Week 2- Question and Answer

 Question: Do Chicanx artists face more boundaries with digital platforms or in traditional physical printmaking conditions ?

Screenshot of Jacalyn Lopez Garcia's project Glass Houses

    Based on the article written by Claudia Zapata, online resources provide Chicanx artists with the ability to produce artwork quicker, disseminate their art and messages faster and to perhaps reach a broader audience easier. The digital revolution also offers multiple other branches and extensions of art that allows for audience interactivity. For example, Jacalyn Lopez Garcia created an interactive multi-media website that gave her a space to create a piece that involved audience participation and room for greater personal self-reflection. Zapata discusses that online resources can also be problematic as well. Algorithmic bias can make sure that Chicanx art and messages are not getting shared or found, dis-enabling the dissemination of Chicanx artwork, political stances, and community outreach. Zapata did not discuss what usual hardships Chicanx artists might face with using traditional graphic production and showings, other than it not being as fast to produce and disseminate, than graphics created with digital technology. Boundaries that I can think of are that physical artists have to work with the outside world and must combat with the physical elements or other people vandalizing or taking down the work. Other problems that might arise might deal with institutions like the ability for your artwork to be shown or to receive patronage. You could say, in the physical world art work will not last, unless actively preserved, but online they can last forever. Ultimately, based on what Zapata described in her article, I would say there are equal hardships and barriers that come with either creating and spreading your artwork in the online format or physical context. Perhaps even the internet boundaries could become even harsher because artists would be fighting against systems which they are not a part of. It would be difficult to fight and work against large corporations and businesses like Instagram, Twitter, and even Google.