The great modernist artist Man Ray, (1890-1976) said you could not imagine what art would be like in 50 years time.
“And even if you saw it,” he said, “you wouldn’t be able to understand it.”
I thought of that when I read this article:
Title: What’s The Great Art Of The Future? Data Visualization
Link: http://www.artsjournal.com/artsjournal1/2012/04/whats_the_great.shtml
It makes Damien Hirst at the Tate seem old fashioned. It’s just like a retrospective, which of course it is.
This raises the question: what is the purpose of art? If one is to reflect the world around us, a world that is increasingly complex, and to portray issues in a simplified manner that we can not only understand but also appreciate the beauty of our changing environment then that maybe is one very important role for art today.
As we move into what scientists call the “post human” age this will become even more so as technology and biology merge.
What is human? Will not be an easy answer in 50 years time when we have bits of computers embedded in us.
And our art? Will computers be making it?
Glasgow School of Art have introduced a degree in Digital Culture and one of the first tasks for students is to learn to write computing code.
