In BEtween Studios: & Albright’s Arts Program is Bridging the Divide Between Art Technology

by Dylan Sokolovich

For artists, there’s nothing both more endearing and intimidating than a blank sheet of paper. However, many have found themselves with something much more intricate but open to immense possibility; art in the digital world. Whether it be for its convenience or its abundance of tools, digital art has found new popularity with traditional artists, especially at the college level.

At Albright College, students beginning in the arts are tasked with answering a series of simple questions: are you a painter? An illustrator? A sculptor? Although these categories have been relevant to post-secondary art educators and students for centuries, they could look immensely different in the near future. As the presence of technology rapidly becomes the new norm, schools across the country are belatedly, and sometimes even begrudgingly, venturing into incorporating technology into current curriculum. However, at Albright, students and educators have been persistently unafraid to embrace this change.

Whether it be digital video to digital illustration and design, Albright offers a number of varied opportunities for students interested in digital art. “One of the things that I think is unique about Albright is that digital studio art major, where there is a really deliberate sort of balance between the studio and technology,” says Matthew Garrison, Professor of Art and Digital Media. Garrison’s background is in sculpture, but much of his time at Albright has been dedicated to introducing art students to the growing number of opportunities technology affords them.

“I was introduced to technology fairly early, my first year of college at RISD [Rhode Island School of Design], and one of the courses, the professor, he just happened to be interested in computers, and so we did some projects on the computer that I thoroughly enjoyed,” says Garrison, “but then, you know, it was a different time, so I moved more into the traditional, hands-on art, but was always gravitating towards technology.” Garrison saw sculpture as the medium where experimentation could happen, and with the introduction of the personal computer, and later the Mac, he began to push against the definition of traditional sculpture and art.

With the design of many of the art courses offered by Albright, students are granted the opportunity to seamlessly transition between traditional and digital art. In teaching the campus’s design course, for instance, Garrison encourages his students to embrace what they know while also exploring new mediums and definitions of art. “Basically we move between the studio and the computer lab,” says Garrison, “so, we work on drawings in different media, for example, color pencil, or graphite or pen and ink, and then we go into the computer and reimagine those designs.” By the end of the semester, students will have adapted from drawing to digital illustration as well as have transitioned from static to moving images.

For studio art major Jed Weidner, the possibilities technology brings to art are particularly exciting. “I can start with a physical drawing, take a picture of it, upload it into the program and then the program analyzes and processes it into something that can be manipulated on the screen, it’s really amazing,” says Weidner. As Weidner explains, “digital art can give me a perfected piece, it’s reproducible, and infinitely alterable. I can play with different colors and easily collaborate with my peers.”

While many artists, such as Weidner, remain more comfortable with an analog artistic approach, the possibilities of digital art are undeniable. With the design course, Albright’s incorporation of technology into art attempts to encourage their students to find their passion early on. “There are students who find out through this course that they love technology and they enjoy working with it, and so they start to move in that direction, other students learn that they really love to paint, which is good too,” says Garrison, “but what I see most often is students find this balance that you can think on the screen in one way and you can think in your sketchbook a completely different way. Sort of moving across those different platforms, there’s more opportunity to discover something in one’s own work.”

Upon graduation with a degree in digital studio art, Albright students will have taken a number of courses, both in what is considered contemporary art and art in the digital realm. “Students who choose that as their major, they have a lot of options. They have the skill set to go into graphic design or illustration, or they can pursue a fine arts career and try to break into galleries, museum shows and that sort of thing,” explains Garrison. Equipped with the ability to think about art intuitively, Albright students are finding themselves in a diverse number of fields.

Despite the positive relationship Albright educators and students have with traditional and digital art, this isn’t always the case for other colleges or in the workforce. As Weidner clarifies, “it’s hard for people to appreciate the process of creating digital art, and the fact that digital art is infinitely reproducible and scalable. Photoshop, for example, is its own art form, but the people from my generation or older, might perceive Photoshop as a way of cheating or lying and not see it as real art, when it certainly is.”

Although a career in digital art may be uncertain, Albright instructors are ensuring that students recognize the growing duality of technology and art, and that they’re willing to embrace it. “

I think there will always be that debate between traditional and digital art, and it’s a good debate to have,” explains Garrison, “artists like to push the envelope, they like to experiment and see what they can do with new technology that becomes more accessible.” Filmmakers, illustrators, digital photographers, graphic designers and more are redefining what it means to be an artist. As Garrison says, “as long as it’s controversial, that means you’re creating something relevant, and it needs to be explored.”