The present age may enter into history as the age of communication
~ certainly its most striking and unique feature. Our means of
communicating today were unimaginable even a few decades ago
and hopefully we will all continue to learn how to use these
means more skillfully in the Buddhist sense of the word. The
amount of information available to us is mind staggering and
the challenges of finding and discriminating relevant information
increase daily.
Deciphering and/or understanding information is yet another
challenge and in the midst of all this, digital art appears and
begins to play a key role. Digital art is produced with computer
hardware and appropriate software and thus has become free from
the basic limitations of traditional artwork. Technology aids
people around the world to access and express their own creativity
in a playful and comparatively easy way. Digital art does not
exist in the usual way, which I find very exciting. The 'sacred
original' of a digital artwork for example, is a digital file
that can be exactly reproduced ('cloned' if you like) but comes
into physical existence only through a separate printing process.
In a sense, the artist produces code for a piece of art that
can be born into this world but can also stay in potential form
in cyber space which, by the way, saves valuable resources. Its
visibility on the computer screen is an illusion, not more but
also not less, and so is our own existence.
Digital artwork breaks all language barriers and can be exchanged
via the internet quite literally at the speed of light, reaching
hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world simultaneously.
Thus, insights and outsides are shared in an effort to get to
know each other, to understand and cherish each other, to love
each other for our differences, to unite as a human race, to
come and stay in touch, to live in peace on this planet we all
call our home. In this way we can develop the idea and feeling
of belonging not just to a particular family, race, village or
country, but of belonging to one planet, of belonging to one
universe.
And then we may step beyond ~transcend~ this notion too and
awake to the ancient truth that we all are one and the same unlimited
consciousness.
The EHCC (East Hawaii Cultural Center) Cyberart Exhibition
in Hawaii has in more than one way become the manifest signal
of this global contact. 24 artists from 21 countries come together
in one show at a time when large areas of our world were and
still are in turmoil and focus on separation and individual self-interest
and concern rather than love, understanding and peace. This exhibition
has become very successful and a digital art surftour is being
offered at the second web URL listed below this article, which
leads people through the jungle of cyberspace from one precious
artist to another, who together shine like a string of lights
that wraps around the planet ~ from Brazil to India, Denmark
to Cuba, Australia to Russia, Spain to the USA, Holland to Mexico,
Germany to South Korea, Sweden to Italy, Japan to Switzerland,
Finland to Uruguay, Jamaica to Yugoslavia and Canada. In addition,
local exhibitions in various countries anchor the digital files
in physical reality and make them accessible on this level too.
We all know that art can say more than a million words and now
with digital art and the internet we can speak and listen to
and get to know each other all over the world in an easy, non
threatening and enjoyable way.
And one more time we may realize that we all are far more
alike than different.
