Art Appreciation: Performance Art, Photography, Videography, and Digital and Print Media

The Early Camera
The first photograph was taken by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce in 1827. In 1837, Louis Daguerre developed the first practical process to create photographs, which was called the daguerreotype.
Daguerreotypes create an image on a silvered copper plate, and they require the subject to stay still from 15 to 30 minutes. Henry Fox Talbot next developed the calotype, or talbotype, process. The daguerreotype and the calotype both use two nested boxes as the body of the camera. The calotype used paper coated in silver iodide for the print.
Emulsion plates, or wet plates, using the collodion process followed. They needed much less exposure time than previous methods.
Bellows were added to cameras at this time to aid in focusing the image.
Ambrotype and tintype were two common emulsion plates. Ambrotype used a glass plate, whereas tintype used tin.
In 1888, George Eastman developed a film camera, and the first one was called the 'Kodak.' This camera did not require solid plates, and the cost was low enough for the average consumer. The first 35 mm camera was available in 1913, but the film was not affordable to average consumers until the 1940s.

Digital Photography
Prior to the introduction of digital photography, the photographic process was slower and much more expensive. The number of shots was limited to the number available on each roll of film. Film had to be handled carefully and correctly, and then it was taken to a photo developing center, or it could be developed at home in a darkroom using special equipment.
Until the pictures were developed, the photographer did not know how their pictures turned out. If the original prints and film are lost, the images can be lost forever.
With digital photography, the number of images is only limited by the storage space on the camera and the size of the digital image.
Photographers can immediately review the images, delete unwanted images, and take more photographs until they are satisfied that they have a good shot.
Digital photographs can be more easily edited and manipulated on a computer than photos developed in a darkroom. Digital photographs can be stored indefinitely on a digital device and printed inexpensively with online services or on a home printer.

Photography Supplies
Although film cameras are still in limited use, digital photography has surpassed them as the medium of choice. Digital cameras range greatly from inexpensive cameras for casual use to high-priced cameras for professionals. Fewer dedicated low-end digital cameras are used now because the ability to take photographs is included in most smartphones.
The resolution of a digital camera is determined by its image sensor. A camera with a 1,000 × 1,000 pixel image sensor will take up to 1 megapixel photos. A digital camera can shoot up to 120 megapixels, whereas a smartphone will now shoot up to 12 megapixels. A digital camera can be compact and portable, or it can be larger with removable lenses. A digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera contains a mirror at a 45-degree angle to convey the image to the sensor. The DSLR camera will have a higher possible resolution than a compact camera, and it will usually have the option of multiple lenses for different purposes. This image is of a DSLR camera.


Film Photography Supplies
To shoot photographs with a film camera, the correct type of film is needed for the photographer's purposes. The most common size is
35 mm and speeds range from 100 to 3,200, with consumer film ranging up to 800.
The speed of the film is determined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) scale, which dictates how much exposure the film needs to produce an image. Slower film will give better detail and color, but faster film can capture a subject in motion.
To develop the film, the camera back is opened, the film is removed in a completely dark room, and it is coiled into a reel as shown in the image. The reel is placed into the container, and a chemical process consisting of developer bath, stop bath, and fixer bath are introduced into the container.
The film can then be exposed to light to be washed and dried.
After the film is developed, the images are printed onto photo paper in a darkroom lit with only a safelight, which will illuminate the room in a red or amber color. An enlarger is used to expose the film to the photo paper.

Parts of a Camera
The main part of a camera is called the body. The viewfinder is where the photographer looks through the back of the camera to compose the shot. Some digital cameras will have a liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen instead of a viewfinder. The shutter release button activates the shutter, and the amount of time that the shutter is left open is determined by the shutter speed. The lens is on the front of the camera, and it focuses and directs light into the camera. Lenses can either be fixed to the body, or they can be removable. The aperture of the camera controls the amount of light reaching the image sensor. It also determines how much of the image is in focus (depth of field). The aperture is expressed in f-stops. A film advance lever is found on a film camera, and it moves the film to the next frame. A flash can be built in or added to the camera; it adds light to the subject. A flash can be connected to the top of the camera on a socket called a hot shoe.

