“While many artists use digital technology, how many really confront the question of what it means to think, see, and filter affect through the digital? How many thematize this, or reflect deeply on how we experience, and are altered by, the digitization of our existence?”
I think that undertaking this task about considering digital effects on art is subjective. One may say it’s a must and another may say it’s totally up to the artist. For e=me, it does not have to be a priority. Yes, it should be on the list but there are more important factors that should be “thematized” over this issue. I believe that an artist has the final say on what’s best and what channels best accommodate his or her work. An artist should focus more on perfecting production than distribution or other secondary factors.
“Today, no exhibition is complete without some form of bulky, obsolete technology—the gently clunking carousel of a slide projector or the whirring of an 8- mm or 16-mm film reel.”
I agree with this. Although not 100% true, this brings up the idea of using nostalgia in every exhibition to capture many people’s old-fashioned senses. It is indeed a “completing” factor that artists use to also create equilibrium in exhibitions. These obsolete technologies do remind us how far we’ve come as a society and how long the path we are still facing to trek.
“My point is that mainstream contemporary art simultaneously disavows and depends on the digital revolution, even—especially—when this art declines to speak overtly about the conditions of living in and through new media. But why is contemporary art so reluctant to describe our experience of digitized life?”
This is widely true. I do understand where Bishop is coming from and her passion for this cause to happen. I think that there’s a niche segment where this actually does occur but not very much acclaimed. This may be because artists want to avoid modern redundancy and art enthusiasts are not necessarily inclined to dig deeper into this subject of spotlighting our digitized life through contemporary art. Foe me, describing humankind’s experience of digitized life is best translated through contemporary art than any other art form. It only makes sense to use a more advanced way of artistically expressing oneself to express something timely advanced and modern. However, I see this problem of having a narrow field to work with. I comprehend that if you tackle one thread of the digitized life, wouldn’t you want to create a bigger picture and cover all the threads too? How can originality reign in this case? There are lots of issues that this path-less-taken throw to artists that are intimidating and risky for their careers. This definitely has to be done but one or only a few should claim it and get it over with. I see this as an occasional (maybe every decade) project more so than a more regular initiative.