Art and Technology converge

In the process of my  BA (Fine Art) studies through Curtin University, a Core unit is Web Communications (WEB101).  It is this unit that has provided me with the tools, knowledge, encouragement and determination to conquer the mountain and build this website(!), and a cohesive web presence.

It is here that I have experienced the frustration, exasperation, and sheer exhilaration of that space where art and technology converge.  It is in this space that I have repeatedly had to dig deeper into my personal resources and reserves – in terms of persistence, adaptability, and creativity (thinking outside the box) – and engage in the mind-bending, back-breaking, head-splitting world of Web2.0 and its tools and technologies.  It is in this space that I have spent day after day, and night after night, pressing in towards the goal of learning to create a website that I am therefore able to administer myself – which will enable me to continuously present a current portfolio of my artwork to the world.  It is in this space where I have had to experiment and, by trial and error, combine unfamiliar elements in the hope of initiating some sort of alchemy.  And it is in this space that I have experienced elation and satisfaction and amazement as I witness what begins to unfold – something tangible, beautiful, ephemeral yet timeless… and unspeakably beyond my known capabilities.

This immersion in the World Wide Web sounds remarkably familiar, I realise as I write.  It bears close resemblance to what happens in my studio as I go about the work of being an artist, and creating paintings or sculptures, or designing exhibitions.  In the studio I have experienced free-flow, where heaven opens and creativity that transcends earthly limitations, pours forth – and the sheer exhilaration, elation, satisfaction and amazement this bears within the depths of my soul.  But I have also experienced the frustration and exasperation of the battle, where all I can do is not give up and wait with hope for the tide to turn.  Sheer persistence and determination is what is required here, digging deep into personal resources and reserves, as I stand my ground in the studio day after day, night after night, in the hope that somehow, somehow, what is created will sing and reflect glory and perhaps produce something pure and precious.  Sometimes, the end result is far from pure gold – but the learning experience always is.  And then, occasionally, the unthinkable occurs and the studio space becomes holy ground, and I experience elation and satisfaction and amazement as I witness what begins to unflold – something tangible, beautiful, ephemeral yet timeless… and unspeakably beyond my known capabilities.

This space where Art and Technology converge goes beyond merely presenting a digital version of my practice.  It is a space where Creativity manifests in a variegated form of the original.  This is true convergence – in every sense of the word.