Digital Photography and the Shifting Edifice for Visual Experience

ABSTRACT

From the earliest days of desktop computing to the present, digital technology has afforded a constant and ubiquitous shift in the visual dialog between artists and their audience. This paper explores the affordances and constraints of new media technology. It shifts our view from the tension between culture and objects and looks instead at the expanding role of agency and purpose in culture. The views of Lev Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist and Kenneth Burke, an American literary critic help to frame the discussion of the cultural consequences of new digital art.

"So, what makes a good digital artwork? First of all it has to match the color of the upholstery in the reception area. If it don’t match, change it." -FATIMA LASAY