When speculating about the future of digital art, one must stand at the crossroads to look down two avenues: the future of art and the future of technology.

Artists of the future will have never known a world without computers. As such, creating art with digital tools and media will not be perceived as something unique.

Through the revolutionary functions that the Internet now provides for increased global communications, the arts will continue to integrate with popular culture and daily life. As contemporary art embraces digital tools and media, the qualifier “digital” is slowly beginning to disappear. While digital art has certainly claimed a place in art history, the contemporary art of the future will continue to evolve, quietly incorporating new technologies as part of its development. Art of the Digital Age, published by Thames & Hudson in 2006.

Public awareness of digital art is growing, and traditional art establishments have begun to exhibit digital artworks and support these artists. Museums that are now adding digital works to their collections have begun to address the fundamental difficulties of permanence that have arisen due to the interdependence of digital art and technology.

This can only benefit the future of digital art practice, as well as secure the preservation of current and past works. Here the archival process will be a motivating factor in using technology to solve these problems. A looking glass that could see the future of technology would indeed be a very valuable one. However, certain trends are very clear. Looking back at the development of the Internet, we can see an underlying structure of how digital technology developed and then translate this into a view of where it is going.

The Internet began with very narrow bandwidth that only supported text. The World Wide Web then allowed images, and later, audio and video. In 2000, DVD became the fastest-growing technology ever, as a medium that is both relatively inexpensive and can store and easily play back huge amounts of data. One of the driving forces behind the technological development of DVD was the feature film business. This innovation not only offers a high-quality storage medium, it also incorporates interactivity, so that value added product—interviews, multiple sound tracks, the director’s cut—can be included on feature film DVDs. Therefore, the line of evolution for technology starts with text, followed by image, then audio, and video, which is then followed closely by interactivity that enables random access to all forms of data.

The next step is placing this media and interactivity on a network, whether it be the Internet or a local area network in a gallery or museum. Image resolution and sound quality will continue to increase, as evidenced by the development of high definition television (HDTV) and DVD-Audio with its 24-bit quality and six channels. Another important element to consider is an examination of the maturation state of various technologies. For example, Microsoft Word is a fully mature technology for text. All the capabilities one needs are already in the software: editing, spell checking, and even grammar checking. Digital imaging has also become a mature technology. Photoshop is an industry standard and allows for precise control over image creation and manipulation. Digital audio is also an evolved technology.

The introduction of MIDI in the 1980s and the availability of inexpensive high-quality recording and editing software provided the capability of a desktop multitrack recording studio. The MP3 format has revolutionized how music is distributed, and demonstrates how technology can significantly alter media distribution systems. Napster usurped the recording industry, which has now begun to adopt online sales and digital distribution systems. Digital video is rapidly becoming a mature technology, and will eventually use these same distribution systems. While non-linear video editing systems such as Avid have been industry standards for years, Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro are rapidly becoming the de-facto standards for artists, offering broadcast-quality editing on the desktop. Even affordable DVD authoring software is now readily available. So, the real question becomes, “What will the future bring?” To begin with media, we will continue to see data being stored and delivered in higher quality formats. There are three underlying factors at work here: data storage, bandwidth and interactivity. Storage capacity and bandwidth capabilities will continue to increase. Some of this technology is already in place. The Internet 2 is a high bandwidth research network that allows for the data transmission of full-frame video and CD quality sound, as well as multiple simultaneous streams of video.

It is clear from recent Hollywood films, that new technologies have manipulated the boundaries of what is “real” and “artificial.” When watching early special effects in films, we willingly suspend our disbelief to enjoy the film, since some of the early techniques were crude by today’s standards. A similar situation exists with audio, as surround sound technologies and ever higher sample rates and bit depths have made the creation of a believable immersive sound environment commonplace. Future generations will see high definition video and multi-channel surround sound as the de-facto standard. 3D television, projection and immersive environments will become the next media frontier. Finally, what will be new? Which emerging technologies are important to society, as well as to artists? Software development is paramount to future technological development. Within a decade, we will begin to meet or exceed the Internet’s capacity. Until that point, it is the developments in software that will guide the next phase of digital artistic expression. For example, compression technologies will need to be developed to allow for high definition full frame video and multi-channel surround sound for home users, mobile users, as well as public institutions, such as museums and galleries. New interfaces will redefine how we experience and interact with media and data. We need only to look to the video game industry as an example of fertile creative territories. Over the past ten years, video games have always been at the cutting edge of technology. “Gaming machines” are the fastest, most well-equipped graphics and sound computers.

The creation of real-time environments takes a tremendous amount of computing power. Another interesting fact is the revenues from video games have surpassed feature films. We have seen the emergence of a new genre of the 3D computer animated feature film. If we project this increase in a computer’s capability, and the development of artificial intelligence in video games, and then combine these initiatives with the feature film industry, we can predict the type of virtual environment that will emerge.

The early false promises of “virtual reality” will have finally come to pass. While there have been many attempts at virtual works, through immersive systems like the CAVE (a surround-screen, surround-sound, projection-based virtual reality system), video games and on the Internet, future capabilities will make these environments truly believable and of growing interest for both artists and participants. For example, by merging video game technology with three-dimensional feature film quality animation, one could push the “play” button and view a film from the director’s viewpoint or from different perspectives, such as through the eyes of any character in the environment. Secondarily, since all the characters in the environment are programmed with artificial intelligence, you could also create your own movie by moving through the environment and recording your observations. This is where the merging of interactivity and artificial intelligence expands the options when experiencing future media. Wireless technology will also play a very important role in the art of the future. Cell phones are taking the same route as other technologies.

They began as voice only devices, and have evolved to camera phones with text messaging. Videophones will soon follow. Many technologists have proclaimed wireless technology as the future “promised land.” Free from the restraints of location, wireless technology will enable the experience of art and media to be literally anywhere. As the quality of PDAs, cell phones and other portable devices increases, so will the control the artist will have over the remote experience. This is not to say that galleries and museums will diminish in their importance, but rather handheld and other portable devices with add a new dimension to the art experience, whether outside or inside an art space. The challenges for artists will be in the creation of works that can transcend different venues and media in order to reach a larger public audience. New Interfaces Undoubtedly, new interfaces will emerge as technology becomes more ubiquitous. The paradigm of the keyboard, monitor and mouse may remain, but new technologies will augment and perhaps superceded them. Haptic interfaces are being developed to heighten the tactile experience. The increasing use of three-dimensional imagery and interfaces, combined with infrared or 3D position sensors will eventually also be combined with voice recognition, real-time language translation, and video that will allow people to converse with a machine or with someone in a remote global location, much in the manner of being in the same room. The tools of creative expression have never been more powerful and the future of art in some ways has never looked brighter. Given these exciting possibilities for technological development, artists of the future will be able to create their work across several media and for multiple cultures to experience.