The Future of Digital Art
Notes and commentary from exclusive fireside chat with Rob Anders, Steven Sacks, and Ersin Han Ersin during Digital Art Week in London. Brought to you from my Meta to yours:)
To mark the end of Digital Art Week, I had the pleasure of sitting down for an exclusive fireside chat with Rob Anders (CEO of Niio Art- one of the world’s leading digital art platforms), and Steven Sacks, Founder of bitforms gallery, one of the top digital and new media art galleries from NYC, to discuss the future of digital art.
The event was held at Ideaworks in London, which sported a remarkable £250K worth screen that showcased works by digital artists Marina Zurkow, Jim Schmitz, Quayola, Refik Anadol, Claudia Hart, Jonathan Monaghan, and guest speakers Marshmallow Laser Feast- to name a few. Aisha Ahamed and I were especially blown away by the live-feed generative art by Marina Zurkow & James Schmitz, as well as Monaghan’s digital surrealist, rendered book piece- focusing on the whole concept of Big Brother, capitalist, and corporate identities.
Jonathan Monaghan Rendered Piece
The hour-long chat was a refreshing alternative from other panels I’d attended as this one was hosted in the small, intimate downstairs room of Ideaworks and most people- like myself- were sitting on the floor. Being in such a space with some of the greatest innovators and artists in the digital art industry was very inspiring to me, and only increased my fascination with the subject. In this commentary I have compiled some of the major points discussed and that I found most relevant.
Ownership, Preservation, and Safeguarding of Digital Artworks:
One of the biggest challenges in the digital art world lies in the safeguarding of the product. In a traditional format e.g. a Picasso painting, there is a tangible value in the artwork that when the owner passes could be inherited by the family and then generation to generation- value wouldn’t decrease. There would also be a paper certificate (its own form of tangibility) that showcases the collector as the one and true owner. However, with the progression of digital, its intangibility has been labeled as a controversial- and perhaps disconcerting medium to purchase. Sacks mentioned the following distractions of NFTs that shook the art world in 2021- creating a kind of ironic meme of its value online (in my opinion mostly due to people’s lack of understanding mixed with the medium’s ‘newness’). “But I think when we’re talking about digital”, Anders reasons, “one of the key things is that the artwork itself is essentially a digital asset.” On one hand, there is the artistic story and symbolic meaning conveyed from the artist’s interpretation/message of a topic, while on the other its a file- “almost like a digital diamond”- that can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars and pass the million dollar threshold.
So both artists and collectors alike ask themselves-
how can I make sure the value of this artwork is protected, preserved, and be the real owner?
What Niio has accomplished in this respect since its start in 2013 is to run a series of DNA tests on the ‘up to 1000gig uncompressed files’ sent in by the artists, so they know exactly its true capabilities and definition. They then put that into storage where they create HD, 4K, H.264, and H.265 copies of the work (with the artists' permission) so in the event that technology advances, it can still be played without ever contacting the other gallery or the artists again. This answers for protection and preservation factors, but regarding ownership- that tends to fall within the cyber-ether limits of blockchain that record transactional changes like loaned, bought, change of ownership etc. The blockchain data attached to the piece would act as its own type of digital certificate but goes a step further as it can recount the history of said transactional changes.
Generative AI Art:
Marina Zurkow + James Schmitz Collaboration
The New Media Collector Hustle
New media artists Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz created an animated generative piece of bespoke software called ‘The Breath Eaters’, which used near-real-time data collected from sources like NASA to visualize particulate pollution and make a statement on the pervasive effects of human activity. An artificial intelligence (AI) globe, modeled after maps from World War II, gave the impression of air pollution all across the planet in real-time. It did this by simulating emissions from fossil fuel plants, smoke from wildfires, and the free movement of these materials over land and sea. The artists called attention to the transnationalism of pollution and urged viewers to take global action in a world limited by national borders. This work, Sacks describes as he looks at the screen admiringly, is particularly sensitive to ecology, the environment, climate change, and “every single minute is changing based on the data that its getting fed”. “Generative work in general,” he continues, “does require more responsibility of the collector” due to the large amount of the data it holds to run. To him, this is one of the most intriguing and unusual parts of such an advancement in the history of art, because such collectors would have to put in financial effort and energy to live with a work that is forever changing. As the “OG father of digital art”, he reflects on how controversial such a medium/approach was when he started versus its rising popularity in present times and marveled at what he considered a major shift in how the world can experience art.
