Keossian, Alberto: Week 2 - Claudia Zapata Essay

 Question:

            I wonder or question how graphic artworks have evolved or may be evolving from being artworks into a material or medium used physical and conceptually in a making newly developing forms of technological art?

Answer:

            The earlier portions of Claudia Zapata’s essay had me really engaged in thinking about graphics and graphic arts as this evolving medium/tool in artmaking rather than establishing itself as a final product artwork. In the earlier instances of the 60’s when graphic artworks were being developed and used, they were seen as that: physical artworks. Claudia Zapata emphasizes that in particular Chicanx graphics/graphic arts were hand-in-hand with poster and print and that poster and print was essentially the hallmark of the Chicanx artistic canon. However, as time continues and engagement in the usage of graphic arts, or even aspects of graphic arts, within the context of socio-political movements/agendas continues; technologies in the production of these initially physical poster and print works begins to transform and evolve along with said technologies. Especially with the inclusion of spatial altering technologies such as AR and VR. It feels as if traditional physical methods of artmaking aligned with the Chicanx canon are beginning to fizzle out from being physically produced object artworks to more conceptual ideals that are used as tools for artmaking within the parameters, or lack thereof, technological opportunities in artmaking. Is a graphic-poster-work still a graphic-poster-work if it is never printed and instead shared online, or does that graphic-poster-work transform into a material/medium in producing a new kind of advanced “digital-graphic-work”? This is not all to say that by any means this evolution of a work into a medium is a negative consequence of technological advancement. On the contrary, I feel it becomes a really positive and beneficial instance that gives more to the intended purpose of graphic works than it takes away from it. Digitally advanced works become much more accessible to a much larger audience as opportunities to digitally share imagery, video, experience, etc. become possible within the digital realm.