If you use a computer, it’s not real art.
by Sean - June 10th, 2009
When I was in school at East Carolina in the early 90s, I remember one of my Art History professors mentioning that oil painting, though in widespread usage by the northern European painters of the 15th century (Jan van Eyck in particular), didn’t really catch on in Italy until the 16th century. In Italy, tempera was the preferred medium, and oils were initially considered to be some new-fangled thing. I found this interesting, and my mind went wandering off on its own… making connections to similar instances throughout history.
Photography, for example. The first permanent photograph was produced by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the early 1800s. Throughout the 19th century, and well into the 20th century, many artists argued that photography was not authentically art—that it was too “mechanical”… it was “science” not “art”. Even today, two hundred years later, there are those that continue this debate, even though photography has been accepted by the art world for some time now.
I think it’s pretty easy to see where I am going with this. Today, in the 21st century, there is debate going on about whether or not the computer is a legitimate art medium. And interestingly enough, the debate often seems the most heated amongst artists themselves (much like photography was a hundred years ago). Continue reading →