Video Art
Video art began in the 1960s, and artists used mainly analog videotape as their medium into the 1990s. Nam June Paik is known as the pioneer of video art. The first instance of video art is when Paik used a Sony Portapak video recorder in 1965 to tape Pope Paul VI's procession in New York City, and then he played the tapes in another location. The availability of consumer video equipment such as the Portapak allowed artists to begin experimenting with this new medium. Artists experimented with the capabilities and limitations of the equipment by combining, layering, and distorting the signals. In the 1980s and 1990s, video editing software became more readily available and allowed video artists much greater flexibility and control over their work. With the advent of digital video technology, equipment has become increasingly compact and portable, as well as more easily available.
One of Paik's most famous works is Electronic Superhighway (1995), which includes a 51-channel video installation, along with neon lights. The scale and images represent the enormity of the United States as seen by this artist who came from Korea at only nine years old.

The Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds is a compositional technique used for not only photography, but also for other two-dimensional art forms. The rule of thirds involves dividing an image vertically and horizontally into three equal parts. This divides the image into nine equal parts. The subject or focal point of the image should then be placed at one of the intersections of these lines. Doing this creates tension and imbalance in the image, and it creates a more interesting composition than placing the subject or focal point squarely in the center of the photograph.
This image illustrates the rule of thirds and the lines associated with it. In this image, the center of the nearest object is placed on the lower right intersection of lines and the tower in the background is aligned along the left vertical line. The horizon also falls along the lower horizontal line, rather than being placed in the center of the image.


Aperture and Focal Length
A camera's aperture is the opening in the lens, and it is measured in f-stops. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the opening. A larger f-stop number means a smaller aperture.
Adjusting the aperture will change the depth of field of your photograph, which is how much of the image is in focus. A shallow depth of field is a result of letting more light in or a larger aperture (a smaller f-stop). A shallow depth of field means that only a part of the image is in focus and the rest is blurry. A large depth of field results in most of the image being in focus, and this is done with a smaller aperture (larger f-stop).
The focal length of a camera lens determines the magnification of the image, and it is usually expressed in millimeters. The field of view and focal length are inversely proportional. A 24–35 mm lens will give a wider angle and capture more of a scene from the same distance as a 50 mm lens.

Photography Used to Document Events
Early photographers attempted to record the events of war, but limitations of the process prevented them from recording movement and action. Instead, they photographed the still aspects, and they even recreated scenes to attempt to convey their impressions of the battles. During the Civil
War, photographers staged scenes of battles to heighten the emotional effects of their images. They would even move and rearrange dead bodies. These images were used to convey the atrocities of war to the public.
During the Great Depression, the Farm Service Agency sent photographers out to document American life, especially rural America. These photographers, including Dorothea Lange, captured images of life during this difficult time. These images serve as a reminder of this era, as well as documentation of how Americans persisted through their difficulties. One of the best-known images from this time is Migrant
Mother, by Dorothea Lange. She skillfully captured the worry and fear on the face of a mother dealing with raising children during a time of extreme poverty.

Acceptance of Photography as an Art Form
Since the invention of the camera, photographers have struggled with acceptance in the art world. They questioned the role that photography would play in art and whether they should be confined to the aesthetics of other art forms or explore ideas and characteristics of the new medium.
Photography has taken many forms, including photojournalism, but it has historically mostly been accepted as a craft.
In the early and mid-1900s, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams were critical to advancing photography from a craft to the acceptance as a fine art. In Adams' case, his beautiful photographs of nature scenes were used not only as artistic expression, but also to promote the conservation of nature. His work The Tetons and Snake River is an example of this. It wasn't until after the 1950s that it was thought acceptable and unpretentious to frame a photograph for a show or exhibition. Until the 1970s, the main genres of fine arts photography were portraits, landscapes, and nudes.

The Impact of the Camera
After the invention of the camera in the early 1800s, people began using photographic techniques to attempt to capture reality in a more reliable way than they could by hand. People created millions of daguerreotypes to record images of their families, aware of their own mortality. Photographs were used to capture the atrocities of war, mundane life, and each other.
Images of average people could be created as easily as images of important politicians. Action photos as well as posed scenes were created. Images captured in a photograph were more objective than those created by artists, taking out much of the imagination and artistic license, and giving a more reliable representation of the subject. By the mid-19th century, photography was becoming accepted as a powerful tool for communication. When the first mass-produced camera was created in 1901, photography became accessible to more people. With advances in equipment, photographers no longer needed to carry plates and chemicals to process their images.

Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is a photographer whose work has been an inspiration for contemporary portrait photographers. She began her photography work in the 1970s. In her first self-portrait series, Untitled Film Stills, she plays the role of 'everywoman,' dressing up and characterizing herself in many different clichéd feminine roles including housewife and pinup girl.
Sherman changed the perception of portrait photography to a depersonalized method of critiquing social issues. She used an antinarrative approach to photography, discarding notions of documentary realism and creating works that left unresolved ideas and emotions.
Sherman used her photography to examine assumptions and stereotypes, and her work is often associated with feminism. Her work has highlighted the objectification of women, as well as obsessions with youth and beauty. She explored identity and representation in new ways and opened the door for creative and conceptual photographic portraiture. In the 1980s, her work helped to drive photography into acceptance as high art.

Electronic Art as a Medium
Electronic art is an art form that uses electronic media, including digital art, video art, and interactive art. Digital art is created using a computer, and it started when artists began to experiment with computers in the 1960s. As computers have become more affordable, digital art has grown as a medium.
Photoshop was first developed in 1987 at Industrial Light and Magic, a visual effects company, and it was later sold to Adobe. Many versions and related programs have followed, including a touchscreen version for tablets.
Nam June Paik is regarded as a pioneer in video art, which emerged as a medium in the late 1960s as video cameras became available to consumers. As time has passed, prices have dropped, and video cameras have become increasingly portable and more versatile.
Interactive art involves the viewer participating with the artwork. This could include the viewer walking into or onto the artwork, or even becoming part of the artwork. These works generally include some computer or motion sensor components. The earliest examples of interactive art date back to the 1920s.

Digital Art: Supplies
Supplies used for digital art include computers, tablets, video cameras, scanners, and digital cameras. The computer can be used to generate art, for example, with fractals or algorithms, in which data are put into the computer and the computer uses the data to create an image. The computer can also be the tool that the artist uses to create their artwork. The artist can use a mouse or a stylus to draw and edit images on the screen. This can also be done on the touchscreen of a tablet. The final product can be printed on papers of various thicknesses, colors, and surfaces. An inkjet printer blends colors smoothly and is cost effective. Laser and LED printers are more expensive and faster but are best with solid colors and black text.
Video cameras can be used to capture video, which can be edited on a computer to produce the final product. Another part of digital art includes using an electronic display in an art installation. The artist can include TV screens or projector screens to display their videos.

Techniques Used in Digital Art
To create digital art, the artist can use the computer to manipulate found images, images taken with a digital camera, or images scanned with a scanner. The computer can also be used to automatically generate images such as fractal or algorithm art. Once the artist has images in the computer, they can use editing software such as Photoshop to alter those images.
Illustrator is another popular software used to create images, but it is used to create vector-based illustrations and text that can be enlarged or shrunk without losing quality. Photoshop is used to edit photographs and raster (pixel)-based artwork. If a raster-based artwork is enlarged too much, it loses quality and becomes pixelated.
To create artwork that includes an electronic display, the artist can use a projector and a screen to project a large video or can include
TV or computer screens within their work to show their video art.

File Formats for Digital Art
Common image file formats include JPG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG.
JPG is the most commonly used image format, and it stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPG images are highly compressed; this has the benefit of a small file, but the compression is lossy, meaning it sacrifices quality for a smaller size. A GIF file uses lossless compression, but it is limited in its display of colors. It is better for graphics than photographs. A TIFF file is lossless and is considered the best quality format for graphics work. It can be saved in red, green, blue (RGB) or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). A PNG file will be smaller than a TIFF but larger than a JPG, and it is also lossless. It is the newest of these formats. A GIF or PNG file will support transparency or animation.

Videos are saved as Audio Video Interleave (AVI), Flash Video Format (FLV), Windows Media Video (WMV), Apple QuickTime Movie (MOV), or Moving Pictures Expert Group 4 (MP4) formats. AVI is one of the oldest video formats. FLV files are created with Adobe Flash. WMV was originally intended for streaming content online. MP4 is a newer format becoming popular for sharing videos online.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Art
Digital art can be saved in an image or video format, and it can be shared and reproduced multiple times. A digital image can be printed, and this artwork can be shared with multiple people or shown in multiple locations. Many traditional art methods produce only one artwork, and if this artwork is damaged, there is not another copy saved elsewhere. Digital art can be created quickly, and it can be edited, erased, and changed until the artist is satisfied. As technology evolves, new techniques and possibilities emerge.
Because digital art can be reproduced and shared endlessly, it is not held in as high regard as other art forms. Digital art is thought to require less skill than other art forms, and because anyone can create digital art, it is thought of as a lesser art form. It does not require the knowledge of traditional art media or practice involved with drawing, painting, sculpture, and other media.

