For As Long As Art Has Been Present in Our Society, Science and Technology Has Shaped And

Christine Adams

Kristy Burja

Darcie Porter

The Science of Art

For as long as art has been present in our society, science and technology has shaped and affected it in one way or another. However, the twentieth century, in particular, brought about a burgeoning of scientific and technological discoveries that shaped and evolved visual art to what we know it as today. The science and technology that arose has inspired and influenced art in countless ways. There are two ways, in particular, that this has been done. Firstly, the new materials/new media that were made available for artists to use revolutionized the way art was created. Secondly, the scientific and technological innovations that were made immensely influenced the meanings and subject matters depicted in artworks; in some cases, redefining the archaic aesthetic standards set for art.

The many movements and artists that were affected by science and technology in the one hundred years that made up the twentieth century cannot all be discussed. Only the most influential and significant artists and events that occurred in the first half of the century (spanning roughly from 1900-1950) will be addressed. In this span of time, several materials and media were newly developed. An example of new media development is the introduction of synthetic pigment to paint:

Before 1700 and the maturation of chemistry as a science, few synthetics were in use, most pigments being ‘natural,’ like carbon black, colored earth, and certain natural metallic compounds. Since then, a variety of colors, titanium white, Prussian blue, cobalt blue, and a wide number of yellows based in zinc, chromium, and cadmium, have been added by chemistry to the palette of the painter. (Davis 15)

These synthetic colors enabled artists to expand their boundaries and experiment with innovative ways of using these new colors.

Old media and materials were also influential in the art of this time. There was an emergence of new ideas and new ways of using these old materials and media from artists like Vladimir Tatlin and Marcel Duchamp. Tatlin was the forerunner of the Constructivist movement. This movement used industrial materials, new and old, to construct sculptures that reflected the technological advances and the changing political views of the time. Tatlin used old materials like iron and steel, but in new and inventive ways to create fascinating sculptures, like the model for the Monument for the Third International. Tatlin had intended the final structure to be made out of iron, glass, and concrete, but the structure was never actually constructed and conceived only in model form.

Duchamp drew inspiration for some of his early works from the medium of photography. By the 1920s, photography had lost the technologically innovative charm that it possessed in the era of its advent in the late 1800s. Though developed in the nineteenth century, photography’s influence reached far into the twentieth century. Eadweard Muybridge completed several sets of stop action photographs in the latter part of the nineteenth century, which involved studies of motion. Even though these studies were done in the nineteenth century, the twentieth century artist, Marcel Duchamp, used these studies to help him in paintings that involved successive motion, such as Nude Descending a Staircase.

Not only were the ways and methods for creating art influenced by science and technology, but the subject matters and meanings depicted in art were also influenced. Two main movements—Futurism and Dadaism—were influenced in this way. In the Futurists, “we see parts of the automobile repeating over and over, interlaced with swirling, spiraling, thickly etched forms, the whole combing to present a picture of unrestrained energy” (Davis 19). The Futurist movement’s main themes, found throughout the works of its artists, were motion and speed. They often used the automobile, which became popularized in the early 1900s, to portray this speed and motion. In 1910, one of the main artists of the Futurist movement, Umberto Boccioni, proclaimed that, “…art portrayed the moving world around us, the world transformed by ‘victorious science’” (Davis 18).

Dadaism was a hodgepodge of several different styles, but one of the main factors that brought together and influenced this movement was the new technology of the industrialization that spread throughout Europe and America. The main component of industrialization was the machine. Images and portrayals of the machine can be found throughout the works of the Dadaists in three main forms: assemblage, collage, and mechanomorphic pictures. An assemblage is several found objects put together to make a sculpture, basically it’s a three dimensional collage. Raoul Hausmann and Kurt Schwitters did several assemblage works. A collage is collection of paper clippings arranged with a purpose to expresses a point. Hannah Höch popularized collage through her many works during this period. She often cut out photographs printed in magazines or newspapers of machines and used them as pieces in her collages. Francis Picabia came up with the idea of mechanomorphic pictures. They were basically pictures of people that were made out of machine parts. They were not meant to be realist interpretations of the people. The machine parts were used symbolically to represent the person being portrayed. They were often composed of mixed media (part collage and part drawing).

“The mind of any age is the eye of that age.” Margot Lovejoy

Today, however, art has taken many forms one may not begin to fathom. The use of technology in artwork has become less of a tool and more of a political statement. This technique, of political satire, has been around through most of the 20th century, but not until the 1990s did it turn to the world of science and the ever growing technological advancements of our world.

