A Short Review of Digitally Inclined 

    For the past few weeks the Student Union has been hosting an art exhibit titled “Digitally Inclined,” hosted by the Digital Art Mob.  The show brings together a diverse collection of visual, video, and interactive artworks by 23 UNCC students.  For each work an information label details how the piece was made: what equipment, software, and procedures were used to produce it, specifically in regards to its digital aspects.  Yet for all the priority given to technique, the significance of it remains puzzling. 

    Even though the works make use of digital techniques, there is nothing about them that warrants being presented solely in these terms.  With the exception of Yanting Zheng’s interactive Flash animations, none of the works possess a form that is unique to digital media—photography, film, photomontage, and stop motion animations have all been around for quite a while.  There is an implicit assumption that there is something significantly innovative about the methods being used, something that makes them better or sets them apart from traditional practices.  But the failure to engage in this reflection results in a severely underdeveloped theme that encourages viewers to merely enter the room, see the wonderful art, and give thanks to the technology that made it possible.

    Without addressing the question of how these digital incarnations measure up to their analogue predecessors, the message is simply that computers can be used to make art.  Unfortunately, this is one of the least interesting aspects of the works.  By placing total emphasis on the methods of fabrication, the exhibition foreshortens and forfeits the meanings of the works it houses, which should be seen as exceptional in their own right. 

-Ryan Shullaw