Role of Digital Technologies in the Conceptual Transforming Foundations of Artistic Creativity

Abstract

Technology in this article refers the transformation of substance, energy and information. Particular attention is paid to digital technologies, which were preceded by analog technologies. If analog technologies were at the heart of socialist realism, then digital technologies became the foundation for postmodernism. In socialist realism, the dominant positions were occupied by communist ideology and propaganda, and technologies in artistic creation performed mainly an auxiliary function. Their main task was to replicate artistic creations. Innovation and creativity in artistic creation were strictly limited by the party and political structures of the Soviet state. In postmodernism, in contrast to socialist realism, external restrictions are insignificant. The state allows the pluralism of opinions and the variety of artistic approaches, and digital technologies make art accessible to everyone. For artistic creation, there are ample opportunities to demonstrate innovation and creativity. The main thing here is the subject of creativity, the artist. This article defends that the thesis that the transition from socialist realism to postmodernism was primarily due to the development of technologies from analog to digital. The decisive role was played by digital technologies, and not by the socio-political changes that took place in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries at the turn of the 80s–90s of the twentieth century. The study employs methods drawn from conceptual analysis, hermeneutics, phenomenology, observation, comparison, as well as visual methods.