Are Digital Artists Work Going To Be Lost??

Jason Bowen

I recently went to the National Gallery and saw some amazing paintings and drawings and sketches and I started to think afterwards in say 500 years so many artists now work digitally and with computer issues and corrupt files etc. lots of work are going to be lost... Is there going to be a lack of work for future students to learn from in the future?

jasonandroosmith

That’s something to think about! I think art will be just fine in the future. I don’t know about digital files longevity, but digital art is, or should be, just another tool in your belt. People will always use traditional mediums. No matter how cool they make the brushes in procreate, you can’t replace the feeling of putting paint on canvas, or the accomplishment that comes with it. I’m pretty new to the digital thing (4 or 5 months) but I have noticed a slight detachment from my digital work. Maybe that’ll pass with time. Not to get too cheesy, but when you look at a painting in a gallery, there’s something about seeing a brush stroke that almost connects you to the artist no matter how long ago it was painted.....unless it’s been restored or touched up at some point, then it losses some of that. Ok I’m done rambling now

TessaW

You have to remember that "Physical" art can be lost to time and destruction as well. How much artwork has been destroyed in war? How many pieces have deteriorated due to neglect or poor exhibiting circumstances? How many have gone missing? There are probably tons that have never even been recorded. Even today, Isis is deliberately destroying ancient art.

I think that it will be fine. I am curious to see how digital art will be regarded 500 years from now. Will any of it be in a museum?

The thing with digital is that sharing art is easy. Think of how many copies of many popular pieces of digital art are now sitting on hard drives and servers around the world. And with more expansive and more stable storage options gradually emerging, it's doubtful that very much work that people want to preserve will be lost short of a mass catastrophic event involving EMPs or massive solar radiation and the like.

For future students, I think the problem will likely be a glut of resources that is difficult to sift through

Andyg

I think that what will lead to the longevity of pure;u digital art is how much it is shared. Because the more places it is shared the more easily it is found. And like back in up a hard drive, the more places it is backed up the more resilient it is to loss. Imagine people backing up your computer drive over and over.however, we ball against Work being freely shared because of copyright. So here’s the thought...could we be restricting our works longevity...are we the very instruments of our own artistic demise?will it in fact be the Creative Commons art which ultimately wins out? (Thinking I’ve had too much wine..... ‘)