How Much Will Technology Ever Be Accepted In The Arts?

We can imagine ever since one early human used a brush to paint on the walls instead of their fingers, there has been some kind of debate about using technology in art. In some circles, any kind of technology is seen as ‘impure’ compared to the traditional methods, and opinions range from that to those who say that technology is the only future. So how close are we to true tech acceptance in art?

Art vs Innovation

It’s well understood that every new generation of a culture to do things differently. Inevitably, the previous generation will often have some kind of backlash to this as traditions they grew up with. This often comes down to a change in styles or throwing away old rules, although sometimes technology causes a stir.

We are very close to the 200th anniversary of the established beginning of photography, and saying that it disrupted the art world at the time is a major understatement. While some embraced the technology as a faster way to earn a living, particularly portrait painters, many others lamented the intrusion on a traditional skill, despite most making use of it as a tool if only in private.

Modern Implementations

In modern times, with plenty more hi-tech options available, the debate is raging even more strongly. There are plenty of artists today who outright reject any kind of digital medium and who will insist that the organic and traditional approaches are what creates ‘real art’. The fact is, however, that for the professional usage of art these days, the majority of it is tech-based.

Art is both produced with technology using graphics tablets and software suites, and at the same time a lot of tech-heavy industries make extensive art use, such as the worlds of cryptocurrency and online casino. The former uses it for appealing visual representations, and the latter for colourful and varied slot designs, with the combination in the form of a modern crypto casinobeing a showcase of digital design work.

A Tech Future?

The conversation dominating the art world at the moment is AI-generated art, and it’s hard to see the technology being anything other than revolutionary, for better or worse. Artificial intelligence is growing rapidly in capability, so while art pieces created automatically from text prompts are often low-quality right now, that could change within only a few years.

The one element that AI cannot replicate is artistic creativity, and many artists are confident that software can only replicate things from before, not create anything new. On the opposite side, many argue that ‘entirely new’ has been a rare feature in art for a long time, and that software is only combining old features in the same way real artists would.  As with most things in art, there are no clear-cut answers yet, and there’s no predicting the limits of AI either.

Technology is, despite detractors, a fundamental part of art. In the end, it comes down to individual artists on where they draw the line, but it’s getting harder and harder to argue for removing it entirely.