DEMOCRATIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY: CONTEMPORARY ENCODERS

Abstract

The following paper aims to reflect on the role of the figure of the contemporary creator in the current setting of digital art. Our journey starts with a possible approach to the cartography of digital art, examining the possibilities offered by the use of the computer as a ‘universal machine’ in the field of creation. For this purpose, bibliographic sources from the last two decades of technological development have been reviewed, contrasting them with testimonies from contemporary artists. We ponder how the progressive democratization of creative tools, added to the leveling effect induced by the use of increasingly advanced technology, could have led to the blurring of the boundary between the creator-encoder and the viewer-receiver, making it possible for new topics to reach the digital medium. Drawing on notions of semiothic, the communicative function of the work of art is then highlighted, pointing out how the instantaneity linked to the Internet would have favored the expansion of the digital image as a vehicle for communication.  Finnaly, we refer to the emergence of the ‘user’ (linked to the cybernetic model of communication) as a contemporary receiver: a receiver who demands an ever-increasing participation and interactivity. A circumstance which, according to most authors, seems to make it necessary to look for new communication strategies. And which would be leading to the development of a new aesthetic.