Technology Tools

1. Discuss the relationship between digital art and consumerism.

Digital media is fueled by the constant need of new materials and products that consumers want. Large companies depend on digital mediums to help advertise their products. Without the help of the internet consumers would not have any digital connection to these images. With endless combinations of digital image manipulation and construction digital media is formed to capture the eye of the consumer. Consumers depend heavily on digital art because those images set new expectations for more digital images to be produced. For example if a large company creates a short informational film about their product, other company's will need to gather better or equal to resources to compete with them. Also these images are praised by consumers if they are exceptionally better. Digital art qualities influence consumerism because of the constant need for advertisement.

2. In what way has the emergence of digital technologies challenged previous conceptions of reality and its representation in images?

With the help of advanced digital manipulation, digital images can become a fantasy that an artist wants to create. Digital images that undergo alterations can be misinterpreted because viewers may not know the original details that are real. Images can loose realistic values after artificial components are added making it hard for viewers to interpenetrate. The emergence of digital technologies challenged previous conceptions of reality and it's representation in images because the images become disassociated from their original functions.

3. Select an artist or theorist described in this chapter whose work you find particularly interesting, and briefly describe why. Conversely, is there any concept addressed in this reading that you find particularly confusing or troublesome?

Charles Cohen-- human figures from pornographic scenes,

This artist interests me because the way he manipulates vulgar images and places them in the wrong landscape. Although you are not seeing the pornographic image itself you are seeing just the white silhouette of a person. I think tat this is peculiar because viewers can look at the silhouette and not think that it comes from a pornographic scene making the digital image loose meaning. I personally would have never cam up with this idea of taking naked people and putting them in a random landscape-- which i find very interesting but odd at the same time.