A New Language for Artistic Expression: The Electronic Arts Landscape

Are artists and electronic technology in harmony with one another? What is the character of the interface between artists and electronic technology? It is clear that electronic technology has made available to artists new modes of expressing ideas, feelings, emotions, insights, events and information and thus has expanded traditional means of artistic expression.However, the author observes, the integration of this technology into the creative process also has led to the development of a new language that provides a context for artistic expression with new modes of communication. The elements, the vocabulary, of this new language translate the nature of electronic technology into the realm of the artist, allowing the emergence of new experiential art forms. The language consists of elements that describe the creative process and influence the character of the final artwork.By means of electronic technology, this language can be used by artists to express and communicate multidimensional experiences involving sound, image and movement, permitting the expression of previously impossible syntheses and transformations of ideas. The resulting art is alive, responsive and interactive. Artists become choreographers synthesizing the numerous dimensions of human experience. The issue of how to get the spirit and soul of the artist into the computer-and back out into the world-is manifest in new visions of artistic expression in the electronic arts.