As technology has advanced our society has been brought to a new age, one in which people can freely express themselves in a new realm called cyberspace. This cyberspace is said to freely allow individuals to interact without the confinements of traditional encounters. It frees us of preconceived notions about an individual in terms of race or religion because often times an alias is given if anything at all. This new form of interaction is pivital, to those who accept it, to the new way of seeing digital media as art. Traditional art has always done something to appeal to the senses and depending on your background it moves people in different ways. The same can be said for digital media with the few differences including interactivity and the platform in which it is delievered.
The work I chose was “our perfect body.” This work overall is a statement about the emphasis on the appearance of women. The author of this digital media used interactivity to get mulitple women’s feed back to explain what they like and dislike about their bodies and to send responses in with a picture. The actual artwork itself was then created to form a frankenstein like creation of the body parts from all the different women that sent something in. There is no audio to this work, but the visual affect resounds. Even by looking through the responses of all the individuals you realize no one is really truely one hundred percent happy with the way they look. Unlike most art, this work plays on the fact that its not asthetically beautifully or in other words something you would want to hang on your wall. This work, I feel, wants the user to almost feel a sense of shock, maybe in the form of humor, to drive its point home.
Just like traditional art, digital art plays on certain content. Cultural or political meaning in some peices is the pure and simple reason for its creation. Other peices are soley based for asthetic value. No matter what the content some form of creativity goes into every piece, traditional or digital. In the case of “our perfect body,” this is no different. In some cultures this work might not be understand. It is common that in areas that are less developed there is not the same emphasis placed on a women in terms or their physical apperance. In our cultural however this piece could not be more relavant. Everyday women are bombarded with advertisements, televsion shows, movies and so on with images of what women are supposed to look like. The mere pressure from men, who generally desire stereotypical forms of what people see as acceptable women, makes it impossible for some to be comfortable with themselves. With that in mind the same argument could be turned around in a political sense. Depending on the scope of the author one could deduce this to be a call to action to bring the entertainment industry a reality check of what typical women are and that even those who dont fit the mode can be beauty. Although I dont see this as being the intentions of the artist it could be seen that way thr0ugh someone elses eyes.
The asthetic value of this digital art, as I mentioned before, seems to be more of an eye grabbing experience than an eye soothing one. Creativity plays a large role in any art, especially this. Almost like an invention the artist saw a need or a problem and came up with a solution. In this case the solution was an interactive way for women to vent about their issues with their own personal bodies in an annomous, diverse and open way with the end result being thier frankenwoman.
The recent debate over digital media as artwork has been spured on by the influx of digital technology. With this influx creative minds have created mulitple new ways of expression, ones with all the ear marks of art. Some are politically or culturally driven. Others appeal to the asthetic value that is different for all indivuals and some are simply f0rmed through creativity and the use of a new platform to use. With this new platform comes new elements. The major one is the interactivity seen between artist and viewer making the term “user” more appropriate. Does this interactivity make it any less art? Or does this inovation bring art to a new standard in which it is less about individual experience and more about a collective one? Either way nothing can say that this new digital media is not art, at the very least its just arts newest form.
To see the artwork I have discussed visit http://ourperfectbody.wordpress.com/
