NMA 2050

The chapter “Digital Technologies as a Tool” introduces a variety of talented artists who made numerous contributions to the art scene through their amazing work. The artist Joseph Nechvatal, responsible for the piece “birth Of the viractual” (2001) particularly captured my attention and encouraged me to find out more background information about the artist and his incredible body of artwork.

Joseph Nechvatal is an artist born in Chicago, who studied fine art and philosophy in schools such as: Columbia University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Cornell University and showed his artwork in cities such as: New York City, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tuin or Munich.

One of his most significant contribution to the art world was helping develop and shape the concept of viractualism in 1999. According to the website ctheory.net, Viractualism, which is also known as viractuality, stands for creating an interface between the biological and virtual world which can be compared to the concept of augmented reality frequently used in the military world. Viractualism is an important element of the art trend where artists started to utilize computer technology when creating art pieces.

In Joseph Nechvatal’s artwork „birth Of the virtual (2001), the artist focuses on technology as a major method to create it. Utilizing this method allows him to create certain impressive effects, which would be extremely hard, if not impossible, to achieve by using traditional methods. The artist uses computer technology in order to create the effects of opacity, in addition to cloning certain elements of the art piece. The effects utilized by the artist make the piece look very modern. In addition, I also like the name of the artwork, because the title indeed symbolizes the actual „birth” of the concept of viractualism. Whether it was accidental or intentional word play, I find it very suitable for the artwork.