Contemporary Artists’ Use of Digital Media: Challenging Tradition and Authorship (Term Paper Sample)

Larry Luvindi [Instructor’s Name] [Course Name] [Date] Contemporary Artists’ Use of Digital Media: Challenging Tradition and Authorship Digital media has imposed radical changes to modern art in the last few decades. Art is no longer just a medium but also a process. Moreover, the boundaries of artistic production and reception are increasingly blurred. As artists engage with new possibilities offered by digital tools and platforms, their practices redefine art-making, art output, and significantly, the ideas around authorship and originality. Consequently, artists counter centuries-old ideas about what art is and who owns the product. Contemporary artists are employing collaboration, sharing, and co-authorship to destabilize conventional notions of art and authorship via digital media. The use of digital media has enabled artists today to create works that actively involve viewers, turning them into active participants. Unlike traditional art where the viewer often does little more than observe, digital art invites interactive participation. One such example is Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's "Pulse Room," in which a room filled with light bulbs flashes the pulsing heartbeats of onlookers detected by sensors (Jones 45). Here, the form and the presentation of the artwork are dependent on the audience experience. Accordingly, the audience becomes a part of the artwork. Such engagement means that art is not about the artist and their authority. These works are a kind of shift towards a more democratized art experience. Challenging conventional notions of originality and ownership is another method. Classical art focuses on the singularity of the artwork, with appreciation for irreplaceable work. Alternatively, the creation of perfect copies of any digital art piece goes against these notions of authenticity. The German philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” that reproducibility diminishes an artwork’s “aura” through detachment from its original context (Smith, 120). This notion of 'found' art is explored further by artists such as Cory Arcangel, who adapt material found online. Arcangel, for example, reproduces works using software. He uses found digital objects to interrogate what it means to “make” something “new.” This means digital art is more about ideas than materials and it favours concept over artifact. In addition to this, a lot of new-age digital artists lean into collaboration that goes against the idea of the artist as an individual hermit. In the traditional art world, the archetype of the solitary genius is common. On the contrary, digital media allows collective authorship. For instance, The Exquisite Forest, is a digital project from Google and Tate Modern where artists and the public together can feed into a continuously evolving series of animated stories. Through this collaborative process, the project becomes an ever-evolving artwork embodied ...