Technology is impossible to avoid in the modern western world, technological advances have increased the living age, made it easy to travel, communicate and educate. But when it comes to creativity some claim technology is the “mortal enemy of art” Alexander Rodchenko, 1922. I think this is an interesting discussion as a designing practitioner in the 21st century.

Constructivist Manifesto written by Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stapanova, and Aleksei Gan.[1]

In history technology has pushed the innovation of art, it has been a tool of expression that has made ideas easily “pointed out” and “announced”- which ironically matches a line of Rodchenkos manifesto (p12). An example of this is Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera. (1929) This film challenged mainstream filmmaking and did so using a new way of filming [1]. This is one small example of how technology, in the past, has enabled change and evolution of art that is still celebrated today.

Dziga Vertov’s classic, experimental ”Man With a Movie Camera.” (Walker Film)[3]

To agree with Rodechenko, technology was probably the mortal enemy of the art that he had known: traditional fine art that is viewed in a gallery and studied in person rather than from an abundance of art from a screen. But even then film and photography were developing at an exponential rate from the early to mid 1900’s.

However I have grown in an age where there is so much information, tools and access to art at my fingertips from technology that I could not have an unbiased view. I have not witnessed a change of what art has been to what it is now. I do think technology is not the mortal enemy to all art but I believe it has aided some more than others.

References

[1] issuu. (2017). Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group. [online] Available at: https://issuu.com/rachelgweeks/docs/manifesto_issuu [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].

[2] Twincities.com. (2017). Walker’s summer movie series obsessed with pop culture. [online] Available at: http://www.twincities.com/2016/06/01/walker-summer-music-movies-series/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].

[3] Walsh, D. and Laurier, J. (2017). Dziga Vertov’s “The Man with a Movie Camera”: One of the films you must see!. [online] Wsws.org. Available at: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/05/06/sff4-m06.html [Accessed 27 Oct. 2017].