Am I the only artist who hates computers?
July 4, 2007
Computers are a rather technical subject (tell me you hadn’t noticed that already!) and technical subjects, by their nature, are somewhat difficult to fit into a particular mold, particularly molds artists might be interested in.
As a long-time computerist with a fondness for the arts, I have always been interested in how computers have affected the arts. And as a person wanting to pass on what I know, I write using a computer (Uh-oh - I am a writer!). I have used Computer Aided Design (CAD) software to design rooms for my use (a form of architecture). I also do things involving the arts as a consumer.
Do artists use computers differently?
There are areas where computers have definitely affected both artists and the current culture and civilization. Since most artists have had to bring computers (as in those boxes on or under our desks) into their lives, most future columns will delve more into how computers can directly affect artists, in their work, their daily life and their play. But occasionally I will mention other areas in our daily lives where computers play a big part.
The State of Computing in our Culture & Civilization
Simplistically, let’s look at the general changes in our culture from computers and then see how some of those have affected artists.
Paranoid view:
“Computers have enhanced the ability of governments to track us down to get more tax money from us and to spy on what we are doing!”
Unwilling-to-change view:
“Computers don’t give me anything the phone, TV and letters don’t do better.”
Old-Fashioned Fine Artist’s view:
“What do I need a computer for – I use a brush on canvas.”
Young Fine Artist’s view:
“The newer computer painting programs help me produce a fine painting faster than I could before, particularly when I don’t like something and decide to change it. And then they can produce an original print right there at my desk. Or I can email a copy instantly to a client.”
Old-Fashioned Sound-Man’s view:
“I just learned how to tweak all those tubes and then transistors to get the sound I want. Why should I now learn computers too?”
Young Sound-Man’s view:
“Wow! I can have an entire recording studio (except the actual studio room itself) in a laptop, with an extra box or two for mikes and cables. This will fit into the trunk of my car! I can do heavy-duty multi-track recording anywhere!”
So how do computers affect the artist?
As you can see, there can be a lot of points of view about computers. Age is a big factor. So how do computers affect you, the artist? In terms of the basics, about that same way as most computers affect everyone!
Artist Alert! – Unless you live and work in a remote location, you are already surrounded by computers! And, if you get electrical power from the grid, that is controlled by computers, too. Almost everyone has a cell phone now. Computers are in the cell phones to run them, in the towers to pass on the calls, in the switching stations to send the calls either to the towers or to a land line and also to bill all of this correctly (hey, if there is no way for someone to make a buck, there will usually be no cell-phone service – and only computers can do this cheaply and quickly enough).
Almost every car now (since the mid-70’s or so) has a computer in it. No longer do hotrodders have to spend a fortune on a set of headers and get dirty installing them (well, you can still do that, afterwards) – they can buy a power chip which makes the car’s computer run a program slanted toward more horsepower instead of utmost-economy, or least-air-pollution, or …
The government has lots of computers with tax software to track you down better and make you pay all you owe. As a balance, you can get inexpensive tax software to help you get back every penny the tax code legally permits. And the tax software (and possibly the computer) is tax deductible too.
And almost every artist has a CD player and a DVD player. Both have little computers in them to convert the digital signals on the disk to either sound and/or video images.
There are MANY other parts of our lives where computers have invaded, unnoticed. Almost every professional artist is in the business of using his/her art and selling it. So a computer and an accounting program are probably being used, as well as email. And you probably never play computer games, right?
Computers and the Arts
But what about actual computer use in the arts?
Making music
Probably the earliest real use of computers in the arts (in the 60’s) was the use of analog computers to produce music. Synthesizers were at first based upon analog computer parts and then digital computer parts to produce notes, then beats, etc. The audio signals were still recorded onto tape by analog methods. The entire process took up several rooms of equipment.
Then came sound production tools that used analog and then digital computers to shape the sound during production, still recorded in analog audio signals via analog recorders. In the early 80’s personal computers started being used in the studio (often home studios) to produce sounds and then modify those sounds during production (also sometimes in concert and also during song production in the studio). Sometimes the entire home recording system fed into that computer, so the computer age came to artistic medium of audio first. The playback medium used by consumers was still based upon analog technologies. It still took several rooms to do all the production processing, etc. at a standard studio.
