Alteration, change, mutation. The Oxford English Dictionary states that revolution is “a period or instance of significant change or radical alteration of a particular condition [or] state of affairs”. Carl Marx said it is “the historically inevitable transition from one system of production to another.” There is talk everywhere about the so-called Digital Revolution, and the revolution of the internet and the World Wide Web. Much of the talk has been either utopian, praising the benefits of e-commerce and the connecting of the whole world into a mythical “global village”. Or it has been dystopian, warning of rampant pornography and cybercrime spreading like a digital plague.
In fact, this revolution is neither of these things and both of these things. But more importantly for the creative professional, it is a radical change in how creative expression will be done in the next century. Thomas Jefferson said that “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” and indeed it is, for change keeps culture moving and evolving. However, Jefferson also warned that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Change can be painful, and radical change is always traumatic.
This radical change is painful for the creative professional who makes the move from other mediums such as print publishing, film, video, photography, graphic design, etc. to the new medium of Web design. At first the Web does not seem all that different. It’s just like print or graphic design or film or photography, except that you don’t have to deal with paper or film. It’s easy. Once you’re done with your work on the screen, you just upload it to a server and you’re finished. No messy Pantone inks to worry about, no darkroom chemicals.
But the ease of the Web is an illusion. The essance of the Web page is hidden behind the browser. And if you’re used to using a WYSIWYG application such as Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, or Claris HomePage, you have further been fooled into thinking that the essence of Web design is purely visual. Behind all this smoke and mirrors are things like HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, StyleSheets, and CGI Scripts. These are what actually make up the medium of the web, and if you as an artist don’t know them well, then you’re painting without holding a brush or knowing what paint feels like. You’re allowing someone else’s hands to carelessly splotch the paint on your canvass, while you’ve never felt the pressure of the brush pushing the globs of oilpaint across the fabric with your own hands.
In order to be a true Web Artist, you have to learn Web Programming. The Web is a medium of code, and you need to know your medium in order to work with it. This will be a hard thing to grasp for many artists, because you’ve been told all your lives that artists are artists, and programmers are programmers, and unless you’re a freak of nature you don’t cross that line. Free your mind from this idea. The division between the artist and programmer is arbitrary, and there is truly artistic expression to be found in the code.
