What About The E-Art?

“E” as an antecede was alienated to our ears and eyes ten years back, but not really so extraterrestrial in at present; mail that was through with post offices and couriers have got a new prefix “e” to become e-mail, while commerce embraced that very “e” for proclaiming e-commerce and magazines are rapidly getting away from the traditional paper print form and befalling to e-zines, this culture is producing a new generation “the e-generation”.

Computer is regarded as the most influential invention so far to the extent that modern society or modern way of life is concerned. After being joined together with web, it has opened all the windows, more windows then Microsoft could ever develop, and more extensive than Windows98, Windows2000, or WindowsXP.

Apart from all other astonishing programs and software, which definitely are facilitating modern individual splendidly in all walks of life, my concern is with visual expression, either it is through painting, sculpture, music or dance and the future of all these genre specially taking in consideration the medium and technique.

The man brought into play painting as an expression even before he developed a proper language. This way or medium of being made out is as old, as old the human existence might be, making different shapes on rocks, in caves or trunks of trees made this trade the very second nature of the social animal.

Rituals, religion, mythology and other aspects of human history are first documented by contours and hues, this basic drawing and painting never let the man all alone through centuries, whatsoever is discovered, invented and adopted regardless of being abstract or concrete, is depicted through colors and shapes.

Nature made available all necessary tinges and tones by means of tree trunks, leaves, flowers, fruits, stones and minerals while human being learned quickly to merge different tones in order to get the new-fangled one.

From early tempera to 18th century rococo, or from natural colors to the revolutionary invention of chemically produces synthetic paints, painting in terms of technique and application has undergone through many phases in past centuries.

But now on plasma screens and LCD displays, with a wide range of color tones available with hundreds of tonal effects, the artist is more at ease as compare to the old manual techniques to give vent to his or her imagination in a more vivid and wide assortment of visual palette regardless of messy brushes and clothes or cotton swabs.

Contemplating just the graphic art applications in last decade or so, we find Paint and Brush, Coral Draw, Adobe Photoshop and Dream Weaver as a range of colorful software that has assisted designers, photographers and artists to groping the real meaning out and engrave the real shape and color they want to demonstrate. Moreover Video Installations and Multimedia freedom has enabled an artist to speak out at the highest volume with all the strength and energy, but at the same time this practice has stolen the brush and palette from artist's hand and the canvass that was a companion in dark solitude during the excruciating moments of creativity. That tradition of solid feelings also vanished behind the electronic picture- tubes and plasma-screens.

The story that commenced on the rough surfaces of rocks and caves in shape of articulated silhouettes and outlines got a twist into the mega pixels of virtually stretched canvass with more than 256 colored (or likely to be more) palette but, hidden and concealed within the hard drive of an ever opening Windows program or other operating systems.

Is this the future of modern art, specially the modern painting? Would there be any real feel or smell of the original paints mixed with oil or water, or the electronic palette with more choice of application and modification will overwhelm the centuries old paint and brush culture? These are the questions; every painter and art critic is coming across.

This year I attended a seminar on “Painting and its associated problems” participants with different angles presented their point of view through their papers and speech, one of them feared the future of painting overpowered by electronic or digital presentations in the form of computer graphics and video installations.

The ease and economy of time modern devices has provided the man with, are no doubt exceptional, but at the same time what about the need of expression that was to comfort the artist. One should be very clear about the reason behind all the forms of performing, liberal or visual arts, as the procedure is all that important, through which an artist or presenter undergo during creating some form of art, along with the masterpiece itself.

The movements of dance, the subtle vocal notes, the small or large strokes of brush, the dragged sticky and transparent tones of gouache, the molded and crafted figures and moulds in metals, wood, clay or stone, all this amalgam of varying arduous forms of expression, the artist has always wanted to share with others.

That is why, sometimes, the rout is more important than the goal or destination. May be the new technology might give the artist more legroom and more space to grope that may enable modern elements of satisfying the inner-self and get the message conveyed with all the possible pains and labor behind a piece of work, but that would be in virtual form while the human being is very much real.

But here is another point one could realize to feel the modern style and virtual agony, as all the pains and difficulty one could face during creating or fashioning a masterpiece, is based upon the psychological condition of that person, even poignant agony, physical wounds and pains are the emblem of some psychological disorders, so, we can say that no matter what style or technique is adopted by the modern artist, the labor or distress behind producing the class remains the same as it was in ancient era. Therefore, either there is brush and palette in your hand or you are working with the help of a mouse, either there is a chisel and mallet or your fingers are clicking the left and right keys of any electronic device, the brain must be going through the same psychological stress and anxiety that was there when the first painter painted a rock wall, a sculptor molded out the perceived shape, a singer gave vent to the tenderness that was hurting inside, or one danced in joy to celebrate the happiness, thousands of years ago when even words were not there to encage those emotions. Today with all the electronic assistance, that painter, that sculptor, that singer and that dancer is the same restless soul, albeit he lives in the modern age.