Digital, Lens-Based, and Installation Practice

Contemporary Visual Arts extends well beyond traditional drawing, painting, print, and sculpture. Lens-based media, digital tools, and installation are now central to how many artists work, and the Visual Arts course encourages students to explore this expanded field. This lesson introduces these newer media and the thinking they require.

Lens-based media: photography and the moving image

Lens-based work is made with a camera, whether a still photograph or a moving image. Photography is not simply a way of recording; the artist makes decisions about framing, viewpoint, focus, depth of field, light, and the moment captured. The same technical vocabulary that shapes any image applies: composition, tone, color, and focal point. A photographer controls exposure through the relationship of aper