Over the course of the last decade, technology has become an increasingly integral part of everyday life. It has transformed business, communication, and even entertainment. Nowhere has its impact been more profound then in the world of art.

Technology has leveled the playing field between established and non-established artists. Artists are coming from an increasingly diverse array of backgrounds ranging from computer science, sociology, and engineering to visual communication and biology. Technology is putting the means of production directly into the hands of the artists and eliminating the need for traditional channels of distribution.

MOVIES

Perhaps more then any other field of art, the world of moviemaking has been inundated by the digital revolution. Before the advent of digital video, professional movie production required $100,000 cameras, professional camera operators and experienced engineers to edit.

“As recently as five years ago, if you wanted to make a professional film you needed one-half to one million dollars. Now you could do the same or better for a couple thousand,” said Dan Shellenbarger, who teaches Art 661, a digital video class.

Digital video cameras use a digital tape instead of film. Traditional cameras use a chemical negative, which requires developing. According to Shellenbarger, when developing costs are included, three and a half minutes of traditional film would cost about $150. A one-hour DV tape is less than $10 and requires no developing.

Although some in the film industry argue that digital video has a lower resolution then film, any discernible difference between the two is generally a result of analog screens being used to view digital videos.

“Digital video is not a lower quality, it’s just different,” Shellenbarger said.

Many people involved with the film industry see the days of traditional film as numbered.

“Within the next 10 years, we’re going to see the elimination of tape completely. Under federal law, starting in the year 2006, analog television towers will be turned off. The analog TV sets in your home will need a converter box to translate digital signals,” Shellenbarger said.

As a result of the introduction of digital video, young filmmakers can now afford to produce their own movies. This has led to a decentralization of the film industry. It is no longer necessary for would-be filmmakers to chase after the holy grail of a contract with a major studio. Instead they can go the indie route and produce their own digital video, then burn it to DVD or upload it to the Internet.

“The traditional channels of distribution that are normally handled by studios and distributors no longer apply,” Shellenbarger said. “The convergence of art and technology is making the story more important then the medium. If you have a good story, it doesn’t matter if you have a $3,000 camera or a million-dollar camera. The content value is high.”

Editing traditional film required the same painstaking cut-and-paste process as analog sound recording. Using new digital video editing programs such as iMovie and Final Cut Pro, images can be spliced and blended near effortlessly at a fraction of the analog cost. The tools to edit digital video are less then $50 for either Mac or PC, Shellenbarger said.

This paradigm shift in terms of production capabilities has enabled independent filmmakers to produce and distribute works that might never have been completed otherwise.

MUSIC

Technological progress has also dramatically transformed the world of music. Before the advent of digital editing, recording a studio quality album required just that, a studio. Analog studios- which often cost thousands of dollars an hour to rent- require huge mixing boards, rolls of two-inch-wide magnetic tape, and a very experienced engineer.

Today a computer and a $495 program known as Pro Tools can replace all of that. Many musicians now record straight to hard drive, which means that a lot of expensive tape machines are going out of style. It also means that anyone dedicated enough to shell out a few hundred dollars for software can record and produce their own studio-quality album.

“We have analog in our studio in Minneapolis, yet we rarely turn those machines on anymore,” said R&B producer Jimmy Jam in a Rolling Stone interview.

Some estimate that four out of five current pop albums employ Pro Tools or one of its competitors. While the makers of Pro Tools (Digidesign) took in almost $136 million last year, many older studios are struggling to stay in business. Those studios that haven’t already closed their doors are finding that the only way to stay afloat is to install Pro Tools workstations.

One of the key advantages Pro Tools has over analog recording is ease of editing. In the past, making a small change in key or pitch was a major undertaking. This was once a job that could take an engineer hours splicing tape with a razor blade. Now such a task is reduced to clicking and dragging with a mouse.

Another of the many advantages Pro Tools offers over traditional studios is portability. Because Pro Tools can run on any moderately powerful computer – such as a Macintosh G4 or a Pentium 4 laptop – musicians can get professional sound almost anywhere.

Traditional studios are generally windowless rooms deep inside the urban environment. For established musicians, avoiding the studio can mean a more pleasant experience. For those just getting started, Pro Tools means they can record profesional-sounding demos or even albums without having to leave their house, let alone mortgage it.

VISUAL ARTS

Not to be overlooked, the fine arts are also in the midst of a whirlwind of change as technology revolutionizes the very way artists make art. Increasingly, artists are working with new and innovative mediums such as robotics, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, digital image manipulation, biological life forms, and computer-based design.

“More and more artists have grown up with computers and multimedia. It’s not something separate anymore,” said Edward Shanken, the head of the of information science department at Duke.

Ohio State has an interdisciplinary program known as Art and Technology, which is focused on integrating the process of creating art with the resources of sciences and technology. This department includes art students as well as students from other disciplines, such as engineering and computer science.

“The distinction between the arts and the sciences is really dissolving before our eyes,” said Ken Rinaldo, a professor for Art and Technology. “We have people that are doing pure, real research into the sciences but the perspective is really coming from the standpoint of an artist. I would be an example of that.”

Rinaldo, who makes robotic and interactive sculpture, said he is an example.

“I’m developing new interfaces for how humans would communicate with machines and how machines would communicate with each other,” he said. “This is all stuff that would be completely acceptable cutting edge work if it was happening in the computer information sciences program or in electrical engineering. Instead it is happening in the arts. I’m publishing in not only art journals but also in science journals.”

In addition to the undergraduate Art and Technology program, OSU has a graduate-level art and technology program called The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design. This interdisciplinary program is open to all graduate students interested in learning about digital animation and design. ACCAD started as a research program and evolved to the point where it began offering classes after other departments expressed an interest in learning more about artistic computer images.

Many recent graduates of the program have gone on to work for major film studios such as Pixar. However, digital animation is not limited to film industry.

“The field is broad and includes scientific visualization, Web site d
esign, product design, and engineering,” said Elaine Smith, administrative associate at ACCAD.

Rinaldo said often artists are able to think of things that engineers and scientists have overlooked.

“What we do is look at the sciences and technology and try to take a fairly critical stance of what those technologies are. We ask ourselves, ‘What can I bring to the science of this technology, and how can I address some of these issues that science isn’t addressing?'” Rinaldo said.

The convergence of art and technology has not only leveled the playing field between established and non-established artists, it has blurred the distinctions between art and technology. Increasingly artists are coming from non-traditional backgrounds and from outside the spectrum of fine art. Technology is enabling these artists to create new and innovative works of art which would not even have been possible just a few short years ago. Artists are even helping to advance technology by thinking about it in creative ways. Finally, the Internet and other new media are replacing the traditional channels of distribution and allowing artists to get their work out to an international audience.

“I think it’s a cyclical process,” said Prabu David, a professor in visual communications. “The more technology you have, the more you can do. The more you do, the more you want to do. That want turns into a desire for more technology.”