Anna Bentkowska

Editorial

CHArt's seventeenth annual conference, held at the British Academy in London on 28th and 29th November 2001, considered Digital Art History as a subject in transition, its opportunities and problems. The title of the conference proved to be controversial and stirred much debate. In his thought-provoking keynote address, Professor Eric Fernie questioned the very concept of Digital Art History as a subject separate from the traditional history of art. He discussed areas of study and research in which the use of the computer has effectively increased our control, scope and accessibility to the material under scrutiny. He was, therefore, inclined to see Digital Art History as a method rather than a new discipline or subject. If there has been a digital revolution in the history of art, he argued, it has given us tools that have affected the practice.

The speakers responded to Fernie's view in a number of ways. Some subscribed to his position by demonstrating specific digital methodologies in teaching and learning, documentation and research. Others, however, took the argument further. They attempted to show, sometimes with a degree of uncertainty, that there is much more to digital art history than just a new methodology; that digital art history is not just about art on the screen and documentation in an electronic format. Computers have affected the way we perceive art, both past and present, and how we formulate theories about it. In certain areas, the application of computing affects the object of the history of art so dramatically, that we are forced to reinvent some of the discipline's basic concepts and share approaches with other disciplines more than ever before. Digital art in particular, questions established views about art making, display, perception and participation. By moving away from the physical towards the conceptual, the digital work of art is a constant challenge to art curators and critics. Digital art often verges on aesthetics and rules specific to computer games. Its interpretation may require a difficult balance between the appreciation of triviality and the seriousness of an academic argument.

When used to visualize the past, computer graphics in combination with other media offer interactivity similar to computer games. The idea of Abbot Suger 'revived' digitally and shown walking along the nave of St Denis Abbey, reconstructed as a computer model, will not appeal to every historian of French Gothic architecture. But some are likely to use such a model for the study of the original architectural structure and its subsequent remodelling. The theatricality of the digital context, however historically accurate, is often met with reservation.

So what is the acceptable limit for computing applications to the history of art and architecture? The answer is not easy and generally affected by personal experience in art history computing. As the use of computers becomes commonplace and we master new digital methods, so the ideas that constitute art history continue to broaden. While debating these ideas we often find that technology acts as both the cause and effect of the philosophical changes that are influencing the discipline. CHArt provides a forum for this important debate and in 2002 will return to the subject of Digital Art History in a networked society.