Difference between Real and Artificial in the Age of Digital Technology - Essay Example

? Number] Difference between real and artificial in the age of Digital Technology The digital technology has created a powerful impact on the brains of the children and thus he calls them the Net Generation. By reaching 20s the young people will spend more than 30,000 hours on the internet playing video games. Before such developments, children played games which were real, and not digital. Children start using the internet to socialize and grasp information when it is very tactful for them to go out to explore the world they are living in. We can say that the world has been digitalized into several small machines. Digital technologies refer to accessing any information, anywhere, anytime through a digital device. It also allows interacting by sharing comments, feedbacks, live chats etc. furthermore, the digital media is very close to the forms of art and science. The technology, equipment and gears used are the scientific postmodern advancements that have been made and which greatly allow the digital media to take over. However, art also has a close link with the digital media which has influenced the media world (Angela, p251). Although arts is something which is created, innovated and formed by the imaginations of an artist, the meaning can be taken in another way which is the transformation and artificiality of the real picture. The digital media is not only influencing the scientific world, but it is also changing the role of an artist. An artist is meant to use his imaginations to produce creativity, but today the digital world has lead an artist to work on the transformations of reality to artificiality. Digital technologies have enabled powerful forms of artistic creation, simulation and special effects but there are already questions that artists have begun to ask. One of the question is that is the use of digital media a threat to the original innovation and imagination of an artist. A piece of art tends to show the imaginations of an artist conceiving the 3D world around us, however when it comes to digital technologies, science believes that there is more than just the 3D world. Thus, they call it ‘technoetics’. They use this word because they believe in recognizing the technology with the wide imaginations of an artist. They believe that the consciousness can be well represented through the digital technologies as the visualization is immense. The best example which can be seen around is the use of digitalization in images. It involves the use of new artistic creations, simulations and special effects that are done by the use of graphics in digital technology. There is an original art in the visualization of reality into a painting, sculpture, drawing or photograph. A photograph captures reality and every photograph shows a new piece of art to the people. However, the use of digital media on such a photograph can change the view of the picture from being realistic to fiction (Monahan, p15). An image, despite being taken originally has to go through digitalization in this modern era. This includes alterations made on these images; transformations, editing and renovations. A graphic designer would hold the job to modify a real picture through the many tools available. The detailing and working on a picture would lead it to have special effects that would make it evident that the picture has been simulated. This way a picture loses its natural look and the originality that shows the vision of the artist. The original handmade work of an artist is the real form of artistic creation. Though digital graphics is also a type of arts which is greatly used in the modern era in place of handmade art works, it includes the use of graphic plates and digital pens. It is a form of art which allows an artist to express his views on a digital medium rather than a paper or canvas. This is the artificial form of artistic creation, not because of the difference in ideology, but because of the mediums of technology used in both these types. A practical example showing the different uses and relationship of both the mediums is that of an architect. The raw plan of an architect before making a building is usually done nowadays using the digital graphics, while the real building is built using manual labour. Hence, the digital outlook is the artificial structure while the actual outcome is the real structure. Every piece of art has a thinking, theory and creativity present in it. Whether it is the digital technology using special effects on pictures or the graphic painting, both the forms convey the message of art. The way the voice of many singers is modified nowadays shows the sufficient use of digital technologies which enable singers to have their voices high pitched or low pitched artificially. The ability to sing and have a melodious voice by nature is a real form of art creation. Real singers have voices that do not need any sort of alterations or pitching. This is the reason why music was one of the most comforting forms of art. By the modernization in the digital media, there have now alterations to several different voices of singers. The song is digitalized and so is the voice of the singer. Through such modifications, every non-singer can sing and hear his voice as a professional’s. It has lost the true meaning of art in singing and adopted many artificial ways in which the music is digitalized. In the early 1990’s there was a development made in the music industry, it was named trance music. Trance music is a genre of the electronic dance music. These feature types like electro, techno, drum and bass. The music is produced not by playing instruments, but by using digital technology to characterize the tempo and beats per minute. Undoubtedly, digital technology has enabled the life of many people to become easier. The true meaning of having things digitalized is to make the access towards it easy. Thus, exploring consciousness more thoroughly by recognizing the need of technology plus mind is very important. The combination of technology and ideas can bring great new forms of arts which will mark a new level. The powerful tools which are available in the digital technology will enable the artist to throw up his ideas in a more creative way. The imagination and the creativity are present in every aspect of art work done by an artist. However, illustrating it directly using the digital tools will be much