Aesthetic Features in Digital Imaging: Collage and Morph

Taking as a starting point the shift in the arts that is caused by new technologies, this essay questions how we may consider the aesthetics of digital arts. A variety of metaphors, such as hypermedia, hybridisation, even digital "wave" or "revolution," are common in the media debate to characterize the realm of the digital that has evolved from computer techniques into an encompassing cultural phenomenon. This variety of terms is a reflection of the current discourse that tries to comprehend and communicate the challenge of digital technologies that has transformed the production processes of audio-visual media, and has expanded the methods of distribution and the access to different media in domestic and public spheres. This discourse becomes particularly controversial when digital imagery that results from the reworking and merging of different media images --for example when photographic, cinematic, and electronic elements are brought together on the basis of the digitally encoded image--are equally described as intermedia, hypermedia, hybridisation, or multimedia. This recent debate demonstrates the difficulties in coming to terms with new technologies and with the ways in which different media interrelate. Briefly, what happens is that new forms of "mixed image" emerge, causing a shift in the nature of the image itself. [End Page 131]