The digitization of art emerged during a time characterized by massive technological innovations not unlike those experienced during the Industrial Revolution. The digitization of art mirrors the increasing movement of today’s societies to a “digital culture” – one where computers and other digital devices and means of communication such as the cellular phone dominate. “Increasingly, pathways to human development intersect with technology, and examples are plentiful of individuals and organizations globally, many in dire circumstances, using a windup radio, a refurbished computer, or a mobile telephone to improve their lives in some ways.” (Wilhelm 2004, 2-3)

The digitization of art is therefore indicative of the digitization of human culture especially in the West where the digitization of art is strongest and most evident. This can be seen in the proliferation of a mass media and communication technology culture which entail the proliferation of the computer and other related advances…

… The historical processes involved in the evolution of the digitization of art is therefore in many ways a microcosm of the digitization process that has occurred in various other aspects of society and culture. The rise of digital art and the digitization of art are indicators of the pervasiveness of the elements that brought about its development in modern society.

Remember. Past promise…memory…carved in the black straight lines of our secret missals, in the silence of dusty ledgers and empty pages, remember. Recall

the pale whiteness of your finger raised, how it lightly brushed the arch of a lip and tapped. Forgive me my transgressions. Forgive

the eyes that strayed down from the finger to that other whiteness half-hidden
thinking what it would be like to hold it once, just once …

Remember taking my trembling fingers and with your own frail fragile ones formed the silent pact of eternal kinship (to protect,

to never betray). I have betrayed you. I have

lost the right to call you. I called you dear… Dearest… sister. The smile on your lips did not mock, did not reproach my hesitations, my fears…

But it is you I fear. You and I. I and myself. My own guilt in calling you my sister…mine.

Remember.

I am your brother. I promise never to leave you.
I already have.

I do not ask for a clean slate. I know there is no such thing in this world. Even when we’re born there already exists those reflexes that tell us that we’re alive, that we’re human. We did not begin tabula rasa so I do not expect you to grant me that grace. No. I will not call it grace. I call it curse. To negate my past is to negate my existence.

But if you ask it …

But if you ask it I will. I will commit that greatest sin. I will commit …

Related | Prohibitions |

Even now the scent of jasmine clings to skin. I am drunk. Even now when all that is left is the scent of a faded promise I cling to my illusions. I desire to see you. No. I will see you. There is only that. You tell me to forget but there is no forgetting. Not when I know that your existence still resounds in my world. Not when I know the only thing that separates reality from fantasy is this thin veil of death.

Related | Prohibitions II |