Abstract

This paper examines the shifting, evolving, mercurial nature of the digital image as it is exemplified in the work of Gerald Hushlak. We use a Deleuzian ontology to frame this discussion. We conceive the discussion as a conversation between artist, Gerald Hushlak, and scholar, Jennifer Eiserman: On the being of the digital image: An aesthetic theory of digital art evolves. Eiserman develops an aesthetic theory that situates the being of the digital image within a Deleuzian ontology as a shifting, moving occurrence that is always in a state of becoming Gerald Hushlak describes his experience working in an evolutionary manner using the computer to make art. He discusses the way in which his images are in a constant state of becoming based on programmed hierarchies that guide the combining of digital source data from digital photographs into hundreds and thousands of permutations, actualized on his computer screens and occasionally extracted as printed images. We intend that the two parallel texts be read in a rhizomic fashion. We ask the reader to allow connections between them to emerge, as the texts in turn connect with the reader’s context and understanding. The paper concludes with a reflection on the importance of defining the aesthetic character of this new art form in order that it evolve within an indigenous, rather than imported, practical and theoretical context.