The Intersection of Art and Technology

When my generation thinks back about art classes growing up, we might conjure up images of getting our hands dirty painting with water colors, sculpting with clay, or making with papier-mâché. But today not all art is created by the human hand. Art is about design and creativity – and those key skills crosscut multiple disciplines like science, technology, engineering, and math in order to solve problems, innovate, and produce.

STEM education and lessons naturally involve art with concepts like design thinking and creative solution creation. Several of Couragion’s role models illustrate the intersection of art and technology. One role model takes it a step further by showing the world that your passion can evolve into having multiple careers and ways to make a living all at the same time.

This role model featured in our app, Joel Swanson, is the Director of the Technology, Arts and Media Program at the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. Thanks in part to Joel, the degree curriculum is progressive, infuses creativity into technology, and integrates a technically rigorous education with critical thinking and problem solving. In addition to his role as professor and educational administrator, Joel is arguably one of the most coveted artists in our city with three major exhibits in the last 20 months. Galleries clamor for his works – many of which are manifested via machines such as 3-D printers.

While people are using technology to create traditional works of art on display, they are also creating art in roles like industrial designers, user experience designers, product developers, graphic designers, and web developers. The bottom line – art is often inextricably linked to the technologies used to design, model, prototype, create, and produce it.

You can learn more about Joel's latest exhibit called Polysemic here as a true expression of the intersection of art and technology.

Photo Credit:  Joel Swanson's piece "Radar" hangs from the ceiling and clings to the walls. It explores palindromes, which are words that are spelled the same backward. (Photo by Heather A. Longway, provided by MOA)