Performance Art as a Medium
Performance art began in the early 20th century with the futurist, Russian constructivist, and Dada art movements. Performance art is a scripted or unscripted performance that is presented live in the context of fine arts. The performance is usually conceptual and not just for entertainment. The artist seeks to break away from the traditions of art and can even include audience participation if desired.
Performance art involves four components: the performer, time, space, and a relationship with the audience. It can be experienced live or through media, with no specific venue or length of time required. The artist might stick to a script or improvise as the performance goes on. Unlike the performing arts, performance art does not create a fictitious drama with a linear script. Performance art is often satirical or will make the viewer think about art in unconventional ways.

Site-Specific Art and Installation Art
Site-specific art is created to be displayed or erected in a certain location, and it loses meaning if it is removed from that location. The term was first used in the mid-1970s. Site-specific art includes sculptures, land art, or even a dance or performance created for and performed in a specific location. Christo and Jeanne-Claude are known for their large-scale, site-specific artworks including wrapped bridges and surrounded islands.
Installation art is a large-scale construction created with mixed media, for a specific location and length of time. An installation can take up an entire room and is sometimes referred to as an environment. The viewer can walk through the room to experience the art. An installation can also be smaller and be intended for the viewer to walk around.
Installation art has been a major art form since the 1960s.

Environmental Art
The environmental art movement began in the 1960s and consisted of site-specific sculptures.
Environmental art can use part of the environment to create aesthetic artwork, or it can create a statement on environmental, social, or political issues relating to the natural world. It can highlight and celebrate the artist's connection with the natural world, and it can use natural materials within the environment. The movement began in rural areas, but in the 1970s and 1980s, environmental art was also created in public and urban areas. It can be created to blend in with nature or highlight environmental issues, but sometimes environmental art actually damages the environment, like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, shown here. The creation of this work permanently damaged the land it was created on, and it has been criticized for such. Another criticism of environmental art is the fact that it either has to be experienced on site or displayed as a photograph of the art, posing a challenge to gallery exhibitions.


A Happening
A happening is a performance or event created in the context of fine art. Happenings include audience participation as a main component, and although some parts are planned by the artist, there is often also room for improvisation as well. Every time a happening was performed, it would be different due to the unplanned and improvised parts. This is in stark contrast to static, unchanging works of art, which provide the same experience to each viewer. Happenings exist as a fleeting moment, something that cannot be preserved and shown in a museum. A major difference between happenings and other types of art is that each happening is unique. They could be elaborate and large or intimate and small depending on the artist's intentions.
Allan Kaprow first used the term 'happening' in 1957 to describe art events that he experienced at a picnic on George Segal's farm.
Kaprow's 1959 work was titled 18 Happenings in 6 Parts. A happening could include any combination of elements of dance, music, performance, poetry, and theater, as well as art creation.

Environmental Art: Materials.
Environmental art can incorporate materials from the natural environment, or it can introduce new and surprising materials into the natural environment. Some environmental art will include leaves, branches, rocks, moss, logs, vines, and other materials found in the local environment, changing the environment and emphasizing the local materials. Other environmental art will include nonnatural materials such as nylon fabric, spray paint, or metal.
This example by Robert Smithson, Broken Circle and Spiral Hill, was created in 1971 in the Netherlands. Smithson listed his materials as green water and white and yellow sand flats. Smithson used the local materials to create something different and recognizable as something not created by nature, but rather created with nature. Smithson had begun the 'land art' movement, desiring to create art out in the open and not inside a studio. The life span of this type of artwork is finite, meant to be eventually reclaimed by nature.

Performance Art: Materials
Performance art involves the presence of the artist as the performer, the involvement of the audience, time, and a space for the performance. It includes the actions of the performer or performers as the artwork. The actual work requires live performance, but the artwork can reach a wider audience afterward by documentation through photography and videotaping.
The documentation can affect how the viewer understands the work, and it can be different than experiencing the work firsthand.
In Marina Abramović's work The Artist Is Present'
(2010), she sat silently at a wooden table, and people took turns sitting across from her, silently engaging her gaze. Abramović was experimenting with people's perception of expected time of a performance, stretching it out to eight hours a day for three months. She sought to push limits of the time of a performance piece, while engaging thousands of participants.

