Mixed media art is the art that is flourishing in the digital era and combines both the old and the new techniques to produce an immersive, hybrid experience. Physical paint, collage, sculpture and found objects are overlaid with pixels, code, animations and AR overlay by artists who push the limits far beyond the limits of canvas.
Online applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Procreate allow manipulation in a free way – scanning on paper drawings into 3D objects or animating watercolor lines. Tables and styluses that have pressure-sensitive devices resemble brushes, whereas AI generators such as Midjourney create surreal textures to print onto a piece of fabric or metal. Hybrid workflows begin analog: paste magazine clippings using acrylics, take a picture of it, and distort it using glitch effects in After Effects.
The ownership was transformed and mixed media were minted as blockchain-authenticated NFTs. The sale of Beeple at 69 million dollars is a good example of pixel-collage epics, which is a blend of photography, video, and memes. VR galleries allow visitors to walk through installations, where they can interact with floating holograms of the real sculptures.
It is the access that makes creativity go viral: collage is now democratized by free software like Canva to any amateur, and makerspaces include laser cutters to add LEDs to paintings. Time-lapses are presented in the social media, which is the nurturing source of viral challenges, such as #DigitalCollage.
There are still obstacles: tactile desensitization of screens, and excessive dependence on filters is a threat to homogeneity. However, the first to merge neural networks with installations are such pioneers as Refik Anadol, who creates emotions with the help of data-driven images.
Finally, mixed media is a development of expression, combining the human error with the machine accuracy. Art in this period is medium free where experimentations are always welcome.
