Digital art isartistic work that usesdigital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media.[1] Since the 1960s, various names have been used to describe digital art, includingcomputer art,electronic art,multimedia art,[2] andnew media art.[3][4] Digital art includes pieces stored on physical media, such as withdigital painting, as well as galleries onwebsites.
Artwork that is highly computational, presented through digital media, and explicitly engages with digital technologies are categorized as "art made for digital media". This differs from art using digital tools, which incorporate digital technology in the creation process but may exist outside the digital world.
Digital art historianChristiane Paul writes that it "is highly problematic to classify all art that makes use of digital technologies somewhere in its production and dissemination process as digital art since it makes it almost impossible to arrive at any unifying statement about the art form".[5]
Computer demos are based on computer programs, usually non-interactive. It produces audiovisual presentations. They are a novel form of art, which emerged as a consequence of the home computer revolution in the early 1980s. In the classification of digital art, they can be best described as real-time procedurally generated animated audio-visuals.
This form of art does not concentrate only on the aesthetics of the final presentation, but also on the complexities and skills involved in creating the presentation.
As such, it can be fully enjoyed only by persons with a relatively high knowledge level of relevant computer technologies. An example is that, as said by Hua Jin and Jie Yang, Using computer-aided design software to present the class content in art design teaching," is not to advocate computer-aided design instead of hand-drawn performance, but to make it serve the profession earlier through a more reasonable course arrangement."[6]
On the other hand, many of the created pieces of art are primarily aesthetic or amusing, and those can be enjoyed by the general public.
Digital installation art constitutes a broad field of artistic practices and a variety of forms.
Some resemble video installations, especially large-scale works involvingprojections andlive video capture. By using projection techniques that enhance an audience's impression of sensory envelopment, many digital installations attempt to create immersive environments.
While others go even further and attempt to facilitate a complete immersion invirtual realms. This type of installation is generallysite-specific,scalable, and without fixeddimensionality, meaning it can be reconfigured to accommodate different presentation spaces.[8]
Scott Snibbe's "Boundary Functions" is an example of augmented reality digital installation art, which responds to people who enter the installation by drawing lines between people, indicating their personal space.[7]Noah Wardrip-Fruin's "Screen"(2003) utilizes a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) to create an interactive, text-based digital experience that engages the viewer in a multi-sensory interaction.[9]
Internet art is digital art that uses the specific characteristics of the Internet and is exhibited on the Internet. The term "internet art" is included by "net art" for which artists assume that network will be refreshed through history. So the term "post-internet art" is used to exclude artworks outside of the internet media.[10]
A representative example is Protocols for Achievements, which is a digital photo frame that confronts the aesthetics of kitsch, and inserts individual artistic dynamics within institutional media.[11]
Blockchain, and more specifically Non-Fungible Tokens(NFTs), have been a common tool for digital arts since the NFTs boom of 2020-2021.[12] By minting digital artworks as NFTs, artists can establish provable ownership.[13][14]
However, the technology received much criticism and has many flaws related to plagiarism and fraud (due to its almost completely unregulated nature).[15]
Furthermore, auction houses, museums, and galleries around the world have started to integrate NFTs and collaborate with digital artists, exhibiting their artworks (associated with the respective NFTs) both in virtual galleries and real-life screens, monitors, and TVs.[16][17][18]
In March 2024,Sotheby's presented an auction highlighting significant contributions of digital artists over the previous decade,[19] one of many record-breaking auctions of digital artwork by the auction house. These auctions look broadly at the cultural impact of digital art in the 21st century and feature work by artists such asJennifer & Kevin McCoy,Vera Molnár,Claudia Hart,Jonathan Monaghan , andSarah Zucker.[20][21]
In the early 1960s,John Whitney developed the first computer-generated art using mathematical operations.[22] In 1963,Ivan Sutherland invented the first user interactive computer-graphics interface known asSketchpad.[23]Between 1974 and 1977,Salvador Dalí created two big canvases ofGala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at a distance of 20 meters is transformed into the portrait of Abraham Lincoln (Homage to Rothko)[24] and prints ofLincoln in Dalivision based on a portrait ofAbraham Lincoln processed on a computer byLeon Harmon published in "The Recognition of Faces".[25]The technique is similar to what later became known asphotographic mosaics.
Andy Warhol created digital art using anAmiga where the computer was publicly introduced at theLincoln Center, New York, in July 1985. An image ofDebbie Harry was captured in monochrome from a video camera and digitized into a graphics program called ProPaint. Warhol manipulated the image by adding color using flood fills.[26][27]
Digital art can be purely computer-generated (such asfractals andalgorithmic art) or taken from other sources, such as ascanned photograph or an image drawn usingvector graphics software using amouse orgraphics tablet. Artworks are considereddigital paintings when created similarly to non-digitalpaintings but usingsoftware on a computer platform and digitally outputting the resulting image as painted oncanvas.