Rob Anders with ‘The Breath Eaters’
Invisible Data
Refik Anadol once told Anders, “There’s so much data, it’s just invisible, it never gets seen.” One of the motivators for generative new media artists like Anadol is to showcase- in a visual aesthetic manner- datasets that change/move the world behind the scenes. An example he gave was Hurricane Katrina in America which was a disastrous globally-broadcast event that ‘created so much damage and pain to so many people’. And the data for that event, relayed Anders, existed as meteorological wind patterns which an artist can create software for, take that meaningful data and turn it into ‘something which has a visual aesthetic- but has a story behind it which is very powerful’. Sacks agreed and mentioned that these influential moments with tech-enabled art can be perceived in a more literal and abstract way which to me is an incredibly intriguing approach to discussing and observing subjects occurring in the world.
Marshmallow Laser Feast: Beyond the Senses
Artist and Director of the London-based experiential studio, Ersin Han Ersin, comes on stage with an excited look and an (extremely) sharp-trimmed beard. He begins by saying that one of the running themes of the studio is what they call ‘the world beyond the limits of your senses’.
“So as a human,” he says “what you can experience is often limited by your physiological makeup. So our eyes see RGB, our skin only feels particular frequencies of surfaces, there’s a temperature range… so the reality of what we see is very limited.” The artists in Marshmallow try to find opportunities for exploration in every physical deficit the human body has and explore this theme.
One of the works presented to us was called “In the Eyes of the Animal”, which is an evolving work exploring the theme of umwelt- a term coined in the 1900s defined as analyzing physiological features of different species, and understanding how they perceive reality, therefore how the world of one is completely different from another. Ersin (I could be saying his last or his first name, you’ll never know), gave 4 different animal examples from Grizedale Forest (North UK) that the team scanned using LIDAR scanners: a mosquito, a dragonfly, a frog, and an owl. The LIDAR is essentially an architectural tool that “looks like a toaster”(Ersin) and shoots lasers “which we love” that scan volumetric information. Marshmallow worked with scientists from Salford University and The Natural History Museum to determine what it would look like to see through the eyes of a mosquito ex. and see CO2 in a forest at nighttime. What we as the audience saw was bright moving dots in vertical cylinders creating a skeletal structure of a large all-consuming forest. Through the mosquito’s eyes, we experienced a lack of photosynthesis and the active flora production of carbon dioxide. Ersin does mention that since “no one has ever had a conversation with a mosquito to really understand how they see”, this viewpoint is wildly speculative yet still grounded in science thanks to their discussions, research, and interviews with experts that bring Marshmallow to certain points where they take artistic license for such visualizations. With the dragonfly view, we saw similar structures but were exposed to a vision that experienced infrared, ultraviolet, and 300 frames per second (10x the speed of average human vision).
This brings me to a mini section that moves to a more spiritual side/view presented by Ersin.
The concept of resonating with nature and expanding the sense of self are topics that I have felt more attached to the more I’ve matured, and finding forms of visualization and such conversations is wildly exciting.
Sense of Self: As Taught by Trees and Frogs
“So how do you translate some of those magical processes inaccessible to the naked eye into human perception that expands your sense of self to include these weird creatures often seen as external”? (Ersin Han Ersin, 2024)
Such a question led Ersin and his team to go through the food chain by choosing a Frog and discovering that when they ribbit they pulse, which echoes back into their body and echolocation occurs. This is one of the lines of inquiry that led to the awe-inducing research I was lucky enough to experience (you can too!).
