We are all familiar with one of the earliest examples of technology affecting art, the use of fire in iron, bronze, and gold making. Technology and art, have been bound intimately since the beginning of time, not only in the area of materials, but ideas as well. They always will be.

Some inventions impact art more directly, and some are just more interesting. One of my favourite examples is the invention of the camera in the mid eighteen hundreds. Degas' `simultaneous action'(125) was an entirely new composition, using ordinary people, in ordinary clothes, all doing different things at the same time... art influenced by photographs. Equally as drastic, was the blow the camera dealt to the vital role of the artist as portrait painter, and recorder of events. Now, anyone could have pictures of themselves, not just the wealthy elite who could afford commissioned paintings. The effects of the camera and photography have been so far reaching that it has become a recognized, separate art form entirely, much to the chagrin of many painters. And ultimately there is the moving photograph or `picture' that has developed into an entirely new art form, movies.

 

"I do not seek, I find"
Picasso



One of the most recent impacts of technology on art is computers. Their biggest impact is in the areas of speed, ease of drawing, and graphic work. It has been discovered that patterns of fern leaves, snowflakes, or butterfly wings, can be obtained by programming a computer with algorithms (fractals). But the computer image is not unlike one we have used for centuries, the needlepoint grid. A pattern of any complexity, realistic or abstract, can be done using this grid. The computer retains flexibility during design and construction, and can design three-dimensionally as if in space.

A major drawback in computer technology today, is the limitation of quality printing inks like paints, and the size of the screen. The computer image makes everything smooth, eliminating the accidental or intentional twitch of a hand, which would normally give a thicker or thinner application of paint, or a messy mixing of pigment with medium on paper. So then the focus is the idea, and the human qualities are lost. It therefore remains a limited art form. In the past, some artists aimed at getting rid of the human touch, wanting to do work that looked as though a machine made it. They would be most pleased with computer images.

125. Keith Roberts, Degas,