Digital technology has revolutionized the way we produce and experience
art today. Not only have traditional forms of art such as printing,
painting, photography, and sculpture been transformed by digital
techniques and media, but the emergence of entirely new forms such as
internet and software art, digital installation, and virtual reality has
forever changed the way we define art.
Christiane Paul surveys the developments in digital art from its
appearance in the 1980s to the present day and looks ahead to what the
future may hold. She discusses the key artists and works in the genre,
drawing a distinction between work that uses digital practices as tools
to produce traditional forms and work that uses them to create new kinds
of art. She explores the broader themes and questions raised by these
artworks such as viewer interaction, artificial life and intelligence,
political and social activism, networks and telepresence, and issues
surrounding the collection, presentation, and preservation of digital
art.
This third, expanded edition of the popular resource investigates key
areas of digital art practice that have gained prominence in recent
years, including interactive public installation, augmented and mixed
reality, social networking, and file-sharing technologies.