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Authors: |
Ione, Amy | |
Title: |
Approaching the Next Millenium: Society, Technology, and the Individual's Imprint | |
Keywords: |
cognition, creativity, art history, digital art | |
| click here to download the full paper | ||
Abstract: |
As the millenium approaches the
close relationship of art, science, and technology brings to mind the many ways
technological innovations of the past have been interpreted. For example, two early
Renaissance sources on the lives of artists, Giorgio Vasari and Carel van Mander,
described oil painting as a sudden technical innovation that was discovered by Jan van
Eyck after much experimentation. Extensive documentation has since established that many
painters were experimenting with oil paint, even as far back as the 8th century. What is
most intriguing here, as the art historian Erwin Panofsky has explained, is that it was
logical to attribute the invention of oil paint to van Eyck. Van Eyck's ability to use his
eye as both a microscope and a telescope, as well as his ability to make oil paint behave
in ways no one had displayed before him, combined to make his work visually extraordinary.
This is why a beholder can best appreciate van Eyck's paintings by allowing her eye to
oscillate between a position reasonably far from a painting and many positions very close
to it. This paper extends the logic of the extraordinary to include to the convergence of art, science, and technology, so evident as the millenium approaches. Particular attention will be given to: (1) analyzing what art history and cognitive science literature (e.g., Solso, Gregory, and Tyler) contribute to our perceptions of artmaking when we look at the artistic aura closely and from afar, (2) exploring how twentieth century culture and technology have combined to form individual art and how both reflect society's imprint on art, and (3) asking what a global perspective on art can offer society in the next millennium. The following questions will be addressed: What do technological innovations and the move toward pluralistic themes bring to artmaking? How has technology informed the artist's identity and role in society? Does the work of an artist who establishes a rich and complex relationship with the work and the viewer necessarily differ from the work of someone who is better defined as a technician? |
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| Amy Ione is a painter, a teacher, and
an extensively published writer. Her background also includes providing consultation
services to the San Francisco Exploratorium, a commission from the City of San Francisco
to do the artwork for the 40th Annual Civic Arts Festival poster/publication, teaching the
history of science at John F. Kennedy University, and exhibition of her art work in museum
and gallery venues throughout the United States and Europe. More background information is
available at <http://users.lmi.net/ione>. Email: ione@lmi.net URL: http://users.lmi.net/ione |
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