DONALD CAMERON

30 years ago, the world’s imagery began an epochal revolution: the shift from analog to digital. Various art forms emerged during the transition, such as “Glitch Art” for example, which showcased errors in the still-developing technology. But as image quality improved, glitches became less prevalent, and the obviousness of digitally sourced imagery faded away. Society began to forget that these images were created using a radically different logic than the preceding millennia of visual culture. Digital image-processing tools and supplementary technology allowed image makers to flood the world, and our impression of it, with stunning graphics. Society’s image sphere was gorged with sensory overload, similar to the introduction of industrially produced sugar in 15th century Europe. And what is the significance of this new type of imagery? what is its relevance? How do we even learn to see it again?

This exhibition provides no comforting answers, but rather a series of questions. For example, what is a “digital image” exactly, and what is it not? By comparison what does “analog” mean in this context, and where do the boundaries of these binary definitions lie? The paintings on exhibit take qualities that ought to be on one side of this supposed binary and forces them to exist on the other. They employ techniques of digital graphic design such as layering and pattern, masking and image repetition, all within the context of a traditional oil painting on linen. Perhaps it allows us to conceptualise a meaning of “the digital”, to see afresh how this technology has changed our experience of the world, and to re-envision this visual revolution which our eyes are barely conscious of.

―Donald Cameron