Emerging mediums and technologies open dialogues, democratize the experience of art and engage people in new ways of relating to themselves and others. Projects that explore new solutions through different mediums can transform the design and delivery of art.
In its handbook on transformative arts, Creative Commons wrote, “Digital and social media are changing the velocity with which images and information move and are exchanged. New technologies are redefining everything, but many institutional power structures remain relatively unchanged. There is a convergence of the old and the new.”
Who would have thought the archaic Bay Bridge would make the perfect canvas for a groundbreaking light display? Since The Bay Lights lit up the waterfront. Businesses have seen a 30 percent increase. The economy has benefitted by an estimated $100 million.
In the next 30 years, experts point to inevitable advances in technology that will create more customized and interactive experiences. Digital displays collect as much information from us as they deliver back. The sharing economy prioritizes access over ownership, meaning information—and art—will reach more people and engage new materials and environments.
Mediums like virtual and augmented reality “burn different circuits in your brain,” according to Kevin Kelly, founding executive director of Wired magazine. “We will have a different idea of what a city is, and who we are, and how we relate to other people,” said Kelly.
“Creativity is just connecting things. … The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”
Steve Jobs
As it advances, technology also has the capacity to deepen the human experience. A New York Times Magazine article dove into virtual reality to elevate the impact of families displaced from South Sudan. The UN and Samsung have partnered to create “Clouds over Sidra,” which takes viewers on an immersive journey through the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan where 84,000 Syrians have fled violence and war.
Technology, story, and now art, have already had social impact that will grow over time. In 2015, TIME selected seven artists to create art in three-dimensional virtual space using a headset and controllers from Google’s Tilt Brush. The result? Mesmerizing digital paintings that opened the doors to a new kind of shared experience for audiences everywhere.
Proof points for the value of artistic investment and the use of new mediums already exist in collaborative projects like The Lab, which supports diverse and underserved artists in alternative, multimedia works and Flyaway Productions, a dance troupe creating experimental live and virtual performances on suspended objects.
Gray Area Arts & Technology: Robert Henke's Lumière II
Instead of traveling to see an exclusive art exhibit, art now travels to see you in an inclusive touch that can reach around the globe in a moment. Increasing access to art and its expression engages creative contributions from people outside traditional art centers or schools.
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RESOURCES
Pew Research Center. “Overall Impact of Technology on the Arts.”
Photo credits:
Intrude by Amanda Parer (San Francisco City Hall, 2016)