John Antoine Labadie Experiments In Digital Art: 1998 – 1999 Volume #2

Experiments In Digital Art

Digital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process. Since the 1970s various names have been used to describe the process. Digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella term new media art.

The digital images included here come from the electronic sketchbook of the digital artwork I kept from 1998 –1999. Most of these images represent the steps taken as I worked my way through new versions of software in the digital studios where I was teaching “computer graphics” at the time. Having been trained as a painter my inclinations toward using digital tools at odds with my commercially focused colleagues in the southeastern region of North Carolina where I had, in 1994, moved to take a professorship focused on building a “computer graphics” facility. The “fine art” studio people in the southeastern region of the USA at that time were generally not interested in looking at, or talking about, artwork made using digital tools. I quickly located individuals and small groups of more adventurous colleagues through inquiries on the Internet. Artists in Russia, Australia, England, Argentina, Canada and numerous other countries and regions of the USA quickly became friends who shared their work with me. And I shared mine with them. Conversations moved online and exhibitions began to happen as often on webpages as they did in galleries. Many of the friendships, collaborations and networks that were established in the mid to late 1990’s have lasted to this day. I think the works included in this document say something about the spirit of experimentation of the time.

JAL 3 October 2012Professor of Art, Art DepartmentUniversity of North Carolina Pembroke

John Antoine LabadieExperiments In Digital: 1998 -1999 Art Volume #2

What is a digital artist?

More generally the term digital artist is used to describe an artist who makes creative use of digital technologies in the production of artworks. In an expanded sense, "digital art" is a term applied to the work of a contemporary artist who uses the tools of mass production or commercial or industrial digital media or technologies.

John Antoine Labadie

Experiments In Digital Art: 1998 – 1999 Volume #2johnantoinelabadie@gmail.com

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