Process: A Visual Exploration of Digitization's Effect on the Artistic Process

Abstract

As an artist, I am interested in how digitization will change the art making process, specifically in dealing with print and other material media. Process is an experiment. It is a visual, process-based quest to find out how such a shift may be affecting my world as a print designer, as well as an examination of how digitization may shape the future of art and art education.

This visual exploration of digitization’s effect on the artistic process is fueled in part by the creative disconnection I have experienced when working digitally; while my visual sense has remained strong, adapting itself to the glow of the computer screen, my other senses have all but been numbed. Because all digital work is at its base a series of 1s and 0s, can the unique digital work of art exist? How has digitization changed the way we edit work, artistic or otherwise? With increasing access to sophisticated, easy-to-learn software featuring cookie-cutter filters and templates, who is the “real designer?” How much control do I actually have over my art if the creative process takes place within a programmatic framework? These are all questions that I address in “Process: A Visual Exploration of Digitization’s Effect on the Artistic Process.”