positive effect of giving people tools to create who might not otherwise and also the effect of seemingly leveling the playing field between those with experience and those without.

At Outhouse Studios the computer is considered a tool - like canvas and brush.  It requires an aesthetic sense to be harnessed and the experience to know when to quit.  As a new way of communicating, digital art is not so much about what the computer can do as much as revealing something overlooked or unnoticed.

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