Art is a form of creative expression that we human beings, is the way we represent our feelings, emotions, experiences, and perception of what surrounds us. Over the years, artists have found new forms of expression, for example; photography, cinema, 3D modeling, design, etc., and even such traditional disciplines as painting, sculpture, music, theater, drawing, dance and literature have evolved thanks to the contribution of the new technologies.
Importance of technology in art.
Technology plays in different artistic expressions, turning to concrete examples taken from different artistic disciplines since these could become the strongest arguments that demonstrate their importance.
So, we can ask ourselves, is a technology and has been an essential element for the development and evolution of art? What kind of role does technology play in the field of the arts? How necessary are technological processes in modern art for the artist to have sufficient resources for expression?
Perhaps today more than ever it is important for the artist to reflect on these questions, since the elements that technology makes available to him in his specific current situation, imply a range of possibilities that not only allow to enhance the expressiveness of traditional arts but also open the possibility of new forms of expression of the spirit and human sensitivity hitherto unknown.
ARGUMENTS FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ART
The first argument in favor of the importance of the use of technology in art is historical and refers to the intimate relationship between technology and artistic expression. From the most remote known human cultures, the human being has shown the need to express themselves in art. To paint in caves (now known as cave paintings), decorate the instruments for hunting the mammoth, or decorate various utensils that have survived to this day, human beings required a specific technique and technology that would allow them to carry out these expressions.
As the human being progressed technologically, his artistic expressions were diversifying and reaching new forms of expression. Let’s think about the carving of a statue like La Piedad 1 by Michelangelo Buonarroti, this would be impossible for a primitive man and not because of artistic inability, but because of the lack of the appropriate instruments, in other words, the technology that made it possible did not exist. Now let’s think about music. Pre-Hispanic peoples in America and ancestral tribes throughout the world have used rudimentary musical instruments to express the harmony of sounds and rhythm as a means of expressing their religiosity and spirit. However, using these instruments and trying to play Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with them would be impossible.
Thus, we could go through each of the different artistic disciplines and notice how throughout history their expression has been strengthened according to the evolution of technology in general. This shows that art has always been stimulated by technology and knowledge of the discipline’s techniques.
A second argument about the importance of technology comes from the fact that the very existence of an artistic discipline is invariably linked to technology. It is evident that in all cultures the type of art and the level of its expression have a direct relationship with the technological development of that culture.
For millennia the traditional arts (music, dance, theater, painting, sculpture, architecture, literature) have evolved with technology, but we have reached a stage in which technology not only allows new forms of expression of the classical arts, rather, it opens the possibility for the creation of new artistic disciplines, hitherto unknown. The internet, digital manufacturing, nano and biotechnology, self-modification, virtual reality, and many other technological advances are opening up new fields of artistic expression unimaginable until a few years ago. Technology, therefore, not only makes an artistic discipline evolve but also enables its birth.
A third argument that makes us weigh the importance that technology has for art is the role that technology plays in its diffusion. Before the 15th century and the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, there was literature, since we have texts that date back to several centuries before Christ, however, the diffusion of that art was extremely limited, it was that technological element (the printing press) which favored its diffusion and with it the proliferation of writers and writing for an exclusively aesthetic purpose. Because you didn’t go very far until 1980 to read a book you would have to go to the bookstore to buy it and have it physically.
Until the end of the 19th century, to listen to a symphony, you had to go to the auditorium on the scheduled date and listen to the concert. The phonograph patented by Edison in 1878 allowed a wide diffusion of musical art among the population. Again technology plays its role in the dissemination of art. The invention of the cinematograph in 1895 by the LumiƩre brothers allowed dance and theater to have a massive diffusion. And so we could go through each of the arts.
IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ART AT THE PRESENT TIME
At present, the production and commercialization of the arts have a direct relationship with the internet, since physical art galleries are no longer as common as before, now artists exhibit their works through an online platform to exhibit their work. This occurs in all artistic disciplines such as painting, sculpture, cinematography, photography, graphic design, fashion design, architecture, dance, literature, music, etc.
Take as an example the situation that is being experienced worldwide during the pandemic. Non-essential activities have been canceled, and among them is art. The public is not in a position to visit galleries or museums, however, thanks to the internet we have the opportunity to admire them from home through technology.
We can thus conclude that, although it seems extreme, there is no art without technology. The specific forms of expression of each artistic discipline are intimately linked to the technology developed in a certain era or culture and not only the birth of the artistic discipline and its development, but the diffusion itself depends on technology. Synthetically, we can conclude that the birth, evolution, and diffusion of art, in its different disciplines, are linked to technology.
However, we must be careful not to fall into the extreme of giving almost exclusive value to technology when talking about art. As Diego Levis says ” The tools by themselves do not represent anything, the creativity that the artist puts in is necessary for a work to have deeper factors”, then we could consider that any skill put into practice and creatively captured to transmit a message can be classified as art and that art, which is the creativity of the spirit and human feeling, always takes technology as a medium in some way. Technology is only a medium, the expressiveness of the human spirit is the origin of art.