| Science and art have been allied at least since the fifteenth-century when Leonardo da Vinci recorded his observations of the natural world in notebooks and images. In the late twentieth century, the computer has revolutionized the way we relate to our environment and to other people and it has also provided new opportunities and challenges to artists who are always seeking new avenues of expression. Art will continue to be made in the traditional methods of painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking but the presence of the computer has added a new and exciting dimension to the vocabulary that is available for aesthetic expression.
Boundaries of media are being blurred as we enter this new digital age of mark making. Exactly what is this new object? Is it a print? Is it a photograph? If it is printed out on a piece of paper it could be either. I am beginning to believe that it is neither – it should actually be defined as a digital work. Digital cameras are used to record images that are then output as digital prints. Often these images are manipulated so the final version is not at all a rendition of any perceived reality. Drawings are made by hand, scanned into the computer, changed, sometimes collaged, and eventually also printed out as digital prints. These works are a hybrid of the old and the new. Completely new is the image that is conceived in the computer and printed using computer technology.
Other images are either scanned into the computer in order to manipulate them further or are completely conceived in the computer, then transferred to a printmaking medium (either intaglio, lithography or screenprint) and made in a very traditional manner. These works, while very involved with the digital revolution, can actually look more conventional than they are.
The intersection of science and art will continue to change as artists become more involved with their tools. A new generation of young artists, for whom the computer is as natural a tool as a pencil or brush, is beginning to reach its mature years. As people not only feel comfortable with the programs that are available, and even begin to write their own programs for their individual expressive purposes, the images will evolve yet again. New forms of art will appear. While this is always occurring in art, one has to believe that we are at a very exciting moment with these new modes of expression and experimentation in this new millenium. That expectation was certainly realized in the images that were submitted for this exhibition.
Marilyn S. Kushner
June 2000
Curator of Prints and Drawings
Brooklyn Museum of Art
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