ARTISTS AND THE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS MAKING THEM THE MONEY
By Hope Hosking
The future is now", a phrase that is being kicked around with an increasing frequency world wide. Rapidly, one after another, elements of our daily life are sliding into the computer realm. Already, e-mail has become a giant, dwarfing the old system of sending letters via "snail-mail", we can do all of our shopping from home when we used to have to venture out on a Saturday afternoon and brave the riotous crowds.
Video games are dominating the toy world, capturing fans from toddlers to adults, and why not? Computers generally make things faster and smoother; computers make things easier. With everything around us seeping in that direction anyways, is it really a surprise that artists are following suit? At no cost to the artistic integrity, a new generation of artists are finding magnificent ways of expanding their field.
The graphic artist is already nipping at the forefront of the consumer industry, as the internet winds itself amongst outdated modes of doing things and squeezes the last drops of life from them. Each year a new crop of video games, that started in the imagination of this new breed of artist, take a larger and larger chunk of the commercial market. For the first time perhaps ever, the artist has found a way to make himself a viable financial success. In a nameless and faceless tidal wave these artists are altering the way the world looks at itself, the way it acts and the way it relaxes. Try finding a modern motion picture that isn't altered in some way by computer generated images. The most successful films have all relied heavily on this science/art to make the unimaginable real. Titanic, The Phantom Menace and Saving Private Ryan all heavily employed the use of graphic artists.
The first two as a means of creating larger than life effects and the third as a means of aging the film to give the movie a more gritty overall appearance. The entertainment industry has relied so heavily on this new wave of art that it is supported almost exclusively by it. The internet lends itself wonderfully to be the playground of the neo-artist. From web page design to the smoothness of the server a person employs to move about through cyber space, this is the environment where the artist is king. At our fingertips, the world dances and glistens with each press of a button, a quick click and we're accomplishing more than ever, faster than easier.
Behind the scenes, making it all possible is the artist that sets the stage for our benefit. Without noticing the change a large amount of the art world has sprinted from the fringe of society to the forefront of it. What doesn't happen now at the click of a mouse can be made to do so tomorrow. Like a living thing, this nouveau art perpetuates itself as fresh minds come under the influence of computers at increasingly younger ages, ready to launch off in new thoughts of direction.
The child of today is proficient in what was tedious science fiction a generation or two ago, but even in the oldest mind of science fiction we can see an early indication of a new way of thinking. The computer has become a medium of free expression not limited by the physical world nor, in some instances, by the physical limitations of the artist. The impossible has become possible thanks to the artist that has found a new way to send out his message.
For the first time, the artist has the ability to bend and shape sound, sight , and thought in any direction they desire. Watch a child, irrespective of the age, sit in front of the new game systems and see if they aren't whisked to some far off place, and more of this would be possible if it weren't for a discriminating eye bringing the chaotic levels of potential into focus for the rest of us. Artists have laid down the canvas and taken up life all around them to create upon. Where did Da Vinci and Van Gogh get to after all was said and done? Turn on the internet in your office and enter their names into a search engine; you'll find them faster than you think! The artist is now truly making a living off their art, the artist is king, and the kingdom is flourishing!
Hope Hosking is a student of the Multimedia program and a dropout from the Alberta College of Art and Design. She enjoys showing the world her art, not just a few select people who have the free time to stop by a gallery.