Another line of inquiry, Ersin says, was exploring the invisible part of the world where any of us would take anywhere between 17,000 to 30,000 breaths per day and determining a third of them come from trees- every third breath you take. By recognizing the intimate and incredible connections we as respiratory mammals have with trees, their work is about creating moments with audiences by evoking that sensation of extending your sense of self, to include another species- and still feel an emotional connection with it. These pieces were conceived as virtual reality experiences which then expanded into video additions and immersive pieces- so they had to begin from a real-time computing perspective that simulated every moment at any given time. I was shocked when he said that what that logistically required a few years ago storage-wise was a massive tower. Now they just took a tiny machine. Mind blown by fast-paced tech evolution.
Mosquito View Immersive Experience
Dragonfly Immersive View Experience
He did note the difficulties of preserving such a large data set, of course. But to that along with whether or not he thinks such pieces are still going to work successfully in the market or not in 10 years, Ersin states that “mastering change is almost more important than mastering the medium itself”. I think that this is such an innovative outlook for working with new mediums. As a GenZ I can constantly experience barriers of traditional norms coming down with each advancement, and society has been experiencing a great acceleration since the beginning of the Internet. I believe ‘mastering change’ is the only way to progress and ride the wave during this turbulent and explorative time.
Medium of the Generation/ (Wo)Man of the Meta
“It is a medium that is going to be the most important this generation. I think there's a fine balance between how technology enables this medium, as opposed to technology leading this medium.” (Rob Anders, 2024)
The average demographic of the collector has changed. GenZ and following generations have assimilated enough to not distinguish a different matter of inherent value whether its digital or physical. Anders says that he is not surprised, and implies a cyclical sort of pattern when describing the process of cultural evolution. He says, “When you start moving digital, you immediately have a gold rush in the Wild West, and everyone loves the Wild West until you get shot. And then, everything crashes and Wall Street says it's a fad. And then over 10-15 years, you start seeing a more mature evolution.” I agree because I do believe that in the world we live in today, where everything is going digital—from banking to healthcare—owning digital assets and having a digital wallet that contains everything will be a part of it, whether it's a decentralized, centralized, or hybrid system. A likely factor is the greater allocation of resources to innovation and technology development but also the increased awareness and connections built in online communities.
“We have a global audience ready to experience, even needs to experience art,” says Anders “and digital is the medium which can actually reach the broadest possible audience because we’re so screen-based.” The increase of the digital in our lives however also influence our need of the human touch. Therefore, I predict that people will always desire physical objects (as well), or there will be 3D printing- which is digital. And that's improving because in the not-so-distant future, we'll be able to work with the artist in their studio or through a service that allows for taking still images from the digital world e.g. Marshmallow's immersive experience, and say, "Oh, I love that. I like that red colour very much what we saw with the dragonfly. And I want that particular frame. I want it to be produced in a huge painting that size."
From our perspective we need to be artists first. We need to be artist-centric. As developments continue accelerating our society and speed of consciousness, our approaches to life and art will become more exploratory regardless of where we stand with the ‘artist’ title. One semi-recent example is the introduction of prompt-to-image generators like Midjourney, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, which due to their relative easiness have made people who’ve never even considered themselves as artistic try a new creative medium. Another type of accessibility caused by digital transformation is giving people access to curated high-quality art on a subscription fee and has a great interest for both commercial and private spaces. In fashion for instance and physical public locations like hotel brands, it’s becoming a bigger trend for brands to become the patrons of the artwork as a way to gain more brand loyalty or to ‘ride the wave’.
It’s safe to say that AI will be an integral part of the future, and has already become quite obvious as a fast-growing creative tool.
“Digital is going to be, in my opinion, the medium of this generation, it reflects it because art always tells the story of the world we live in, and artists always create with whatever tools they have access to,” says Anders in a closing statement. For the massive screen filling the entire front wall, Sacks said he thinks that “as the price points come down on this type of thing, it will continue.” He made an important note about how he believes the integration of the digital into the physical world is essential but equally so to not forget the past, because history is just as essential for progress.