The Internets Impact on Traditional Genres of Art :: Technology Computers Essays

The Internet's Impact on Traditional Genres of Art Data technology and computers are without a doubt already playing a major role in very many peoples’ lives and will probably do so far into the future. Every single day the little power-up sequence of turning a computer on happens millions of times all over the world, and is commonly more and more often followed by making the computer â€Å"go online† via the Internet and the World Wide Web. â€Å"In a few years men will be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face to face.† (Mayer 1999, p14). This dramatic statement is from an article written by two computer visionaries; Licklider and Robert Taylor as far back as in 1968. They realized in the 1960’s that people weren’t satisfied with just interacting with their computers. They wanted to use their computers to interact with other people. The rise of the personal computer by Apple and IBM introduced the rest of the world to computing. In the 1980’s PCs became a common fi xture in homes and offices, and the Internet and the World Wide Web started to kick of. People were using their computers as Licklider and Taylor had prophesized, as a medium to interact with other people. Today computers are - next to telephones and face-to-face conversations - without a doubt the most used medium for communication in industrialized countries. People send enormous amounts of emails every day, videoconferencing is getting more and more common and online chatting rooms and discussion forums are becoming increasingly more popular. Actually, according to www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm the amount of internet users worldwide 1st of September 2004, was as many as 800,040,498, as opposed to â€Å"only† 360,971,012 in 2000. A growth of no less than 121.6 %. So how is this impacting on traditional genres of art? As mentioned above the Internet is a very fast growing medium, also for interaction between people. This relatively new medium has not only created a lot of new types of occupations and businesses, it has also in many ways altered a number of the existing ones. This also applies within the field of art. As art has traditionally been thought of as something one can touch or view up close, like a painting or a sculpture, some find it hard to accept digital art to be a proper form of art. But as Shawn Olson – a former photojournalist and now the author of â€Å"Artistic Network creative arts† on the web - states; â€Å"I've heard people say that technology lessens the value of art.