Technology and art: A careful balance in time

AMY LYNN TOMPKINS
Assistant Copy Editor

Walking through the hallways of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, not much is there to suggest that art has significantly changed since the late nineteenth century. However, hidden among the old paintings and conventional sketches there are signs that art is constantly changing to incorporate new technology.

"Art has always been involved with technology," said professor of art and new media Phil Hastings. "The invention of photography is a good example of this. Even things like metal tubes for storing oil pants is a technology that changed the way paintings were created."

During the last few decades, computers have entered the world of art. Many artists feel that computers should only be used as a tool for creating their work. Other artists feel threatened by the increasing ability of digital art to masquerade as art completed using more traditional methods.

Jill Johnston-Price, a professor of art and new media at Fredonia, believes that students should first develop the rudimentary skills necessary to create beautiful works without the help of a computer. After those basic skills are mastered, then the students can "use the computer to play."

Newer computer programs allow students to scan their nearly finished works and try different techniques to see how they will affect the look and feel of the composition without risking the destruction of what has already been created.

Conversely, some artists, including sophomore illustration and animation major Brendon LePage feel that the ease with which someone can create a beautiful image on the computer threatens the need for real artists. "People who aren't artistic and creative can create master pieces of art in half the time it takes a traditional artist to do it," he said. "With newer technologies you can make a computer image look like an oil painting with absolutely no painting skill."

Sophomore arts and new media major Marlon Benloss argues that even though the programs are capable of producing incredible results, the "computer still needs someone to tell it what to do."

Before he started at Fredonia, Benloss said that he was not at all involved with digital art. "Now that I'm here and I see all that I can do with it, I'm loving it," he said.

When asked how he felt digital art affected the integrity of art, Hastings said, "We experience the history of art on a sliding scale. What is new and experimental eventually shifts and becomes traditional. Art as an entity does not stand still, it evolves."