>Key words:
compumorphic art, art history and theory, transdisciplinary image
>Introduction
>In this paper I posit the idea that the term ‘compumorphic art’ can be used to describe an
emergent collection of artists and artworks that reference the digital computer for creative
stimulus, cultural commentary and aesthetic composition. The term compumorphic art can
be thought of as a useful placeholder to describe the relationship between material art and
inanimate/digital content in the context of the 21st Century technological/artistic
experience. Furthermore, I will propose that compumorphic artworks may refer to not only
the visual aesthetic of the digital computer, but often reflect or question the emotion values
and ontological qualities we commonly assign to computing technologies. However, the
rubric of compumorphic art is by no means resolved - in the provision of a definitive list of
artists or artworks. With this in mind I will be describing two recent examples of my own art
practice that sit under this term. The works described are concerned with the
reconceptualisation of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), by reimagining computer
desktop icons in material and hybrid media art forms.
>Biomorphism and antecedent movements to compumorphic art.
>There is an obvious and enduring tradition in human culture to reference the world around
us. This is often undertaken as a means for communicating ideas, and accrediting notions
of power, ritual and meaning, in an ongoing expression of the relationship between people
and the places they inhabit (Feuerstein 2002:7). The term Biomorphism was coined in the
1930’s to describe the work of a collection of artists and sculptors who referenced the
organic forms of nature in their artwork. This loosely formed collection included artists such
as Barbara Hepworth, Joan Miró, Jean Arp and Henry Moore. The creative referencing of
nature seen in the work of these artists frequently went beyond a simple retracing of
organic shapes, and through abstraction, often explored the visual characteristics and
forms associated with the organic (TATE 2011). We can still see this application of
abstracted natural, curvilinear forms occurring in many of the architectural, industrial and
product design artifacts of today.
>Around the same time the work of artists from the Futurist and Vorticism movements
presented an alternative response to early 20th Century environs. Rejecting the natural
form, these art movements were more concerned with the impact of the machine age on
society and with visualising the speed of modern urban living (Lynton 1981:97). Together
with the later ‘machinic’ forms and affordances of Paolozzi’s sculptural works from the
1940s, these creative works can be seen as forerunners to the notion of compumorphic
art, in formal if not political terms. They represented a creative response to the technology
of their times, demonstrating how the relationship between technology and society could
be considered as an appropriate subject matter for artistic works.
https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Sculpture-file-garden/391790/...
http://arts.siggraph.org/siggraph2011/artists/IanGwilt.html
https://www.academia.edu/524626/Compumorphic_Art_-_The_Compu...
>Compumorphic Art - The Computer as Muse
>Dr Ian Gwilt Sheffield Hallam University
>Key words: compumorphic art, art history and theory, transdisciplinary image
>Introduction
>In this paper I posit the idea that the term ‘compumorphic art’ can be used to describe an emergent collection of artists and artworks that reference the digital computer for creative stimulus, cultural commentary and aesthetic composition. The term compumorphic art can be thought of as a useful placeholder to describe the relationship between material art and inanimate/digital content in the context of the 21st Century technological/artistic experience. Furthermore, I will propose that compumorphic artworks may refer to not only the visual aesthetic of the digital computer, but often reflect or question the emotion values and ontological qualities we commonly assign to computing technologies. However, the rubric of compumorphic art is by no means resolved - in the provision of a definitive list of artists or artworks. With this in mind I will be describing two recent examples of my own art practice that sit under this term. The works described are concerned with the reconceptualisation of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), by reimagining computer desktop icons in material and hybrid media art forms.
>Biomorphism and antecedent movements to compumorphic art.
>There is an obvious and enduring tradition in human culture to reference the world around us. This is often undertaken as a means for communicating ideas, and accrediting notions of power, ritual and meaning, in an ongoing expression of the relationship between people and the places they inhabit (Feuerstein 2002:7). The term Biomorphism was coined in the 1930’s to describe the work of a collection of artists and sculptors who referenced the organic forms of nature in their artwork. This loosely formed collection included artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Joan Miró, Jean Arp and Henry Moore. The creative referencing of nature seen in the work of these artists frequently went beyond a simple retracing of organic shapes, and through abstraction, often explored the visual characteristics and forms associated with the organic (TATE 2011). We can still see this application of abstracted natural, curvilinear forms occurring in many of the architectural, industrial and product design artifacts of today.
>Around the same time the work of artists from the Futurist and Vorticism movements presented an alternative response to early 20th Century environs. Rejecting the natural form, these art movements were more concerned with the impact of the machine age on society and with visualising the speed of modern urban living (Lynton 1981:97). Together with the later ‘machinic’ forms and affordances of Paolozzi’s sculptural works from the 1940s, these creative works can be seen as forerunners to the notion of compumorphic art, in formal if not political terms. They represented a creative response to the technology of their times, demonstrating how the relationship between technology and society could be considered as an appropriate subject matter for artistic works.