“Art in the Information Age: technology and conceptual art” by Ed Shanken

“Art in the Information Age” was not particulary of interest to me when I first read it at the beginning of the semester. I feel like a understand it more now that I have been exposed to more conceptual art. It has always seemed to me that anything can be considered conceptual art.  The idea or person behind the piece is more important than the artwork itself. Essentially, I could display the wheel of a bicycle in an empty room and call it conceptual art because to me it represented a bikeathon I was in to raise money for a friend with cancer. No one would understand what the piece was conveying without previous knowledge of the story behind it. Maybe this is too simple for an example, but it is bare bones basic idea that conceptual art is. Shanken’s essay, however, was representative of the relationship between conceptual art and art-and-technology. Conceptual art does not have to involve technology. Art-and-technology, on the other hand, is the collaboration of its counterparts. There will always be new ways to express what is going on in the present day through art. Technology is a prominant growing field in our world and effects all walks of life. It should be represented through art as it is representative of our time. Another relationship is the use of technology by artists and designers now. I agree with a previous comment on the class blog about designers becoming more reliant on computers. This is true for other artists as well. Graphic designers, for example, would not exist sans technology. That is one birth-child of art and technology. Computer graphics are a facet of the world economy. This is an example of the relationship between conceptual art and art-and-technology. There are infinite combinations of technology and art. The blending of mediums and use of new ones in the art world will be constantly changing and altering social order bit by bit. That is the natural evolution of culture.