Despite differing viewpoints on digital technology's impact on the arts, a consensus exists within the digital art community about its significant contribution to expanding the creative domain, i.e., that it has greatly broadened the creative opportunities available to professional and non-professional artists alike.[28]
Digitalvisual art consists of either2D visual information displayed on anelectronic visual display or informationmathematically translated into3D information viewed throughperspective projection on an electronic visual display. The simplest form,2D computer graphics, reflects how one might draw with a pencil or paper. In this case, however, the image is on the computer screen, and the instrument you draw with might be a tablet stylus or a mouse. What is generated on your screen might appear to be drawn with a pencil, pen, or paintbrush. The second kind is3D computer graphics, where the screen becomes a window into avirtual environment, where you arrange objects to be "photographed" by the computer.
Typically 2D computer graphics useraster graphics as their primary means of source data representations, whereas 3D computer graphics usevector graphics in the creation ofimmersive virtual reality installations. A possible third paradigm is to generate art in 2D or 3D entirely through the execution of algorithms coded into computer programs. This can be considered the native art form of the computer, and an introduction to the history of which is available in an interview with computer art pioneer Frieder Nake.[29]Fractal art,Datamoshing,algorithmic art, and real-timegenerative art are examples.
3D graphics are created via the process of designingimagery fromgeometric shapes,polygons, orNURBS curves[30] to create three-dimensional objects and scenes for use in various media such as film,television, print,rapid prototyping, games/simulations, and special visual effects.
There are manysoftware programs for doing this. The technology can enablecollaboration, lending itself to sharing and augmenting by a creative effort similar to theopen source movement and thecreative commons in which users can collaborate on a project to createart.[31]
Pop surrealist artistRay Caesar works in Maya (a 3D modeling software used for digital animation), using it to create his figures as well as the virtual realms in which they exist.
Computer-generated animations areanimations created with acomputer from digital models created by 3D artists orprocedurally generated. The term is usually applied to works created entirely with a computer. Movies make heavy use of computer-generated graphics; they are calledcomputer-generated imagery (CGI) in the film industry. In the 1990s and early 2000s, CGI advanced enough that, for the first time, it was possible to create realistic 3D computeranimation, although films had been using extensive computer images since the mid-70s. A number of modern films have been noted for their heavy use of photo-realistic CGI.[32]
Digital painting[33] mainly refers to the process of creating paintings on computer software based oncomputers orgraphic tables. Throughpixel simulation, digital brushes in digital software (see the software inDigital painting) can imitate traditional painting paints and tools, such as oil, acrylic acid, pastel,charcoal, andairbrush. Users of the software can also customize the pixel size to achieve a unique visual effect (customized brushes).
Artists have used artificial intelligence to create artwork since at least the 1960s.[34] Since their design in 2014, some artists have created artwork using agenerative adversarial network (GAN), which is a machine learning framework that allows two "algorithms" to compete with each other and iterate.[35][36] It can be used to generate pictures that have visual effects similar to traditional fine art. The essential idea of image generators is that people can use text descriptions to let AI convert their text into visual picture content. Anyone can turn their language into a painting through a picture generator.[37]
Generally, the user can set the input, and the input content includes detailed picture content that the user wants. For example, the content can be a scene's content, characters, weather, character relationships, specific items, etc. It can also include selecting a specific artist style, screen style, image pixel size, brightness, etc. Then picture generators will return several similar pictures[36] generated according to the input (generally, 4 pictures are given now). After receiving the results generated by picture generators, the user can select one picture as a result he wants or let the generator redraw and return to new pictures.