better than editing and transforming a picture made by hand. In this era, the art field has extended its implications to the use of scientific tools in the making of modernized pieces of art. Both the ways show the imagination of the artist, just throwing them onto the medium through different tools. Science is very closely interlinked to the art field as in every aspect of modernization; this is also an aspect which plays an important role in the building of the postmodern society. Criticizing either one of them would mean criticizing one of the types of art for the sake of the other type of art. A picture whether artificial or real expresses and shows the vision of the artist. The digital creations can however, not be regarded as fake just because of the simulation or the use of special effects. Just as the modernization is taking place in the world of technology, there are more ways in which an arts creation is judged and this is relies on the human eye. The 3D technology has been one of the technologies that have become increasingly popular. The 3D world has shown the depth and illusion of the picture that they are watching on screen. As the digital technology has developed, there are special software programs that are used to put in the 3D effect. This is the way the perceptions have changed as the technology is enhanced. This is the way artists use technology to perceive consciousness, and be able to show the real world as it is to the people on digital media. They would be able to see the world just as it is around them. An example of a 3D painting made by a British artist Joe Hill is the anamorphic street painting in the Canary Wharf. Though it is an effort made by hand to show the 3D perception, it is closely interrelated to the 3D digital world. Holography is another technique which is introduced through the digital media. In this technique the light from the object is captured using lasers and then recorded and the same image is then presented at another place where the object is no longer present. The object can be seen in 3D and it seems to be real. This technology can be seen in Japan in concerts like Hatsune Miku performing where she is also singing using digitalization. In order to make it much easier, there are digital equipment available which allow working with the modern and latest technologies in order to use the new forms of art creations. These include the digital pens which allow an artist to draw on the digital device just like a pencil on paper. An example is the animations of the Warner Brothers when they created the cartoon Mickey Mouse. At first they used pencils and papers to draw the characters scene by scene and then animate them. In today’s technological world, there is no such need. There arre programs for animations and the characters, drawings, scenes and animations can be done in just a few moments. Digital cameras are also very common nowadays which help the photographer to use a digital device to take pictures and transfer them directly to the medium. However, digitalization has overtaken many of the real art works that were present in the history. Although there is a close relationship in the ways real and artificial art is linked, digitalization is causing the manual arts to surrender. It is just a matter of perception that has leaded the science and art to correlate to each other in terms of consciousness. Scientists believe that what digitalization can bring out is exceptional and much more enhanced than what a human mind can imagine. Even though the two perceptions contradict each other, there is much benefit that digitalization has bought to the world of artistic creations such as holography and 3D movies. In the coming years, digital media will take over all the other real forms of arts and is likely to change the perception of those who believe in real arts. The use of digital tools will help greatly in practical matters such as saving money spent on developing pictures, filming etc. As the culture is becoming more visual, the need for digital media is increasing. Many scientific researches need the visual effects through which they make the research. Pictures and visuals are best known to show the effects of presentations. One of the best parts is that there is no limit to represent your thoughts and imaginations when the use of digitalized media takes place. About the originality of the picture or art creation, Plato debated that in terms of art even the best imitation of nature is fake, and that appearance can never merge with reality. Digital media has enabled the world to become closer to each other. There is however, no communication gap between the people no matter which culture, which religion and which geographical area. Through the internet artistic creations can reach the world within no time. This is the major advantage of using the digital media that can send the creativity anywhere in this world. The digital revolution has enabled the people to enjoy the love of arts creativity from throughout the world so that ideas are shared, arts are promoted and links are created. The ways in which personal communications are conducted and the quality of mass media enables many people to be able to have a good standard of life. There are increasing productivities and advancements in the digital technologies so that there is a time when there is nothing but technology everywhere. Although, many people have already started to depend on the benefits of digital technology despite it has not taken over completely yet. These advancements in technologies have great impacts on the brains and especially of youngsters. Digital technologies have taken over almost all the fields from arts to academics, from literature to singing. There are online books available as well because of which a student hardly needs his course book. Literature is going down as there is more advancement made, since people do not even touch books. However, it is seen that when a digital technology takes over, there comes a time when the real one is abandoned. Work Cited Ndalianis, Angela. "Special Effects, Morphing Magic, and the 1990s cinema of Attractions." In Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change, edited by Vivian Carol Sobchack, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000, pp251-71 Torin Monahan. Digital Art Worlds: Technology and Productions of Value in Art Education. Foundations in Art: Theory and Education in Review 26: 2004 7-15 Read More