Response: Introduction to the Book Digital Resistance

I was continually reminded of the ideas behind the graffiti and street artists that we researched earlier in the class. I feel that their purpose of displaying their art was a beginning step in the march towards the idea of by any media necessary. Graffiti art in its beginning was mysterious and in your face. Businessmen and walkers alike would notice graffiti on their way to and from work, it consumed their visual sphere. Today, internet hackers and street artists alike are consuming the visual sphere with a more intellectual and thought provoking direction. A virus. A flashing video. An ephemeral installation. All in the public sphere. All meant to convey the artist's idea.

I just recently saw a video on vimeo where in which the artists intention was to incorporate traditional portraiture with video. He thought that combining the two would make for a visual and psychologically stimulating spectacle. Though the artist does not stray far from the use of camera, his application of it goes along the lines of any media necessary. The article states, "the digital model, like the analogic, contains both apocalypse and utopia, and the applications constructed now will in part determine the directions in which digi- tal processes will later flow". Still and moving portraiture is comparable. Portraiture began with the paintbrush and a canvas, and of course some paint. But now as I said before, the artist had meant to bring portraiture to the realm of video. In doing so, it created a more effective and powerful product. Still and moving portraiture is not the concern, the idea behind the portrait, the individual is. HEr lips, her eyes, the space she inhabits, etc. The portait is only emphasized more through the video.

Keeping up with the digital age is exhausting but necessary. With the amount of youtube hits each day this idea of portraiture might suffice for the next accepted canon of portraiture.

LINDSAY LOHAN from V Magazine on Vimeo.

But as the video world is introduced, it becomes much more psychological. It becomes more than the portrait. It only furthers the romanticized in a realm of a spectacle. It references aged techniques with a modern approach. It is traditional with a post-modern aesthetic. The still image becomes real. You see her skin. You notice the flutter of her eyes. You become not only aware of her but the psychological warfare within. And before, you imagined this all yourself. The level of control by the artist, which has been introduced by the invention of technology is what furthers this idea of any media necessary. The introduction of new media gives the artist more control of what he or she wants to say. Where Van Gogh may have wanted to convey what he saw in the streets of paris, he could have done with his HD DSLR. A moving image. The flutter and control of the lens, maybe a filter to really make the stars yellow.

Whatever it is, the introduction of the digital age and new media explores what the artist is able to do and what the artist wants to do. It no longer restricts the artist to an intimate space, but explores and also encourages a more public performance.