Then came CDs where analog sounds are transferred during final production stages onto a digital medium for final consumer use from that digital medium (the Compact Disc), even though the recording chain before that might still be all analog. This technical advance was done to preserve the quality of the music (CDs don’t get noisier with each use, unlike records or cassettes) and to save space, since CDs are a lot smaller than records.
Next came video recording technologies that take an analog audio or video source signal and convert that into a digital recording immediately. These original digital signals are used because they don’t degrade over time, as analog recordings can. This was combined with the then well-developed digital computer-based sound-shaping tools to create original digital recordings for later digital production actions. Recording equipment could now fit into a large tractor-trailer.
When all of this started going straight to a large hard drive on a fast digital computer, there was no longer a need for much of the electronics of a studio – you could just take all of your digital or analog audio sources and run them straight into a computer and let it record everything.
Now one of the major makers of chips for personal computers, AMD, has a computer system which is about the size of a picnic basket and replaces an entire tractor trailer full of shaping electronics, recorders, sound boards, etc. with a commensurate reduction in price. This has moved production power from the studio to the artist!
Benefits
The benefits of the computer in music have been to reduce costs and variability in recording, production (and to even make some effects possible) and playback and to make retention of the actual source material possible (not just the original tape copy which physically deteriorates over time). Manpower has also been reduced and technical production expertise at least somewhat replaced by the computer as a part of the steps taken to reduce variability in the process. One result has been increasingly good technical production, thereby giving the artist more power at lower costs. And you can publish at home too.
What hasn’t changed?
It still takes a technically proficient artist to create the music. A good lyricist is still needed for words and a good songwriter is necessary for that catchy tune. And bad songwriting or lyrics still cannot be fixed (only hidden some) by excellent production.
Video production
Early video was all analog parts. Due to the immense amount of data involved in a video signal (about 500 times what is needed for audio), technical difficulties forced an early look at digital signals (and the computers involved with that). The problem was that computers weren’t fast enough to handle all of the data of a video signal in “real-time”.
But, for movie production, digital signals created in slower-than-real-time by computers were being used in the 70’s to put things on screen that did not exist in real life (anyone remember that quaint little movie “Star Wars” and its computer-generated special effects?). Once it was shown that special effects could be created by computer during show production, even if not in real-time, the move to digital was on. In fact, the special effects of “Star Wars” often had to be “softened” by analog techniques because the digital effects were in better focus than the rest of the movie.
Now anyone with a powerful desktop computer can create his or her own movies. This was done over ten years ago (not in real-time but in slower “production time”) in the “Babylon 5” TV series by multiple, linked together, then 5-year-old Amiga computers. Mostly exterior space scene “shots” came from these computers.
But technology advances apace. For a more recent example, look up “405: The Movie” on the web and realize that this was the product of two film-school students several years ago on their home computers. And now you can do this too… (see “Revelations”, a recent Star Wars fan film).
Benefits
The benefits of the computer in video have also been to reduce variability in recording, production (and much more so – to make some effects possible) and playback and to make retention of the actual source materials possible (not just the original copy which deteriorates over time and can be VERY flammable).
Production time and manpower has also been reduced and technical expertise at least somewhat replaced by the computer as a part of the steps taken to reduce variability in the process. Personal computer software has made possible things never before available except to major studios. One result has been increasing technically good production afforded to the small-time artists. Refer to “405: The Movie” or even the new Star Wars fan movie “Revelations” from Panic Struck Productions. And you can video from your home office now – it no longer takes an entire huge studio!
What hasn’t changed?
It still takes a technically proficient actor to get his/her character’s emotions across to the viewer, a director with a clear understanding of his audience’s desires and the skill to create that using production tools, and production personnel able to skillfully produce the desired product. A good screenwriter is still needed for material that will involve the viewers. Improved production technology only takes the production techniques variable out of the “picture” (as it were). This is a major increase in artist technical production capability.