Art is a reflection of our world. Changes in our world inspire reactions from our art. Art is the eye that helps our mind to register what is going on around us. “Technology advances inform powerfully our knowledge base and affect all the premises of life, altering the way we see and think (Digital Currents, 13).” Advances in our lives such as television, computers, the Internet, and enhanced entertainment have changed the way people think. It has inspired new questions, thoughts and often-unsettling concerns about the way the world is changing.

If art is a form of expression and reflects our world then technology is the motor behind it. Margot Lovejoy says in her book, Digital Currents: Art in the electronic age, that technological development and artistic endeavor have always been closely related in one-way or another. Over the past few decades’ technological advancements have become inspiration for art. Technology has inspired the media used in the art, the concerns expressed by the artist in their work, and creates new ways of distributing, communicating, and transmitting art. Artists use technology to relay messages, reflect on society, create beauty and make statements.

The technology that consumes our lives creates interesting mediums. An example of this might be seen in works done by Nam June Paik, other wise known as “the father of video art,” who uses televisions as his medium. Nam June Paik who started off as a performance artist, was inspired to work with televisions and has been using them ever since as inspiration for his exhibitions. Paik saw televisions potential for making art (Digital Currents, 95). “He saw that it could be used not only as sculpture but as a means of global communication for art Guggenheim museum comments of Paik by saying, “No artist has had a greater influence in imagining and realizing the artistic potential of video and television than Korean-born Nam June Paik. Through a vast array of installations, videotapes, global television productions, films, and performances, Paik has reshaped our perceptions of the temporal image in contemporary art.”

Paik’s works are interesting and imaginative, and include sculptures and digital images. One sculpture named TV. Buddha is particularly interesting. In his sculpture there is video camera looking at a Buddha who is looking at a television that is a reflection of him. Margot Lovejoy comments that Paik is expressing the “playful yet ironic distance that exists between the mindless technological stare of the television monitor and the Buddha’s contemplative nature (Digital Current, 95).”

Another of Paik’s sculptures that emits whimsy yet makes a powerful statement would be “Couch Potato.” The sculpture is made out of electrical wires, television monitors and remote controls to form a robot that is changing channels while lying in a lazy boy reclining chair. This sculpture sparks the influence of technology on humans as biological and social beings. It shows a robotic form of life that technology overloads can lead to.

The use of technological instruments is not limited to the visions of an artist such as Nam June Paik. In 2001 at Southeastern Community College, Iowa, James Rhodes set up his own electronically inspired piece named, “Symbiont” (Community College week) James gathered unwanted electronic equipment from students around campus to create an “electronic womb” that he wired himself into as part of the display. James Rhodes said that by “installing himself in the work he was representing people’s dependence on technology (CCW).” By using technology and himself in his work he is representing a message about society today. He is making them look closer at the impact of technology.

Sometimes the inspiration for the art is not technology, but the medium used to express a message. Through the use of technology, artists are able to express themselves in different and fantastic ways. One might say; as technology progresses, art progresses. There is no longer a need for paint to express emotions, concerns, and hatred. One example; instead of painted murals on buildings there are projected images on buildings.

One artist known for his projections on buildings is Krzysztof Wodickzo. He is a polish artist who “projects politically charged images on huge buildings and public monuments.” Through the use of projections he is able to send strong messages that otherwise would not have been displayed with regular paint and brush. The images can be displayed on images with out defacing them, or painting on the buildings. The pictures that Wodickzo uses inspire thought and are sought to create political action. Wodickzo said “I think of an artist as someone who disrupts the regulation of life everyday (projected images).”

Wodickzo seeks to disrupt everyday life in his images. One of Wodickzo’s major areas of activity is the plight of homelessness in modern society (projected images). In Scholastic Art: Projected images it recounts that One New Years eve in Boston Wodickzo used a war memorial built to honor soldiers and to sailors to project his affecting images of homelessness. He used this particular environment to bring make people aware that a number of people that are now homeless have at one time served in the armed forces.

