The Impact of Technological Advancements on Art – Parallels Between the Renaissance, the Discovery of Photography, and the Digital Revolution

Abstract

Digital technology has undoubtedly influenced the way we create art today. The digital era gives us an unprecedented range of tools for making art and myriad art forms for expression, constituting a distinct aesthetic form. Furthermore, the new technology brought in new media that challenged the conventional notion of medium, artwork, artist, and audience and exerted a critical influence on the old, non-technological media, such as painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. The traditional media has been altered through hybridization and media convergence, most recently reaching the state of post-media condition. But we should remember that ours is not the first era in which technological advancements have led to a new state of art practice. The discovery of oil paints and the sfumato technique, and the linear perspective system in 15th century Europe formed the pictorial ideals for painting and drawing and, to a great extent, contributed to the Renaissance idea about human reason and power. Photography also generated a revolution in the art world. It was not only a new medium for artistic expression, but it changed the way image is perceived, challenging the detailed realism and conventional approach in the treatment of form and space in Western art. The work investigates similar ideas and sensibilities between the Renaissance, the discovery of photography, and the digital revolution, particularly relevant to the importance of technological advancements in artistic revolutions.