Photography…
Anything you can do to a moving picture can be done to a still picture. Computer enhancement of photos started back in the sixties and I was involved in an exciting project to take photos from satellites in space and process them (not in real-time) on personal computers back in the late seventies. Before that, this was a job done on huge computers.
The initial artistic act of composing the photograph is still just as necessary.
Even ten years ago you could make a person in a photo slimmer or taller, change their complexion or hair color, add or subtract things from the foreground, midground or background, etc. on your personal computer using then-current software. This is common technology in all ad agencies now to make a photo shoot appear to have occurred anywhere on (or off) the planet. Probably most fine artists have had to deal with this type of software over the last ten years, since a lot of work comes to them from ad agencies or their ilk and is to be delivered on digital media.
Benefits
The tricky technical proficiency in the darkroom has been replaced with a much less demanding technical skill at using your computer and the photo enhancement software. Production time/manpower has also been reduced and production variability is reduced or eliminated. The photographer can now totally operate out of a suitcase, including the photo printer.
What hasn’t changed?
It still takes a technically proficient photographer, with a clear understanding of how to create the desired emotional effects with his photos, to get a good photo. Everything else just greases the production path.
Fine Art…
Fine art has been done pretty much the same way for years (and has not been replaced by photography) to enable an artist to use paint on a medium and depict a scene and create a specific emotional effect. This area of art remained little changed from the 1300’s until just recently (last ten years or so except for prior “graphics” – as separate from “art”).
Now the fine artist can do the entire production on a computer to create the same effect. Initial line drawings might be made on paper (or taken from a photograph – just as with a “real” painting) and then digitized as the basis for the remainder of the “painting”. This same step is usually done by the fine artist on a “real” painting, so the technology has changed but the process has not.
The real difference is that software tools are available to enable rapid fill-in of apparent texture and slight color changes. A good computer-based artist can do the technically unchallenging portion of broad area fill-in much faster than before. And mistakes can be much more easily fixed digitally. But it still takes the artist’s eye to see and artist’s talent to render the fine details that add the emotion to the piece to create the desired emotional effect in the viewer.
Benefits
The benefits of the computer in fine art has been to make it possible to generate technically good fine art faster and with great reproducibility (art goes straight to the print, instead of all the time spent on making a painted “master”. Mistakes can be undone more quickly. And you don’t need a special artist’s studio to do most things, as was needed before. You also don’t need to spend years perfecting your brush techniques or to worry about whether that particular brand of paint will change color over the years the wrong way, since replacement prints can be readily available.
What hasn’t changed?
It still takes a fine artist’s “eye” to see the emotion in the art and to verify the artist has put that into the computer “fine art”. Some technical training on how the old-time artists created some of these special effects in their paintings is still needed. It still takes an artist to make the painting, despite all the technical help the computer may give.
Other Fields of Art…
There are other fields of art and the computer can be useful in most to assist in the technical production of that art. But the single things that is constant is that you must be an artist FIRST in order to produce art, regardless whether a computer or manual tools are used to assist in any way or not.
There is no lesser need for artistic talent just because more computerized production help is available. The computer just makes it easier to produce bad art faster. In fact, that alone will help creation of more bad art since more people who were held back previously from producing “art” no longer are blocked by the technical production problems.
But enough of this.
How do computers help the artist in other areas?
In the past artists had developed all sorts of methods of protecting their arts from destruction of one sort or another, usually something different for each field of art. Now, regardless of the type of art the artist produces, artists often save copies, sometimes the only copy, of their art on a computer.
Since there is often just a single tool being used to save copies of art – the computer – all artists need to know how to save copies of that computer version of their art. That will be a portion of each article in my future columns. The techniques developed over the last fifty years to protect business data on computers works equally as well for artist’s data. I will give you different methods and tell you what is easy, what is cheap and what is best from a particular need or point of view. Usually, you get at most two out of the three of those in a backup solution.
Don’t hesitate to write me about any concern you have in using a computer. I will try to help in my columns. This monthly column is for your benefit, not mine, so let me know your concerns.
And, after reading about all that serious “protect yourself…” stuff, artists need to play. So I will also have something fun about computers in each column too. Hit me up on questions in that area too.
Looking forward to next time. The Computer Doctor is now OUT!
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