Performance Art: Techniques
Performance art involves many techniques and materials, all depending on the artist and the messages that they are trying to convey. One example is Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (1964), in which she sat on a stage while viewers took turns cutting her clothing off of her with scissors. This was a commentary on voyeurism and a voyeur's participation and responsibility in objectifying women.
Another example is Chris Burden's Shoot (1971), which involved a friend shooting him in the arm while another friend documented the performance with a camera. This work touched on the second friend's desire to intervene, ideas of gun control, and even the Vietnam War.
For Art/Life: One Year Performance (Rope Piece), begun in 1983, Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh were tied to each other by an eight-foot piece of rope for an entire year but did not touch each other. For this work, the rope represented people's struggle to connect to each other socially and physically.

Environmental Art: Techniques
Environmental art seeks to challenge traditional notions of sculpture and bring sculptural elements to the natural environment. Some environmental art uses elements of the natural landscape to create the artwork, including sticks, sand, rocks, stones, and moss. The artwork is intended to disappear back into the landscape as time and weather affect the sculpture.
In the 1980s, artists began creating environmental art in public spaces, including vacant lots and other urban locations. Artists sought to bring their artwork closer to people, to engage them in the dialogue about art, the environment, and conservation. One artist planted cabbages in a pattern in an empty lot. Another made the particulates in the air visible for viewers. Yet another artist marked possible flood lines in at-risk cities that could result from climate change.
For environmental art to be shown in a gallery or museum, the artist must provide photographs, which do not give the full experience of the art.

The Evolution of Performance Art
Performance art has become accepted as an art medium in the past 30 years.
It differs from theater and performing art by its lack of a clear narrative. Inspired by the abstract expressionism movement, artists wanted to include the body's role in artmaking into the actual artwork. The act of creation, not just the final product, was seen as important, like Jackson
Pollock's action paintings. His movements and process played a big role in the creation of his paintings. Performance art emphasizes the time and space in which art exists, as well as the actions of the artist. Artists sought new ways to express themselves, and museums have sought ways to display these works. In a way, this is opposite to the idea of performance art existing in a finite time and interacting with the viewers. New strategies of performance art have sought to create interactions between people who would not have interacted otherwise.
Artists have even begun to reenact performance pieces from the past, attempting to recapture those experiences.

Environmental Art: Motivation
Environmental art, or land art, sprung partly from artists' desire to work outside of the studio and create artworks that could not be contained in a gallery or exhibit. Depending on the artist, it can be created to raise awareness of environmental issues such as erosion or conservation. It can explore humans' relationship with nature or the human-built world with the natural environment. It can capture how we are polluting the environment or how man is affecting the natural world. It can even highlight the artist's love of nature and the beauty of our world. Environmental art is created as site-specific artwork that will eventually be reclaimed by its surrounding environment, so its existence is usually short-lived. Photography is an important component of these works, capturing the scene for those who cannot view it in person before it is gone.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo and Jeanne-Claude are artists known for some of the largest and most ambitious site-specific artwork created. Whereas landscape art uses natural materials to create artwork, Christo and Jeanne-Claude used manufactured materials to contrast with the environment in which they created the artwork. Part of their process included negotiating with and gaining permits from the owners of the land or structure they wished to use. Each artwork created was large scale and required a lot of time and work to construct. They have insisted that the artwork was created for aesthetic value alone, and not for any deeper meanings. Some well-known artworks include wrapping the Pont-Neuf, the oldest bridge in France, in a sand-colored fabric, and surrounding several Miami islands in a bright pink fabric. The Umbrellas involved placing more than 1,000 umbrellas in Japan and the United States at the same time. In their project The Gates, installed in Central Park in
New York City in 2005, visitors could walk through and around these 7,503 fabric gates throughout the park, which changed the look of the familiar landscape.

Earth Art
Earth art, or Earthworks, is a genre of art that seeks to use materials taken directly from nature. This is a subgenre of environmental art, but it focuses on the use of local and natural materials to create sculptural forms. Artists would use water, stones, gravel, soil, and sticks, paying homage to the specific site by using local materials. Earth art shares some characteristics with minimalism, using a simplicity of form to express ideas. Earth art highlights the beauty and aesthetics of the natural world while rejecting the traditions of art creation and exhibition. Earth art can be categorized as invasive or noninvasive, with invasive Earth art making significant alterations to the environment. Noninvasive Earth art is thought of as being more respectful to the environment, preserving the integrity of the landscape. Because Earth art is site-specific, it is not accessible to the average viewer, cannot be displayed as is in a museum, and cannot be bought and sold.