Earlier this month, our Dr. Nelson Chu, along with two more alumni , was invited to speak in an alumni sharing session by HKUST. You can review the whole sharing here. Nelson showed our ground-breaking app Expresii on a tablet computer to the audience.
Digital Art not real art? 數位藝術不是真藝術？
During the Q&A section, Nelson was asked to comment on how to deal with people saying digital art is not real art. To answer this, let's first assume people don't regard digital art as real art because they think operations like undo and redo mean cheating. Let's here what Nelson has to say:
One may say there's no mistakes in art so there's no need for undo. Okay, then let's regard undo's and redo's as opportunities to go back and forth in time. - Nelson Chu
'Long time ago when the Western fountain pen got introduced to the East, people might say "pen calligraphy" is not calligraphy. Only brush calligraphy is. But now people accept that pen calligraphy is also calligraphy' said Nelson.
Nelson is a firm believer of digital calligraphy. See how he does digital calligraphy with his own tool Expresii:
| | |
From the above videos, you see how undo's and redo's allowed more flexibility and save time to create the perfect design without wasting paper. (^(エ)^)
Embracing New Tools
In deed, if you look at the history of writing tools in East Asia, you will see we keep adding new tools to our arsenal over the years. If we insist that a new tool has to act exactly like what came before it, there wouldn't have been brush calligraphy in the first place because we would still be using carving knifes to write.
We should really embrace new technology and explore what we can do with it.
We should really embrace new technology and explore what we can do with it.
History of writing tools in East Asia
我們拿書法來談談工具的影響吧。毛筆書法的出現，是因為我們發明了毛筆。試想想，如果我們都堅持新工具一定要跟之前的一模一樣，那我們可能還是用着刻刀來刻字呢，而毛筆書法根本不會發展出來。
也許以前有人說，硬筆寫的不是書法，只有毛筆寫的才是書法。但現在大家都已接受硬筆書法也是書法。我們深信，數位書法是必然會發展起來。
也許以前有人說，硬筆寫的不是書法，只有毛筆寫的才是書法。但現在大家都已接受硬筆書法也是書法。我們深信，數位書法是必然會發展起來。
Changing Business Model
Another possible reason why people don't consider digital art real is that they can't sell it to galleries or collectors like they do with works done in physical media. People are concerned that artists (along with a whole ecosystem of art dealers) can not make a living if there are no originals (vs. digital copies) to sell.
To respond to this, firstly, we'd like to emphasis that artistic value is NOT market value. If we stick to the question of whether something is real art we should really judge it by its artistic value. Whether it sells or not is a completely different story. For a painting, we judge its artistic value by e.g. the use of colors or composition, which you can also find in digital art.
Secondly, business models can adapt to changes. A century ago, musicians made a living by performing live. With the invention of sound recorder, musicians don't lose their job simply because there is a way to playback their music. Instead, a whole ecosystem of record companies & distributors came into existence. And then came the digital age, when people don't buy CD's as often. Record companies could blame digital music making it easy to be pirated. Then Apple fights the problem by providing a way to get legit music easier than looking for pirated copies. And if you think those big companies are paying artists too little royalty , now independent artists can sell their music, art or tutorials via sites like Gumroad with a much bigger cut, effectively democratizing art selling for creators.
To respond to this, firstly, we'd like to emphasis that artistic value is NOT market value. If we stick to the question of whether something is real art we should really judge it by its artistic value. Whether it sells or not is a completely different story. For a painting, we judge its artistic value by e.g. the use of colors or composition, which you can also find in digital art.
Secondly, business models can adapt to changes. A century ago, musicians made a living by performing live. With the invention of sound recorder, musicians don't lose their job simply because there is a way to playback their music. Instead, a whole ecosystem of record companies & distributors came into existence. And then came the digital age, when people don't buy CD's as often. Record companies could blame digital music making it easy to be pirated. Then Apple fights the problem by providing a way to get legit music easier than looking for pirated copies. And if you think those big companies are paying artists too little royalty , now independent artists can sell their music, art or tutorials via sites like Gumroad with a much bigger cut, effectively democratizing art selling for creators.
消失中的手寫字 hand writing anyone?久不久就有人發表文章，說現代人都用電腦手機，都不會寫字了。而且電腦字體的流行，讓人廉價使用。街上原本很美的手寫字招牌，一下子被呆板的電腦字體所取代。 我們不能逆轉電子產品的普及應用，但可把東西改進，讓它更適合我們。我們在軟件上努力，做出Expresii 水墨書法軟件，讓大家可以更好的在電子時代，承傳並發展中國書法和水墨畫。其實，電腦上也可以手寫字啊！ In the Chinese community, we regularly see complaints about new gadgets making our younger generation forgetting how to write with their hands. The rise of computer fonts also turned beautiful calligraphic signs into unimpressive 'computer-font' ones in our city . All these new gadgets seem to take away our cultural heritage. Gadgets only get more popular and we can't revert that. But what we can do is to build new tools to go with them so that we can breathe new life into our culture. In Expresii, we're actually making digital art organic to a whole new level - in response to existing paint programs making brush strokes that are so sterile. |  Old neon vs New LED sign (Macau 2014) |
 Wu GuanZhong (吳冠中) 1919-2010 | To Keep Tradition Alive = To Bring In New Life保留傳統，只有發展才能保留，不發展就不可能保留。 - 吳冠中 以上是已故著名畫家吳冠中的一句話，語出這裡。我把它翻譯成：To Keep Tradition Alive = To Bring In New Life。華人都很講‘傳統’，但真的，‘傳統’不是死的，而是需要我們去繼續發展下去的。希望大家不要抗拒新發展。新發展是難的，方向也不一定對。如果大家對我們的發展有什麼看法，歡迎指正。在此也僅希望從事教育的朋友，或者關心傳統的朋友，如果覺得我們做的事情是對的，請給予支持，幫忙廣傳。感謝！ I can't emphasize enough the importance of new development. If you think what we do with Expresii is worthwhile, please help spread the word. Thank you! Further on the pros and cons of digital painting: Why go digital? |
RSS Feed
