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Department of Art - BA Art History
Click here to view Foundations Area Prerequisites
ART 492A
From Analog to Digital: Technology and Aesthetics in the Modern World
Instructor: Michael Fenton
Fall 2008, TR 12:30 – 1:45
This course is a study of the affects of new technologies on the artist and the viewer from the 19th century until the present. It will draw from a variety of approaches to art history, including traditional sociological and structuralist approaches, but it will emphasize technological rather than economic, political, or other social factors. In particular, there will be a focus on the influences of the camera, the television, and the computer, as well as many other significant inventions and ideas that were generated throughout the period.
Lectures will be given each day until class presentations/debates begin. In all cases, research and discussion will be over the value of particular tools and materials toward the overall look (“technique” and “style”) of artworks and aesthetic trends.
Sample lecture titles:
Textbooks:
1) Leonard Shlain, Art & Physics
2) Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
3) Sian Ede, Art & Science
Excerpt from lecture 01: Cosmos and History
Definition of Terms:
Analog: (Mechanized) Digital: (Universalized)
Fire Light Electric Light
Silver Salts RGB Pixels
Syllogism Binary Logic
Both terms also apply to Clocks and Calendars:
1) Standardized dates and times (Analog) Egyptian, Julian, and Gregorian calendars Sundials, Water and Pendulum Clocks, and Time Zones
2) Potential of impossible dates and times (Digital) FEB, 31, 2006 or BBB, 88, 8888, 88:88 or 00:00
Applications to the Arts:
In the shift to “Digital” technology, fantasy (idealism) cannot easily be distinguished from reality (naturalism)
Digital photography is more easily manipulated, bringing into question the validity of photographic evidence (particularly low-res security cameras)
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is blurring the boundaries between the actual and the virtual in modern magazines, movies, and television.
Concluding Remarks:
Has the sense of a knowable reality been lost? If so, it may be a shift from Analog to Digital thinking that is to blame. Here I am not talking about a simple shift from Film to Digital Video or from Fire to the Light Bulb; instead, I am talking about a fundamental shift in the minds of the mass of viewers (including, of course, artists) within western culture over the last two centuries. The goal of this class will be to explore this shift from Analog to Digital thinking and the consequences of such a dramatic change.