In both 1991 and 1992,Karl Sims won the Golden Nica award atPrix Ars Electronica for his 3D AI animated videos using artificial evolution.[38] In 2009,Eric Millikin won thePulitzer Prize along with several other awards for his artificial intelligence art that was critical of government corruption in Detroit and resulted in the city's mayor being sent to jail.[39][40] In 2018Christie's auction house in New York sold an artificial intelligence work, "Edmond de Bellamy" for US$432,500. It was created by a collective in Paris named "Obvious".[41]
In 2019,Stephanie Dinkins won theCreative Capital award for her creation of an evolving artificial intelligence based on the "interests and culture(s) of people of color."[42] In 2022, an amateur artist usingMidjourney won the first-place $300 prize in a digital art competition at theColorado State Fair.[43][37] Also in 2022,Refik Anadol created an artificial intelligence art installation at theMuseum of Modern Art in New York, based on the museum's own collection.[44]
| List of digital art software[45][46][47] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Software | Developer | Platform | License |
| 3D-Coat | Pilgway | Windows, macOS | Trialware |
| Adobe Fresco | Adobe Inc. | Windows, iOS,iPadOS | Freemium |
| Adobe Photoshop | Adobe Inc. | Windows,macOS | Proprietary |
| Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Inc. | Windows, macOS, iPadOS | Proprietary |
| Adobe Substance 3D Modeler | Adobe Inc. | Windows, macOS | Proprietary |
| Affinity Designer | Serif | Windows, macOS | Proprietary |
| ArtRage | Ambient Design Ltd | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | ProprietaryEULA |
| Artweaver | Boris Eyrich Software | Windows | Freemium |
| Autodesk SketchBook | Autodesk | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Freemium |
| Blender | Blender Foundation | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPLv2 |
| Corel Painter | Corel Corporation | Windows, macOS | Proprietary |
| Clip Studio Paint | Celsys, Inc. | Windows, macOS,iOS,Android | Proprietary |
| GIMP | GNU Image Manipulation Program | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPLv3 |
| Inkscape | Inkscape Developers | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPLv2 |
| Krita | Krita Foundation | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPLv3 |
| Mudbox | Autodesk | Windows, macOS | Proprietary |
| My Paint | MyPaint Contributors | Windows, macOS, Linux,BSD | GPLv2 |
| Pencil2D | Pencil2D Team | Windows, macOS, Linux | GPLv2 |
| Procreate | Savage Interactive | iPadOS | Proprietary |
| Terragen | Planetside Software | Windows, macOS | Freeware |
| ZBrush | Pixologic | Windows, macOS | Proprietary |
Repositories for 2D and vector digital art offer pieces for download, either individually or in bulk. Proprietary repositories require a purchase to license or use any image, while those operating under freemium models like Flaticon, Vecteezy, etc., provide some images for free and others for fee based on tiers.[48][49]
| List of 2D digital art repositories[48][50] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Repository | Company | License |
| Vecteezy | Eezy LLC | Freemium |
| Flaticon | Freepik Company | Freemium |
| The Noun Project | Noun Project Inc. | Freemium |
| Openclipart | Community-driven | Public domain |
| Pixabay | Canva | Free use (Pixabay Content License) |
| Shutterstock | Shutterstock, Inc. | Proprietary |
Computer demos are computer programs, usually non-interactive, that produce audiovisual presentations. They are a novel form of art, which emerged as a consequence of home computer revolution in the early 1980s. In the classification of digital art, they can be best described as real-time procedurally generated animated audio-visuals.
This form of art does not concentrate only on aesthetics of the final presentation, but also on complexities and skills involved in creating the presentation. As such, it can be fully enjoyed only by persons with a high level of knowledge in the field of accompanying computer technologies. On the other hand, many of the created pieces of art are primarily aesthetic or amusing, and those can be enjoyed by general public.
Digital installation art constitutes a broad field of activity and incorporates many forms. Some resemble video installations, particularly large-scale works involvingprojections andlive video capture. By using projection techniques that enhance an audience's impression of sensory envelopment, many digital installations attempt to create immersive environments. Others go even further and attempt to facilitate a complete immersion invirtual realms. This type of installation is generallysite-specific,scalable, and without fixeddimensionality, meaning it can be reconfigured to accommodate different presentation spaces.[52]
Noah Wardrip-Fruin's "Screen" (2003) is an example of interactive digital installation art which makes use of aCave Automatic Virtual Environment to create an interactive experience.[53]Scott Snibbe's "Boundary Functions" is an example of augmented reality digital installation art, which response to people who enter the installation by drawing lines between people, indicating their personal space.[51]
Internet art is digital art that uses the specific characteristics of the internet and is exhibited on the internet.
