Computer Technology in Art (Venice Biennale 2019)

Abstract

Computer technology has penetrated all spheres of human life and firmly settled in fine art, music, and theater. Research that is presented in this article is aimed at analysis of the digital and multimedia technology used in creations by the video and media artists shown at the 2019 Biennale. The main objective stated by the authors is to trace the inner trends in visual arts developed due to the new possibilities both substantially and formally. Though the tendency of art digitalization was traced long enough the Venice Biennale has not yet been studied from this point of view while its importance is hard to overestimate. This research is based upon analysis of more than 200 artistic works with the use of a multidisciplinary approach to investigate computer technology in art as a complicated social phenomenon in the sociology of culture and communication. Authors suggest a classifying of multimedia technology used in the context of meaning and according to growing complexity: background/comments, space widening, attaching other meanings to an art object, immersion of the spectator into the video flow. Thus authors underline an influence of technological progress on the artistic thought leading to the creation of the total environment surrounding spectators and involving them into a certain kind of a new reality.