Authenticity

Designers are forced to create for reproductively because there is no longer any authenticity in the world of modern art. Nonetheless this is not to say that digital design is bad; no there have been many amazing creations that could not have been produced without the aid of digital manufacturing. If the authenticity of this art is diminished what then is left in its place?

The desire for authenticity that we see amongst older works of fine art by artists such as Van Gogh has been driven out of the equation because of the reality that in our age almost anyone can produce a replica of a famous digital creation. With art such as the “Starry Night” however some say that it has an awe inspiring presence or “aura” when gazing at the original work. A picture such as the one above does not have the same effect as we cannot tell if it is a replica or not. Yet we can still appreciate the artwork just by looking at the picture as the photographer has managed to capture a fragment of what makes the painting great.

Van Gogh’s paintings confined as an image is just an example of what digital design really is. Because of our ability to duplicate and reproduce, great art can now be viewed from different angles, with multiple views and even redesigned in a different style. Although this removes the authenticity of the art it increases the appreciation for the creation as more people can understand and find value in the work more easily than a single painting at an art gallery could ever express.

Artists today, in order to be recognised must create the radical, new and original. We can no longer feel the presence of a great work of art that is digitally created as it will almost always be in the form of a picture or a film. Instead we might enjoy, appreciate, be entertained and even question why and in most cases, due to new technology how it was created.