Digital Technology

Digital and analog devices are similar in that they both take your input, whether it be your voice over a phone line or your favorite tv show through your cable device, and convert it into something else. What that something is, is all the difference. Analog tranfers data in what the readings describe as "electric pulses", while digital information is transferred into a binary data incorporating the numbers 0 and 1. The reason digital is often preferred is because it requires a lot less information than analog, because it is composed of a series of those two numbers. A small variation in the order of these numbers creates completely different data, and the possibilities of creating new series of coding are endless. Photography is a good example that is given. The first cameras, which were analog, are often revered for their excellent quality. Light sensitive paper kept in the dark inside the camera is 'exposed' to any light outside where you press the button that opens the lens. Because the data is not converted into a series of numbers, but is a "chemical process", the picture taken retains its initial integrity and it can be blown up to larger scales without any damage to the quality. But digital is still preferred because of the massive amount of information the camera can hold, while still taking high quality pictures. The data is captured and transferred into this numerical data through CCD's, Charged Coupling Devices. Often when you are buying expensive cameras, you are buying them for a better quality CCD because it gives better resolution, or image quality, to your pictures by offering more pixels to fill with that binary data. Look at a picture up close, and you'll see the effect of low resolution through the jagged edges, which are actually the pixels. Increasing pixels per square creates smoother edges. More pixels does not mean better color quality, but a sharper image with more details captured, along with larger file size requirements. Expensive cameras need much larger sd cards to store more information, with a higher class grade. Because digital photography has an internal processor to convert data from pictures you take at an instant, you can view your images right away rather than going through a chemical process to see if your pictures turned out well. Digital video is similar, this is why so many digital cameras can now take short videos also. Normal quality videos turn out 30 frames of moving data per second, like taking 30 pictures in a row every second. These play at 24 frames per second, meaning some quality is lost. Any fewer frames that 12 per second creates a choppy effect, like a stop-motion video. Video compression is used to convert data from your camera to smaller, more usable sizes, which also leads a drop in picture quality. Lastly, PDA's, personal data assistants, are like mini computers in that they store data, work as organizers, and can be used to make phone calls.

Knowing the workings of digital technology is imperative to my art field. Just like painting or printmaking, I've learned that digital technologies are just tools in creating the far more profound concept of art itself. Beyond that, I've learned that digital technologies are very different and unique kinds of tools, because the options are virtually endless. You can manipulate any photo, sound file, or video so much further than its original form, or reality itself. I forsee myself using photography and visual software often in my future art career so I can stretch the limits of even my own imagination in my works. There is also a certain tone in the medium you choose to create your works. To use a digital technology versus oil paint raises the question of 'traditional', or 'fine' art. Because of the associations the mind creates when looking at a piece of art, I must consider what it means when I use digital technology in art creation. This has already been an interesting concept for me, and I recently created a digital piece called Limited Edition where I went out in nature and photographed pieces of paper litter that I had found and signatured. I mounted all 50 of these photos and arranged them as one would expect in a gallery setting -signed, numbered, and dated. This work examined the cyclical, absurd nature of 'art' as something valued through the author's signing and the edition of the piece. The duality of paper, as its value changes in its setting is also considered, especially considering the role of the 'gallery'. This piece first came into mind in my digital imaging class when I was trying to define value in digital art. I was very skeptical of how an intangible work, or something printed onto paper, could ever find value (monetary, not emotional or conceptual value) in the art market. When I use digital technology in my art in the future, I intend to fully comprehend the purpose of the medium itself.

A fantastic digital artist I've recently discovered is Maurice Benayoun. He created large-scale interactive installations, often using highly complex virtual reality softwares of his own design. His works mostly comment on the current state of media and the systems of society, and how these elements relate to the new technological age. More specifically, he tries to place human characteristics onto the cold nature of technology. This is exactly what I mean by using the digital medium with purpose. My favorite work of his is SFear. Maps of emotions are extracted in real time from the internet. These words used to describe emotions are projected onto a helium globe, with their sizes correlating with the number of hits on the internet according to the 3200 biggest cities around the world. Small discs below the projected globe show tangible maps of e-mapping stills. This work uses technology, something absent of all emotion, to describe the most human qualities. Does the tangible presentation of emotion make us feel like the machine is connecting to us, or is it simply spitting out information to satiate the most primitive form of emotional contact? Even the discs are made to look like skin, the peaks like the goose bumps we feel when experiencing surges of emotion. These stills are simply another way for the machine to try and make us believe we are connecting to it; thus the machine is a deceiving, sly, and intelligent entity, but it will never have emotion.