Spatial arts of the XXI century: digital vs matter

Fedorovskaya, Natalia Alexandrovna
D.Sc. in Art History, Professor, Director of the Department of Art and Design, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia
fedorovska@mail.ru


Abstract
The main idea of the report is to consider an interesting phenomenon of conditional confrontation and, at the same time, the inseparable connection between the digital and material environment in the context of spatial / plastic arts.
For many millennia, the essential characteristic of the spatial / plastic arts (architecture, painting, graphics, sculpture, decorative art, etc.) was "materiality", "substantiality". These works are created (materialized) by the creator(s) and remain as a given in space. The materiality of art objects (while not excluding the non-material component) allowed them to exist independently of people and, even after the death of civilizations, remain available to future generations - to preserve and transmit information about the past. We can see that the temporary arts such as music for example, don't have this capability. In the conditions of the "digital turn", as it is now customary to say, a "different", new environment for the creation and presentation of art objects opens before us. Spatial arts begin a new life in the digital environment, where they are acquiring dominating, in our opinion, immaterial qualities. The digital environment is turning (transforming) the spatial arts on several levels: in the creation of artworks, when they are modeled in the 3D projections and then materialized in the real world; in the preservation and visual transmission of already created material monuments of art; but the main digital turn is seen in the creation of an autonomous spatial art of the digital environment, which allows us to talk about a complete transition to the non-material, ideal (from the point of view of philosophy) digital world. In the report, it is planned to consider, outside of philosophical discourse, the art history problem of creating, broadcasting and preserving works of art in the new conditions.

Keywords: spatial arts, plastic arts, digital environment, digital vs matter, material world, immaterial / ideal world, "digital turn"