The digital revolution has had a watershed impact on modern artistry, but the foundations that started it all are actually about 50 years old. Digital science is rooted in early satellite technology, which has yielded strides in wireless communication and interplanetary research “” eventually, those advances made their ways into the popular marketplace and have fueled shifts in musical tastes, the publishing industry and any number of other fine and applied arts.
Eight-hundred digital photographers from 32 countries get the point. They’re so unanimous in their assessment, in fact, that they sent a total of 2,730 photo entries in hopes they’d get a nod into the Art of Digital Show at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery. About 100 pieces, featuring digital still images and video, computer animation and digital manipulations of traditionally created art, made the cut and are on display at the venue, 79 Horton Plaza downtown, through Nov. 24. Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, chose the 14 best entries, which garnered their creators awards ranging from $100 to $1,000 “” and there was no getting past him.
“In selecting the works to be included in the present exhibition,” Davies wrote for the exhibit catalogue, ¦ I have tried to single out pieces which transcended the obvious tricks of the medium, specifically those software effects that look so stunning at first exposure and so hackneyed over time. I was not surprised to discover that the video artists as a whole were substantially more accomplished than their still image counterparts because the expense and equipment required for filmmaking begins to separate the pros from the amateurs rather quickly.”
There’s another catch.
“While digital technology removes some of the drudgery of image making,” Davies continued, ¦ no tool can ever replace or substitute for the indispensable conceptual and intellectual process of art making. Artistic masterpieces have always come more from the mind and the eye of great artists than from their craft no matter in what era or medium they worked. Chances are that Michelangelo, Van Gogh or Picasso would have made just as compelling images with digital tools as they did with chisels, brushes and pencils “” or, as they say in the performing arts, it’s the singer, not the song.”
Ryan Hartsell won a $750 second-place award for “Covet,” which features a naked male torso eaten away. Davies called it “a most troubling photo surreal image in the tradition of Dali, Magritte or Jerry Uelsmann but crafted with a gut wrenching, eye popping precision that only the digital could render.”
Ching Huang chose the video medium “” and it yielded “The Way,” the show’s winning entry. “In this masterpiece,” Davies wrote, “music and sound are perfectly employed to complement the movement and transition of arrestingly beautiful visual images, which together in audio-visual harmony reinforce the mood of the piece while advancing the filmic narrative. Huang’s video is an ideal blend of old and new, of abstract and representational, with the creator artfully controlling his technology to achieve the desired result.”
Ching garnered a $1,000 award for his effort.
“Our great love of this art form,” said curator Steve Churchill, ¦ prompts us to pull out all of the stops in order to showcase a truly excellent presentation of digital art from around the world, to elevate and promote this art form and to provide substantial benefits to the exhibiting artists.”
Churchill has been exhibiting the work of digital artists since 1986, when he produced the world’s first computer animation film festival, screened to capacity audiences at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s La Jolla campus.
More information is available at www.artofdigitalshow.com. The Lyceum Theatre Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends. Admission is free.