COP task 2 - summary of the given text

      This task goal was to summarise the main point of the 'At the Edge of Art' text by J. Blais and J. Ippolito. The given part of the text look at the roles and functions of art in ever growing digital age. It is combining an art and biology terms together. Moreover it refers to art as an antibody and to the fast evolving technology as a virus.

      As is mentioned in text, todays artists prefer to be called designers, scientists, enterpreneurs or activists. The different breed of the artists is emerging as the result of the shifted interested in digital media rather than in its traditional forms. Moreover ''the death of the author'' can be observed; use of new tools leads to the evolutions of art.

''The starts of this extraordinary new constellation tend to be biologists, engineers, designers, and hackers rather than the newest crop of fine-art graduates, and they wield powerful twenty-first century tools such as DHTML or Webcams rather than ninteenth-century palette and brush.'' This breakthrough wouldn't be possible without the Internet which draws ''this audience into creative process''. Nethertheless the power of Internet, which in text is reffered to as new lifeblood, can bring wider audience and can be called a global culture blender. In spite of the dangers that can be acquired through the web, Internet filters can be compared to the vaccination. The tools used might changed but the purpose of art haven't, which Oliver Toscani proofs by his actions and analogy to Caravaggio.

      However there is a constant fear of the fast improving technology to which authors refer as virus. Similiarly to them ''digital technologies are constantly mutating''. Still it is art that offers an important check on technology's rise. However, opposite to the biological system, people are unable to fully predict the consequences of rapid grow of technology. It is art task to keep up with the changes and adapt its functions as ''art is accountable to the social body as antibodies are accountable to the biological one''. Other functions of art as antibody are recognition and perseverance – it can engage attention and is unable to harm the society – unlike the technology. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, art can also develop outside the art world and on larger scale. Still ''the identification of art and antibody has its limits''. It may not acquired some functions fully but it is more directed than, compared again to the biological term, genes. It could be suggested that art reminds more of ''immune system of human population''. Moreover art can ''challenge local phenomena or institutions'', protect the human society and develop thanks to the multi cultural stimulation. Exposing art, rather than protecting it from foreign agents, helps ''transferring cultural memory''.

     The comparison between art and biological system can help illustrate the trends and changes in todays creative world. The digital artists are able to present their's work on the gallery walls as well as traditional pieces can be easily found on the Internet.