Image: Techspressionism: Digital and Beyond opening reception at Southampton Arts Center, April 23, 2022. Pictured artists (left to right): Diane Marsella, Carter Hodgkin, Renata Janiszewska (on iPad), Darcy Gerbarg, Mary Boochever, Tommy Mintz, Verneda Lights, Tom Dunn (SAC Executive Director), Nina Sobell, Roy Nicholson, Nina Yankowitz, Roz Dimon, Colin Goldberg, ScoJo, Steve Miller, Patrick Lichty, Tali Hinkis (kneeling), Christine Sciulli (kneeling), John Zieman (back row), Kyle Lapidus, Mary Ann Strandell, Holly Gordon, Michael Rees (back row) Dalton Portella (kneeling), Joe Diamond (SAC General Manager), Dan Welden, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Anne Spalter, Gregory Little. Artworks behind group by Frank Gillette. Photo ©2022 Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com
A Community of Artists
Techspressionism is introduced as a new art-historical term to describe fine artists using digital technology to convey subjective, emotional content.
Techspressionism distinguishes expressive fine art results from such genres as “digital art,” which can include animated movies, and video games, as well as from “new media” works that do not embody convincing artistic intent.
The subjective lens of the individual artist (rather than the product of a corporate studio) is what connects Techspressionism to its predecessor, Expressionism. Expressionists presented the world from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically in order to evoke moods or ideas, seeking to express their emotional experience rather than physical reality.
A core group of artists have begun working together to develop momentum for the adoption of the term Techspressionism. We meet monthly at our Techspressionist Salon artist meetups on Zoom to discuss art and technology.
The Techspressionist Manifesto, a document that draws inspiration from artistic manifestos of the past (including Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto and Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto) is a open-ended document subject to ongoing revisions.
We encourage artists who identify with the approach of using technology as a means to express emotional experience to self-identify as Techspressionists by including the hashtag #techspressionism on Instagram and other social media platforms.
Our Instagram curator Renata Jansiszewska is actively reviewing images using the hashtag and reposting a curated selection of these works to the official community instagram account. Artists whose work is reposted are invited to be included in an online index of Techspressionist visual artists.
Anne Morgan Spalter, January 2021, Brattleboro, VT, USA.
ATTEND A SALON
Techspressionist Salons are our core community-building activity. They are a time and place in cyberspace where artists gather once a month to hang out, share their work and discuss matters relating to art, philosophy, and technology. These meetups were conceived as a modern counterpart to the Surrealist salons of the 1920’s, in which artists could meet informally to socialize and discuss ideas. Techspressionism is a 100% volunteer-based international artist community. Salons are moderated by a rotating panel of artist volunteers. After the recording ends, artists are welcome to hang out for the afterparty (aka advisory board meeting), in which the topic for the next Salon is decided upon, and other community-related ideas are discussed.
Sign up below to receive registration links for our monthly Techspressionist Salons on Zoom, where you can meet other artists and present your work in recorded sessions. Your information will not be shared with any third parties and you can unsubscribe at any time.
SHARE YOUR WORK
If you feel you identify with the artistic approach of utilizing technology as a means to express emotional experience, feel free to add the hashtag #techspressionism when you post your artwork to Instagram, X and Facebook to become visible to our curators. If you tag @techspressionism on your Instagram stories, this will allow us to easily share your work to our story. The hashtag is the primary means of how Techspressionism has spread to over 40 countries since its inception as a collaborative project in 2020. Artists making themselves visible to our social media curators through the use of the hashtag is the primary method of how artists are sourced for inclusion our Artist Index. Many thanks to our community Instagram curator Renata Janiszewska for her generous contribution of time and energy to this project. You also can follow Techspressionism’s official accounts on Instagram and X and join Techspressionists Facebook Group to further share your artwork, ideas and events with the community.