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Art exists in all human societies, however, it varies depending on cultural difference. It records social dynamics and history. When archeologists excavate relics from an ancient culture, those artifacts are viewed as an essential feature of that culture. The art objects provide information on the social activities, values, and history of the period. Listening to what the people from a culture are saying can not be the main source to determine the value of that culture. This source is not objective , so the historians and archaeologists still need some evidence such as sculptures and painting to approve their thesis about the culture.
Contemporary art, on the other hand, must also be seen as information in order to determine its knowledge and value. It is hard for people to perceive art as information or data, the raw material that makes up information. Information is exhaustible; it is time sensitive. It is subject to decay and aging -- it becomes old and obsolete by cultural development in a very short of time. Artists are form of knowledge-workers who produce information and transform data into "information-distinguishing key aspects of disorder through the discovery and/or imposition of form." 1 The difference is artists process their creative ideas and publicly exhibit the information through their art. Not only do the artists have to be creative, but the audiences/consumers of art also -- in order to decode the information which the artists are expressing. As soon as a new technology is developed, art starts to integrate with it. Audiences expect the newest, most surprising artwork with informational value. They tend to be more critical and not so kind when viewing contemporary art by living artists than works by deceased artists. They are not interest in history. They are interested in the most recent and updated expressions of art. The best contemporary example of this is the invention of photography. When photography first was invented, audiences were not crazy about how close it was to reality. And it caused caused many realistic painters to give up their original painting style for abstractionism or other techniques. The 20th century is a volatile information era. We are facing a major change in our society a computerized society. Before computers were universal elements -- such as with the generation born in the 1940's -- using a computer was seen to be extraordinary. As soon as Internet technology was invented and the information superhighway was built, computers brought us innovative methods to absorb all kinds of information around the world. Networking is becoming a major global trend. Performance art and other kinds of art events have been introduced to the world as information via telecommunication networks. Artists need to update themselves to sustain the life of their art. Inviting audiences to collaborate in the creative process of a work may increase their participatory investment. Art is always updating and moving. "The finished work of art is a thing of the past." To maintain the "freshness" of an art, we all should absorb and release new information to keep us "up-to-the-minute." |