Abstract

Manovich asserts that complexity is the new visual art paradigm and supports this with reference to digital art that transfers ideas and techniques from scientific research or is inspired by the “historically specific imagination” of 19th and 20th century art and science. A factor related to the rise of complexity is literacy. We suggest that the traditional sense of literacy is fundamental to making, and making sense of, digital art.

Dobson and Willinsky claim that the written and printed word is ubiquitous. “What is literally digital about literacy today is how much of what is read and written has been electronically conveyed as binary strings of ones and zeros, before appearing as letters, words, numbers, symbols, and images on the screens and pages of our literate live […]. Yet what we see of this literacy is remarkably continuous with the literacy of print culture, right down to the very serifs that grace many of the fonts of digital literacy.”

• Pall Thayer (IS) is an Icelandic artist who has been active in the electronic and digital arts for over 10 years. He studied visual arts at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He is currently employed at SUNY Purchase College in New York, USA.
• Lon Dubinsky (CA) teaches in the Studio and MFA program at Concordia University. He is also a research associate of the Kamloops Art Gallery and the Canadian Museums Association and an adjunct professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Ottawa.

Full text (PDF) p.  121-123