Blog Post 2: Claudia Zapata Q/A

 Q: Using the Claudia Zapata essay, “This Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now”, how has technology created or influenced culture? 

A: Just as technology is created from our culture, technology also creates the framework of our current society. When a notification appears on your screen, that is technology influencing culture. When you are stressed out because of all the emails you have to go through or the digital drama you might have became a part of, that is technology influencing your culture. When an artist displays their work online, the viewer sees it and tells their friends about it the next day. That is technology's influence on our culture.

All the little ways that technology has changed our collective behavior, as well as individuals, add up to the cultural changes historians and technologists have to point out. These changes to our culture become factors for artists and social leaders to be concerned about when planning for ways to display their art or spread messages. A Nomad in Love is a collaborative print that has multiple levels of technological involvement and comprehension. This includes the drawings made by Pe

User viewing A Nomad in Love in the Augment El Paso App

ña, Arturo Negrete’s screen print using the 75 Grados printmaking studio and David Figueroa AR embellishment using the Augment El Paso app.(146) As the master printmaker Figueroa works with artist to make sure their ideas and visions get passed on correctly. Zapata states it best when she says that Figueroa’s multi-dimensional artistic decisions need to “conform to the original work’s spatial and now conceptual arrangements, resulting in an augmented yet integrated whole.”(146) This displays technologies current influence on society, as the artists choices need to fit the technological framework that is currently in place. 

Artists use software features to make their work easily accessible for redistribution and modification of the general public. Not only does this provide a form of engagement with the artist followers but it begins a direct conversation that is spread among a larger audience. The movement's message is spread, gaining more momentum and building a larger community. Thanks to technology we can find relationships and build connections that fit into similar passions. A solidarity built among these Chicanx artists and their followers will transfer beyond the screen from which they connected.