Art group educates students on Digital Innovation

The African Art Awakening Forum (AAA) on Wednesday educated students of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) and others on the application of innovative digital tools in arts.

Mr Raphael O’Que-Guale, President, AAA, during the workshop held at YABATECH, Lagos expressed his commitment to enabling students explore the boundless possibilities that technology could offer in advancing the arts industry. The workshop had the theme: “Digital Empowerment: Leveraging Technology For African Art”.

O’Que-Guale, represented by Mrs Florence Onochie, an artist, said that after the  workshop some of the students would be engaged in an art contest.

According to him, the overall winner will  be given a return ticket to Canada, while the first-runner-up will be compensated with N100,000 and  second-runner-up will be given professional art supplies worth N50,000.

“At this age of rapid technological advancement, the fusion of arts and technology can be a powerful catalyst for transformative change, providing new avenues for expression, promotion, and distribution of our rich artistic heritage.

“As we embark on these three days of insightful discussions, immersive workshops and the celebration of artistic brilliance through our art contest, let us embrace the spirit of collaboration and exploration.

“The African Art Awakening Forum is not just a conference, it is a dynamic platform for dialogue, exchange and most importantly, inspiration.

“Our agenda is to stimulate your minds, ignite your creativity and foster meaningful connections,” he said.

Dr John Adenle of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Lagos, enlightened the students on the essence of engaging digital tools for arts.

“Digital tools enable artists to combine various elements, such as animation, sculpture, photography and painting to develop new art forms.

“Digital art breaks boundaries through interactive installations as well. Sensors and other technologies allow viewers to take part in artwork from digital artists,” he said.

Also speaking, Dr Kunle Adeyemi, Director, International Quality Assurance, YABATECH, highlighted the importance of digital image manipulation; digital media techniques; digital printmaking; digital computer and printing; artificial intelligence and art generators.

According to Adeyemi, digital technologies has explored some of the ways in which computers are useful tools for the artist.

He noted that this was not only in terms of the preliminary development of artworks that were realised in other media, but also in the creation of autonomous digital artworks.

He said: “It is a known fact that artists are more commonly originating work on the computer or scanning drawings, paintings, print works or photographs and working on them digitally.

“It has become easier to create black and white line artwork on film or black-and-white, halftone, photographic colour separations on films to make stencils for screen printing or plates and blocks for other methods of printmaking.

“With the development of the digital media, which makes possible the manipulation of slides, prints, digital photographs, much in the way, a painting is developed and modified by using computer software.

“It can then be easily said that photography has moved closer to painting and the boundaries in all the genres of art are coming closer to each other by the day.”

An Impressionistic Painter, Dr Peacemaker Alexandra, took the students through the digital techniques in painting as he advised them on the need to embrace digital technology. He said it was outrightly possible to do installation art work digitally.

“Digital art has come to stay, so, digital empowerment is important, you need to think more on digitising your works,” he said.

NAN/S.S