Introduction to Aesthetics and Visual Culture - Essay Example

Technology’s Influence on Art Technology allows artists to explore new mediums that were not previously available. Three dimensional modeling on computers and various other programs graphical effects provided on various programs allows artists to do things with their art that were unavailable to previous generations of artists. However, the influence that computers in particular have had on art in general does not compare to the influence that an earlier, less advanced technological break-through had on the arts. That technology, so seemingly commonplace now, is photography. The influence of technology on art goes beyond simply providing new mediums to use. Artists, or more specifically painters, used to be the only people who could recreate the world. If a person wanted to hang a picture of themselves on the wall, then the person would have to hire a portrait painter. A person was able to look at a landscape or a sunset, but only an artist could capture that image so that image could be viewed over and over again. Before photography was developed, artists had a monopoly on the recreation of reality. Once photography was developed to an extent to where it became a reliable technology, it became the easier, more accepted way to recreate reality. It did not require any training or technical skill to take a photograph, and as opposed to hours an hours that a portrait painting would require, photography was a relatively quick process. Furthermore, what needs to be considered is how artists attempted to recreate more and more realistic works through painting and other mediums. Upon viewing artwork from an ancient civilization, the human figure is presented more figuratively. As art progressed, paintings became more and more detailed until around the Renaissance and beyond when painting became extremely detailed and realistic. This progress was made over centuries, but then photography came along and was able to not only create a realistic picture, but was able to recreate exactly within the scope of a lens. Of course, we know this did not render painting useless. Instead of making painting and other mediums anachronistic, the technological development of the photograph worked to push artists into new directions. While paintings used to function to attempt to capture reality and preserve it, painting needed to find someway else to function in order to remain relevant. While photography was able to capture precisely what was within its frames, it was also limited to capturing what was within its frames. Painting then needed to turn to capturing what was beyond the scope of reality or what was literally able to be scene with one’s eyes. One approach to this was the approach taken by the painter Salvador Dali, whose paintings are aptly described as Surrealism. “The Persistence of Memory,” perhaps Dali’s most widely recognized painting, is not a scene that could ever actually be seen by the human eye. Where it might be seen, at east as it occurred to Salvador Dali, was in a person’s dreams. As a person’s dreams are created within their mind, the subject of Dali’s paintings could be considered to be the human mind. More specifically, as Dali considered himself to a student of Sigmund Freud, Dali explored various aspects of psychology as it related to the unconscious. The ‘soft watches,’ as Dali referred to them, are perhaps the most recognizable image from the painting, and obviously no photograph could capture them in the way that Dali captured them. Surrealism was infused with symbolism, and the objects in the paintings were supposed to represent various aspects of the human psyche, and obviously the human psyche could not be captured with a camera. Photography cannot be entirely be considered to be responsible for Surrealism and Dali’s soft watches, though it did influence the landscape of art and painting that Dali developed under. Another artist who attempted to capture images in ways that photography cannot was Pablo Picasso. As mentioned, the history of painting followed a linear path to where representation became more realistic. When photography claimed absolute realism in representation, many artists looked to old styles of painting to gather influence. Picasso turned to old tribal African artwork for inspiration. His painting, …, can be viewed in several ways, but there is no denying that Picasso used the African artwork as a template for representation. He, too, was attempting to capture a different aspect of humanity, though not attempting to use psychology and the unconscious to do so. The women in the painting, because their faces are modeled after the African masks, appear grotesque. There is definitely symbolism that is being utilized here too, but not in the same way. Picasso was also interested in perspective. The only perspective available to a photographer is the perspective of the lens. If a person’s face is turned in another direction, then the other side of the face cannot be seen. Picasso’s painting, and many of his paintings to follow, explored a forced perspective where both sides of the face would be forced forward from an angle which one would expect only one side of the face to be visible from. There are multiple ways to interpret any stylistic choice that an artist might make, and one interpretation of this forced perspective is to state that the figures in the painting cannot escape the gaze of the viewer of the painting; they are being forced to be viewed in full, and they are unable to hide by turning their heads to the side. This effect is not available to a photographer, obviously. In considering the ways that painting responded to photography’s ability to exactly capture an image, we must also consider how photography also is considered an art form. The photographer can only capture what’s within the scope of the lens, and it is important to realize that it is up to the photographer to decide what to put within the scope of the camera’s lens. The artistry of a photographer comes form the conscious decisions of what to include and what to not include within the confines of the lens. Typically, family photographs will contain smiling faces and people appearing happy in general. These kind of photographs are not typically considered artistic; they generally are just examples of attempts to capture a moment. Where photographs become artistic is when they are not concerned with simply capturing a moment and portraying the image of a happy family. Artistic photography is interested in capturing specific images that portray ideas. Therefore you are likely to see rather unpleasant images in artistic photographer at times. Diane Arbus was one photographer that was interested in capturing the grotesque. The photograph “…,” perhaps one of her better known photographs, is what at first seems to be a simple picture of a boy. Upon inspection, what captures the viewer’s attention is that it is unsettling. People are used to seeing smiling faces when they view photographs of other people. The grimace upon the boy’s face forces people to consider why this boy might be unhappy. Furthermore, upon considering why the boy might be unhappy, it forces us to consider what makes us as people unhappy, and if any of those conditions are currently in effect. By showing us a picture of a boy grimacing, Arbus is really forcing us to consider ourselves and who we are as people. That is what makes a photograph artistic. A simple photograph of a boy smiling does not make us think about ourselves, but the choices that Arbus made for her photograph turned a simple, ordinary picture into artwork. The invention of the photograph had quite the effect on the art world. Not only did it create a new medium for artists like Dian Arbus to work with, but it forced painters to completely reconsider their relation to art and how reality is captured. It is difficult to try to think about the next phase of painting if photography had not developed into a viable form, though undoubtedly it would have been quite different. Read More