SYMBIOSIS OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY - FROM RENAISSANCE TO INTERACTIVE ART

The article presents the mutual relations between art and technology from the Renaissance to the interactive art of today. It indicates important factors influencing the possibilities of imaging and interpreting reality by artists, ranging from the development of oil painting techniques, linear perspective, the invention of printing and photography, to achievements related to the development of information technologies (computers, interfaces), offering a range of tools to create and co-create a work of art by the recipient.The subsequent stages of the symbiosis of these two seemingly distant domains of human activity are distinguished, along with examples of their practical realizations. In this way, four basic types of mutual inspirations of art and technology were pointed out - from one-sided relations (technology as an inspiration for art and vice versa), through two-way relations (the cooperation between an artist and an engineer in creating artistic works and technical solutions), up to and including the recipient in the process of creating an artwork, opening many new possibilities for interactive art. The paper shows that the co-existence of art and technology determines new possibilities for the creative work of both artists and engineers, also in the field of architecture. In the face of progressive digitization it gives a new dimension to art providing interactivity through various interfaces which can increase also the social dimensions of art.