MIND MELD: Art in a Digital World

As a Chesley Nominee, in August I was invited by SFsignal to a MIND MELD round table titled Art in a Digital World. Below you'll find the integer version of my intervention. Check the above link and you'll discover also all the other interesting contributes by John Picacio, Lou Anders, Todd Lockwood, David A. Hardy, Stephan Hickman, Greg Bridges, Ruth Sanderson, Alan M. Clark and Irene Gallo (Irene added herself last-minute in the comments section!).

Q: How have digital tools affected the way in which you create your artistic pieces? Will a 100% digitally created work of art ever be considered a 'masterpiece', able to take its place alongside the current masterpieces?

A: Can a virtual work of art be considered a 'masterpiece' without the existence in the material world of a real canvas? What about artists from traditional school enhancing their productivity by shifting to a drawing tablet? Since the advent of digital technology I've been discussing these issues in many artistic circles. The debate will go on for decades until electronic tools will blend in such a way with traditional methods that they will be fully accepted by future generations.

If you think for a moment about it, prices are dropping and sophisticated equipments are becoming accessible to a wider range of artists. We can take as an example the Cintiq family of Wacom graphic tablets.They allow any artist to draw directly on the flat screen monitor/tablet. Jump to this videoclip about a Cintiq 12UX reviewed by Stephan Dube at CGChannel and you'll understand in a flash what I mean saying that traditional and digital tools are going to blend. A digital tool is nothing without an artist. When you are focused on your vision, it represents just a medium and while you are digi-painting directly on the screen with electronic brushes or airbrushes, you are using your mind, your experience, the teachings of your school... so the digital medium becomes indeed a cyber-extension of your fantasy.
Personally I like to draw my preliminary sketches with conventional pencils - it's a manual legacy - and then move my work to the electronic realm. My illustrations included in the Spectrum collection are expressly indicated as realized with a digital medium, and so are the creations of many other artists. When you browse through the pages of this awesome series showcasing 'The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art', you don't think you are looking at something lower just because it was made with a computer, you feel you're watching awesome expressions of Art... maybe created by artists that just a few years ago were used to paint the same artworks with acrylic colors and brushes.

In 1997 I was invited in Rome to the first international Exhibit of Digital Art together with renowned digital artists coming from all over the world, like Laurence Gartel, Gil Bruvel, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis. My featured illustration, a cover for Interzone titled "Lady of the Year 2800", was printed on a huge high-quality canvas. It was terrific! You couldn't say at first sight it was born as a digital painting. We artists wrote down on the spot a manifesto whose words still sound interesting after twelve years. I'm pleased to report here a few lines:

"The Digitalism is a movement towards the future with a powerful memory of the past...As we approach the new millennium, we are filled with the anticipation of a new global awareness...we do firmly believe and so, strongly state, that the new Art dwells not so much in the artifact that hosts it, but in the concept that molds it... Thanks to technology, our Art, all Art, can be universally enjoyed and eternally preserved... Art, as ever, springs from the mind and the heart of the Artist. Whatever their subject matter, whatever their means to the end, it remains an expansive, personal experience for both the creator and the viewer!"