Friday, July 16, 2010

About Modern Times

Some years ago, while in San Francisco, I was taken to visit a young man who worked for Apple. He was testing a color monitor long before these models were ready to market. To show me what was in our future, he called up a bright cerulean blue screen and drew a wide swathe of cadmium red light across it horizontally. I was enthralled. That was the kind of light I wanted in my paintings.

Now, many years later, I get to use this tool as I work. My printer cannot produce anything that rivals the luminosity before me on the screen, but the impulse to produce it is usually behind the work.

From The London Evening Standard: “Tate Britain has announced its first iPad art installation."
"It is believed to be the first time the Apple touchscreen computers have been used in a major gallery installation.
The move follows the work done by artists such as David Hockney, who has created a series of artworks using his iPad.”


There we have the computer as canvas. I imagine that Da Vinci would have liked these apples.

The image above is not a painting nor does it exist in any form other than a file on my computer (and now on yours). It will never look as good on any other surface.

6 comments:

  1. I love this article, Joan, and I have always really appreciated your approach to technology. Any tool available, that's been your approach and you've always challenged any parameters set by art purists (now that should be an oxymoron).

    What will be the next art form? Who knows? But we can also gain exposure to the experimentation much faster by the internet. A giant gallery at our fingertips. And we get to read musings by great artists such as yourself.

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  2. Thanks for the note, Amy. The feedback means a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I have crossed some line when I state an opinion. I'm not fond of controversy but there are lots of diverse viewpoints on straying from tradition in the arts and elsewhere.

    Blogging takes some getting used to. Just how much do I really want to say?

    July 17, 2010 12:09 PM

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  3. It's refreshing to see such openness to the possibilities of new technologies and media, especially from an artist who has worked so long and hard to hone her craft with traditional media. It seems that may people feel they have to come out forcefully for/against one or the other. I like your willingness to explore and see others explore the possibilities offered by all approaches.

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  4. I'm quite sure the image you are discussing can be reproduced with virtually perfect fidelity on a high res printer, which wouldn't have existed when you had that conversation with the programmer. And it might well look arguably better than it does on the screen,

    Proving? That the medium no longer defines the message.

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  5. Thank you, Lorenzo. Your note has inspired the thought behind this week's blog.

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  6. Here is the further development of a dialogue that started here and continued as email:

    On Jul 20, 2010, at 9:41 PM, Gordon Inkeles wrote:
    I'm quite sure the image you are discussing can be reproduced with virtually perfect fidelity on a high res printer, which wouldn't have existed when you had that conversation with the programmer. And it might well look arguably better than it does on the screen,

    Proving? That the medium no longer defines the message.
    GI

    On Jul 21, 2010, at 6:53 AM, Joan Gold wrote:
    Think it could capture the luminosity that the screen provides? If so, I might start lusting after that high res printer. As it is, no sooner do I get upgraded in computer and printer than I want the next model. I never understood people who went after a new car every year. Until now.
    Joan

    Yes, if the image was backlit--or drawn on an iPad. Would that be any more of a "techno-sin" than front lighting a painting in order to see it properly? I'm told the first iPad "installations" (exhibits) have already appeared. As for justifying a printer upgrade, if it furthers your art it would hardly be as frivolous as a new car every year. (Have you actually known someone who bought a new car every year?}
    GI

    Hmm. You got me there. Those car-upgraders exist in their own fantasies and in my imagination. But then why are there always so many like-new cars on used car lots?
    Joan

    We bought a repo ten years ago, that was quite literally as good as new. Some poor jerk skipped his first payment on a new truck...

    Iris stole "our" iPad the moment it came out of the box, so she will have to show you the ropes. I can imagine you doing very interesting work with one--like five minutes after you get your hands on it. 

    Best way to move this to your blog without jumping through a lot of techno-hoops, would be just to cut and copy the whole thing to a new posting. Then I suppose we could take it from there. Anyway, you've definitely got one of the more thoughtful--and beautiful--blogs out there. Keep it up, Joan, whatever it is. 

    GI

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