There are so many new forms of art now, from sound or light art to immersive performances. We’re not going to list dozens of trends, but we’ll focus on the biggest and most important.
Robotics art
Robots can be involved in art in many different ways. They can be objects that become part of the exhibition or performance – like Stelarc’s third arm. And they can also be entities that help people create: in the 1980s, this was still a dubious idea, but now it’s a very realistic one.
Portraits by Ai-da / Ai-da Robot
An artist with iron hands has a video camera in her eye. Therefore, she can draw everything she sees in front of her – real people, photographs and objects. The robot is named after the first female programmer, Ada Lovelace. In April, Ai-Da had her first solo exhibition in Italy. To see more work and to learn how Ai-da is made, visit the official website of the project.
CG Art
New media art is not necessarily some unique, cutting-edge designs. Ordinary drawing in Photoshop or modeling in Blender also falls into this category. CG (Computer Graphics) is the most common and accessible to a wide audience. Computer graphics are used not only for advertising and games, but also for creating complete works of art.
Bioart
Bioart is a fusion of biotechnology and art. The most famous example belongs to the already mentioned Stelarc – already in 2007 he switched to more daring experiments and got a third ear instead of a third hand. But this time he implanted it under his skin. And not iron, but grown from his own cells – but the cartilage there is artificial. Stelarc admired the beauty and complex shape of human ears. He conceived the idea for 20 years, delving into the intricacies of anatomy, but of course, he needed help from scientists and surgeons.
Stelarc with an Ear on His Arm / Level One
Stelarc had to raise funds, look for specialists who are willing to take such a gamble, and find a place where such operations are legal. The essence of the idea is that the ear material should grow firmly into the body tissues and become one with it. A difficult task was creating a lobe – it was planned to make it from stem cells, but so far this has not been done. In the future, Stelarc also wanted to implant a microphone in his ear to broadcast to the public what he was listening to.
Generative Art
To draw, a computer does not necessarily need two iron hands and a camera in the eyes, like Ai-da. The algorithm can run on any processor with enough power – but it won’t paint analog pictures any more, it will paint digital ones.
Interactive installations
Interactivity is one of the distinctive features of modern media in art. A painting or sculpture in traditional materials is a monologue of the artist, while technology provides an opportunity for a dialogue. In an interactive installation, the viewer can touch the objects and somehow influence them: extract sounds or get new pictures.