Panel Intro: Work

The questions addressed by “Work” revolve around the nature of digital artworks. In what senses, for example, can they be said to exist? In what ways do they come into being? By whom are such works created? In what ways are they consumed?

Some papers here concern themselves with notions of authorship, questioning whether the accessibility of digital art and its ease of distribution has replaced traditional relationships between producers and consumers of art. The historical sources of such notions include structuralist and semiotic thought, such as the critiques of authorship made by Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault in the late 1960s. They also include practices such as conceptual art, dating from the same time. By using common materials, mass reproductive techniques, and involving the audience in the production of the artwork, conceptual art and related tendencies set out to bypass conventional forms of artistic consumption. Consideration of these historical practices and debates is a major part of several papers here. Others present a more practical demonstration of the nature of the digital artwork.