This week I read Claudia Zapata’s “Chicanx Graphics in the Digital Age” in !Printing the Revolution!: The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now. The first few sentences surprised me because they described how Chicanx art by Barbara Carrasco was exhibited for 30 seconds in between advertisements at Times Square. I began to think about how art has evolved throughout history and how artists have reconciled new media and what that process looks like. Are all new media met with skepticism?
I’ve heard of non-Chicanx artists exhibiting their art in the same way, but I was not aware of Chicanx artists being invited into this space. I was also surprised that I hadn’t thought about digital Chicanx art because I had always thought about Chicanx art as existing in the streets as posters and sometimes flyers on social media. This reading completely changed the way I define “art.” I began the reading with little knowledge about digital Chicanx art so I appreciated how Zapata acknowledged that Chicanx art is better known for its posters and analog graphics, but there is also so much work that goes beyond this canon while still retaining the original objective of advocacy.
I also appreciated a quote Zapata included in the reading by Marshall McLuhan: “a ‘new medium is never an addition to an old one, nor does it leave the old one in peace. It never ceases to oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and position for them.’” This quote was really helpful in understanding how digital art fits in with analog art. A lot of people sometimes discredit digital art because they think it’s easier than analog art. I also undervalued digital media until I began to explore it myself and saw how much work went behind it and how it can be instrumental in raising awareness of issues because of its ability to be widely distributed across the internet. This quote made me think about what possible media can come next and what new properties it can bring to the table.
The digital age is so impressive and it's crazy how much we use technology in our everyday lives, even for the most simple things. Some say the technology is toxic and is also making us lazy, which I can agree to, to some extent however our lives are modernizing by the minute and if we dont keep up we get left behind. this is why art is being created with new tech instead of the traditional and physical ways. I cant wait to see what else artists can do with the newest tech.
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