Digital Art in Remediation

An interesting aspect in the chapter on Digital Art is the idea of digital products. Newer art constructed by graphics artists consist of pixelated images rather than actual oil based paint or watercolors. This form of art has now become an art in itself distanced from traditional pieces and even though digital art has its roots, it doesn't always try to emulate an actual photo or painting. The idea of digitizing images is particularly interesting considering a recent controversy over President Barack Obama's picture during his campaign for presidency. A graphic artist took the picture from the associated press and manipulated it; eventually it became the ubiquitous unofficial Obama logo. Just as Bolter and Grusin explain, “Such algorithmic transformations raise the question of agency in digital art: whether the digital artist is to be regarded as the agent of the image in the same way a traditional painter or whether her role is more like that of a photographer.” The concern now is, who owns this image? It can be argued that Obama owns it, the associated press owns it, or the graphic artists owns it. I myself cannot answer this question so I will leave it for the lawyers to argue this one.