Technology is everywhere. Few people send letters through the mail, design flyers by hand, or ride bicycles to the local store. In fact it is even possible to order food at the market online and have it delivered to you. As technology changes and expands, so does society. Multimedia is now a prevalent form of art, and while it has not replaced other mediums, it can enhance them.
When creating a piece of art using technology, specifically in the narrative project, I felt more in tune with the content. When I draw or sculpt, I usually focus simply on the aesthetics of the subject. While I did look at composition of the photographs, I was also thinking about how the photographs would portray my idea of the location. I thought much more in depth about the ideas behind the visual aspect, and how they relate to common problems I see in society.
In Roy Ascott’s “Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?” he pronounces, “The technology of computerized media and telematic systems is no longer to be viewed simply as a set of rather complicated tools extending the range of painting and sculpture, performed music, or published literature. It can now be seen to support a whole new field of creative endeavor that is as radically unlike each of those established artistic genres as they are unlike each other.” An artist can paint on a sculpture, and play music to photographs, but with multimedia all of the senses are attuned to the art. To hear, feel, see, and read all at the same time enforces the idea of the work much differently than viewing a painting. This does not make it better, but rather helps the viewer to see a message in a more announced way, whereas in painting the viewer may have to spend some more time pondering about the content.
On a final note, multimedia is a more interactive art form. Even when walking through an installation, one may feel as if he and the art are separate. In “Dialtones, a Telesymphony”, composers created many different ring tones that all worked together to create a piece of music. The audience was integrated in the art, as it was their personal cell phones that rang during the concert.
Technology is not art in itself, but it serves as a wonderful tool to make art more interesting, accessible, and involved in today’s world.