Blockchain, and more specifically NFTs, are associated with digital art since the NFTs craze of 2020 and 2021. Digital art is a common use case for NFTs.[54] By minting a piece of digital art the owner of the NFT is proven to be the owner of the art piece.[55] While the technology received many critics and has many flaws related to plagiarism and fraud (due to its almost completely unregulated nature),[56] auction houses, museums and galleries around the world started collaborations and partnerships with digital artists, selling NFTs associated with digital artworks (via NFT platforms) and showcasing those artworks (associated to the respective NFTs) both in virtual galleries and real-life screens, monitors and TVs.[57][58][59]
In March 2024,Sotheby's presented an auction highlighting significant contributions of digital artists over the previous decade,[60] one of many record-breaking auctions of digital artwork by the auction house. These auctions look broadly at the cultural impact of digital art in the 21-st century and featured work by artists such asJennifer & Kevin McCoy,Vera Molnár,Claudia Hart,Jonathan Monaghan andSarah Zucker.[61][62]
Notable art theorists and historians in this field include:
Oliver Grau,Jon Ippolito,Christiane Paul,Frank Popper,Jasia Reichardt,Mario Costa,Christine Buci-Glucksmann,Dominique Moulon,Roy Ascott,Catherine Perret,Margot Lovejoy,Edmond Couchot,Tina Rivers Ryan,Fred Forest andEdward A. Shanken.
In addition to the creation of original art, research methods that utilize AI have been generated to quantitatively analyze digital art collections. This has been made possible due to the large-scale digitization of artwork in the past few decades.[63] Although the main goal of digitization was to allow for accessibility and exploration of these collections, the use of AI in analyzing them has brought about new research perspectives.[64]
Two computational methods, close reading and distant viewing, are the typical approaches used to analyze digitized art.[65] Close reading focuses on specific visual aspects of one piece. Some tasks performed by machines in close reading methods include computational artist authentication and analysis of brushstrokes or texture properties. In contrast, through distant viewing methods, the similarity across an entire collection for a specific feature can be statistically visualized. Common tasks relating to this method include automatic classification, object detection, multimodal tasks, knowledge discovery in art history, and computational aesthetics.[64] Whereas distant viewing includes the analysis of large collections, close reading involves one piece of artwork.
Whilst 2D and 3D digital art is beneficial as it allows the preservation of history that would otherwise have been destroyed by events like natural disasters and war, there is the issue of who should own these 3D scans – i.e., who should own the digital copyrights.[66]
There is nothing stopping someone online from viewing, copying, and sharing a digital art file, but thanks to NFTs, they cannot fake possession of the art. NFTs make it possible to have exclusive ownership of digital art — something that was previously impossible.
Trautman references Zittrain, Jonathan; Marks, Will (7 April 2021). "What Critics Don't Understand About NFTs. The complexity and arbitrariness of non-fungible tokens are a big part of their appeal". The Atlantic. Retrieved 11 January 2023. The buyer is not, however, acquiring anything that they alone can use. (...) an NFT buyer is not purchasing a work, but rather a publicly available token that links to a work. (...) The token itself is visible to all, as is the work to which it points, so anyone else can look at the work and download it. And most NFT transactions don't purport to convey copyright or other intellectual-property interests regarding the work in question (...) By these terms, many NFT purchases are akin to acquiring a piece of art that nevertheless remains in the gallery where it was sold, open all the time to members of the public, who may grab a free print of the work after their visit.
A la derecha llama la atención el inmenso óleo fotográfico "Gala desnuda mirando al mar que a 18 metros aparece el presidente Lincoln" (1975), nueva muestra anticipadora de Dalí que representa ,en este caso, el primer ejemplo de utilización de imagen digitalizada en la pintura.[On the right, attention is attracted by the immense photographic oil "Nude Gala Looking at the Sea that from 18 Meters Appears as Lincoln (1975), new anticipating sample of Dalí that represents, in this case, the first example of the use of the digitized image in painting.]
There is nothing stopping someone online from viewing, copying, and sharing a digital art file, but thanks to NFTs, they cannot fake possession of the art. NFTs make it possible to have exclusive ownership of digital art — something that was previously impossible.Cf.Trautman, Lawrence J. (2022). "Virtual Art and Non-Fungible Tokens".Hofstra Law Review.50 (361): 372 f.doi:10.2139/ssrn.3814087.S2CID 234830426. Trautman referencesZittrain, Jonathan; Marks, Will (7 April 2021)."What Critics Don't Understand About NFTs. The complexity and arbitrariness of non-fungible tokens are a big part of their appeal". The Atlantic. Retrieved11 January 2023.
The buyer is not, however, acquiring anything that they alone can use. (...) an NFT buyer is not purchasing a work, but rather a publicly available token that links to a work. (...) The token itself is visible to all, as is the work to which it points, so anyone else can look at the work and download it. And most NFT transactions don't purport to convey copyright or other intellectual-property interests regarding the work in question (...) By these terms, many NFT purchases are akin to acquiring a piece of art that nevertheless remains in the gallery where it was sold, open all the time to members of the public, who may grab a free print of the work after their visit.
Media related toDigital art at Wikimedia Commons
