Feature /Digital Art March - May 2023 MALTA
DR JOANNA DELIA
POST DIGITAL
The digital art-scene and a ponderance on its relevance and future
Matthew Attard, Eye-tracking drawing digital landscapes (bajtar), 2023. Eye-tracking, 3D scan, 3D software. Variable dimensions and media courtesy the artist
T
he sci-fi interpretation of the future in the post-war world and in my childhood invariably included machines which took over the world as well as portals into other dimensions, parallel worlds, whether philosophical, psychological or material and I have no doubt that since the advent of the internet era, we are living in two worlds. Concurrently.
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And in order to explore those other worlds we dreamt of, we have created the portals ourselves. We have created the portals, and constructed the worlds ourselves. Such have we reduced the size and relevance of our planet, that it seems to me we are bored by the ease to navigate it - and frustrated by its limitations be they as they are exposed by this same technology that we have organically
moved to creating alternate realities. The frustrations which fueled the construction of virtual lives seem even more powerful than the frustration at the unforgivable, irreversible damage we have caused to the stage on which we act out our real lives on. And just as sci-fi authors predicted, we are more engaged with creating alternates than applying ourselves to understanding even, let alone reversing the physical damage in the tangible world.
And this misplaced feeling of necessity has proved once again to be the mother of invention and the drive for creativity. Technology and new media are driving inspiration in the art world, not simply as tools, but as partners, collaborators in the form of AI. As extensions of the games we used to play with our senses, as alternatives to our eyes, ears and brains - as ways to tantalize the eyes, ears and brains of our communities and audiences.