We see what we want to see. We perceive the world around us in our own way and sometimes it is far from reality. We have got used to rely on our feelings and emotions when we see or judge something and sometimes this leads to the misinterpretation of the things around us, because feelings and emotions can’t be objective.

If perspective is defined in a narrow sense as linear perspective then one of the major reasons for its continued popularity is a growing historical awareness, which seeks both to understand methods developed in the Renaissance and apply new technologies in the analysis thereof. Some of the major themes of the earlier treatises such as regular solids remain significant to this day.

Yet there are significant contrasts between Renaissance methods and modern developments. The Renaissance paid lip service to equations between perspective and vision, while at the same time linking perspective increasingly with geometry and committing themselves to recording geometrical space of the physical world. Some twentieth century artists have continued this tradition in their explorations of realism, hyperrealism, and surrealism. Others have abandoned this commitment and focused increasingly on the exploration of visual space, both exterior and interior. This has led to new goals of art in terms of exploring perceptual, mental, dream, psychological and even psycho-pathological states. As a result, whereas Renaissance artists focused attention on linear picture planes, twentieth century artists are exploring many alternative shapes of picture planes. They are also contradicting the traditional transparency-occlusion principles of perspective in their quest for artistic freedom. Hence whereas Renaissance artists established a one to one correspondence between object and representation, twentieth century artists strive to demonstrate the contrary.

The rapid development of computer graphics, which allows artists to transform one kind of picture plane into another simply by altering the algorithms for the perspectival grids has added new vigor to these experiments. (Citation) So has the continued study of psychological aspects of spatial representation and perception.Optical illusions and visual ambiguities have instilled a new playfulness into these explorations of space as has the development of virtual reality. The rise of fractals has made us aware that scale is a factor that needs to be taken into account. Perspective in this sense has yet to be developed even though linear perspective is now some five hundred and seventy years old. Whether in the old or the new sense perspective remains one of the most fascinating expressions of links between mathematics and art.

It is very clear now how artists have evolved to take advantage of the new technologies available to us in the online era. If we think technology we suddenly imagine a smartphone or a computer. Throughout history, technology has provided artists with new tools for expression. Today, these two seemingly distinct disciplines, art and technology are interlinked more than ever, with technology being a fundamental force in the development and evolution of art.
All over the world, people are engineering our future. The internet, digital fabrication, nanotech, biotech, self-modification, augmented reality, virtual reality, "the singularity" - you name it, all of this is altering our lives and our view of the world and ourselves.
The real turning point of contemporary art is that if throughout history and up until very recently, the public was merely a passive observer, today almost everyone creates. Almost everyone participates.
With the internet and new technologies of fabrication, remixing, editing, manipulating and distributing, it is becoming easier to create things - and share them with the world.
What is changing and probably - arguably - for the worse is that it is now easier to create "art", and we see a lot of "bad" art being created and exposed.

What looks clear to me now is that in digital art, the notion of the original becomes obsolete. The experience in art becomes the original especially in the realm of the computer, everything can be processed into something different. This is one of the great difference with traditional art. With the speed of development of new technology today, new tools are continually introduced to artists which enable them to explore their ideas and imagination in every possible ways that are seemed to be limited before.

I believe that any modern artist needs to remember about pushing the art forward, inventing, defining new paradigms of expression with powerful meanings. It can be done using new technology, or researching new techniques with old media. It is about the experience the artist delivers to the public - whether it is provocative, whether it changes how the viewer thinks, feels and views the world. This is what really counts, and it has nothing to do with the techniques that the artist chooses to use. Just as the development of acrylic paints in the 20th century did not mean that oil paints or even the practice of creating one’s own paint from pigments fell out of practice, so it is with technology. Just as some artists paint in oils only or acrylics only, some create their work digitally. Image editing and graphic design software programs are yet another tool to add to the artist’s palette.


Graduate Art History Seminar, Spring 2013 - © Silvia Minguzzi 2013