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Between Computers and Humans the Future of Art is Digital
Art has always been a space for innovation. Artists are known to be experimental and forward-thinking, and their creations often indicate which direction our society is going, before we even know it.
Over the years, artists have explored the evolution of artistic techniques, political movements, technology, and even science in ways that were appreciated by the public and fully understood only years after the fact.
Van Gogh, for instance, did not sell a single painting in his lifetime, and Picasso hid one of his most famous paintings for years (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) because of the negative responses he received from spectators. Sometimes artists are just one step ahead of us, and it's hard to keep up.
Van Gogh Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
Today, one of the most advanced forms of art that is not yet fully appreciated is digital art. Although the use of computers to generate art officially began around the 1960s, to this day viewers and potential art collectors often find it difficult to perceive digital pieces as "art."
Questions such as – "How do I display it?" "What makes it one of a kind if it's a computer file?" and "How is this 'art' if it was made by a machine?" are only some of the concerns on people's minds when they first encounter this groundbreaking form of art. However, what some find intimidating, others find inspiring. One gallerist was motivated by these statements and decided to open a gallery space dedicated completely to the exploration, display, and sale of digital art.
Photography: @mosessiluk
Valérie Hasson-Benillouche founded Charlot Gallery in 2010 in Paris, intending to develop digital art as a major art form. She has since opened a second space in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where Impact Collections' August event took place.
When conversing with her during our private viewing of the current show in the gallery, Hasson-Benillouche mentioned that artists often use innovative tools long before the public understands their value. She stressed that she believes that using computing and computational methods to create art is just one more step in art's innovation. For this reason, the Parisian gallerist is certain that in the future more and more people will realize the importance of the groundbreaking path paved by the artists she exhibits.
Yet, Hasson-Benillouche notes that not all visual material generated by a computer should be considered "digital art." All artists represented by the gallery create artworks using advanced technological tools, but these are just tools. The conception and story behind the work are still 100% human.
Liat Segal, RandomWalk (2019)
Charlot Gallery also represents two Israeli artists, Liat Segal and Yael Burstein. Segal's work was on display during our visit to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa space.
What seems to be a handmade painting is actually a machine-generated piece that visualizes data selected by the artist. When speaking about her practice, Segal mentions that she "materializes, translates and transforms information into physical structures," a process clearly visible in her artwork at Charlot Gallery.
Liat Segal, RandomWalk (2019)
The works by Canadian-born, Paris-based artist Sabrina Ratté, currently on display in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa location, exemplify the relation between human thought and machinery in the process of art-making. Ratté creates artwork – both videos or prints – using digital tools only.
The final product is mind-blowing in quality and very much "life-like". One specific print, Alpenglow (2018), could be easily mistaken for a photoshopped photograph, and not an entirely digital creation. Her works explore the fine line between digital and physical spaces and our lives between the two.
Sabrina Ratté, Alpenglow (2018)
Artworks such as Segal's and Ratté's, as well as other digital artists, demonstrate what art should be in the digital age: it is about innovation, about keeping up with the times and their technology.
But most importantly, it is about being human, about reflecting on our time and place, and about humanity's interaction with the world and its possibilities.
Photography: @mosessiluk
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