The artwork of Wodickzo can be found at On the front page of the website they feature a work done on the domed Centro Cultural Theatre of Tijuana. The website says, “The domed theater is where a documentary tracing the history of Mexican civilization is screened daily. The projection's theme was the undocumented Mexican workers who risk their lives to cross into the United States in search of jobs. The artist projected a photograph upon the domed Centro Cultural Theatre of Tijuana. The image used in the projection shows a Mexican worker with his hands clasped behind his head, as if being arrested by La Migra (the INS) ( a-change.com).” Projection imaging has helped Wodickzo greatly in expressing his political messages with artistic beauty.

Other advances in technology have created ways to alter the state of images. The use of photography manipulation can alter the way reality looks and create a place for viewer’s imagination that could not be created by a painted portrait. Nancy Burson uses computers to digitally alter photographs. “She has created a technology that allows her to scan individual features into a computer and use them to create images of the person but changed in a certain way (Digital Visions).”

With this technology she is able to transform a person into different races, or let them view themselves, as they would look in the year 2222. The artist uses this technology to enforce her belief that “we are all related, all connected, all one (Digital Visions).” The Human Race Machine is one of her pieces that touch on the importance of oneness. The piece reads, “There is no Gene for Race.” Above each word is an image of the same woman who has had her color and features change to fit different races. This piece was inspired when she learned that the DNA of any two humans is 99.97 percent identical (Digital Visions).

Burson touches on a social separation often confused with a genetic separation. Through the use of technological advances in science she is able to express her finding on genetics through advances in computer technology. Technology and art are constantly being affected by one another.

Today’s society has been welcoming to this artwork and the artists that produce them. Nam June Paik has taken over the Guggenheim with his exhibit named “The Worlds of Nam June Paik.” Nancy Burson’s work has been featured in museums and galleries worldwide including major exhibitions at The International Center of Photography and the NewMuseum in New York City, The Venice Biennale, The Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, and The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago ( Krzysztof Wodickso has had is work projected on countless monumental buildings. The list of such artists continues to grow as our society continues to advances in technology and science.

The future of technology based art can go in so many directions. The possibilities are endless. This means that science will forever create the need for reaction in our society. Since art is a form of expression, the many views of the world will continue to shape and create new and exciting ways of expression through science and technology. One may forever contemplate the scientific, but expressing it can be more beautiful than we ever imagined.
Annotated Bibliography

Lovejoy, Margot. Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age. Taylor and Francis; New York. 2004

Margot Lovejoy is a professor of visual arts at the State Unversity of New York and Purchase. She has lectured widely on technology and art issues. She has received an Arts International Grant and a Guggenheim fellowship for multimedia work. He book, Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age, is a tribute to the influence of technology on art. She discusses several different artist in her book including Nam June Paik. Her book gives purpose and reason to the technologically inspired artist. The publisher of her book is the leading international academic publisher. Taylor & Francis Group publishes more than 1000 journals and around 1,800 new books each year, with a books backlist in excess of 20,000 specialist titles.

Cleland, Gretchen. “Student Gets Wired for Class.” Community College Week 13(2001)14.

An article on a Rhodes, a south eastern community college freshmen, who creates a technologically inspired “electronic womb” which he entitles “Symbiont.” His art piece symbolizes the human relationship with technology. Journal was found through Infotrac. “InfoTrac OneFile is Thomson Gale's single electronic resource providing instant access to an unprecedented number of periodicals. Users rely on InfoTrac OneFile for access to periodical and news content as well as indexing from a variety of general and specialized journals – from the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor to refereed academic journals (infotrac website).”

“Projected Images.” Scholastic Art. 32(2002)10

This journal talks about the use of projected images in modern art. It touches on several prominent artist such as Tony Oursler, Bill Viola and Krzysztof Wodiczko. This Journal was found through infotrac. “InfoTrac OneFile is Thomson Gale's single electronic resource providing instant access to an unprecedented number of periodicals. Users rely on InfoTrac OneFile for access to periodical and news content as well as indexing from a variety of general and specialized journals – from the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor to refereed academic journals (infotrac website).”

“Digital Images.” Scholastic Art. 32(2003)4

This journal discusses the use of computers to create artistic images and the way these images can be used to effect the media. Jenny Holzer, Nancy Burson,Tilson are discussed in the article as examples of digital visions. This article has been obtained through infotrac. “InfoTrac OneFile is Thomson Gale's single electronic resource providing instant access to an unprecedented number of periodicals. Users rely on InfoTrac OneFile for access to periodical and news content as well as indexing from a variety of general and specialized journals – from the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor to refereed academic journals(infotrac website).”