Article Analysis of James Elkins’ What Are We Seeing Exactly?

By Kate A. Francisco

The article "What Are We Seeing Exactly?" by James Elkins, is an article on the
impact of digitization on historical artworks. As an art historian, Elkins is worried
about the appearances of digitized artworks from the past since they may display an
inaccurate context. Elkins proposed the idea that because of digitization, the quality
or resolution of the images is reducing and the colors are not precisely as they were
when they were created before.

Elkins provided different historical artworks that have gone through a series of
digitization. It is stated in the article that images on pages are entirely not accurate
because the original image was photographed, made into another plate, printed
again, and once again photographed. Meaning, each of the procedures lessens the
quality of the original image, for instance, contributing blur or slight changes to its
color. The author gave an example of an artwork named Las Meniñas, providing
three different copies of the artwork that have gone through digitization. It is stated
that some details from the original artwork disappeared in the scanned version. The
author worries that they may have been teaching students a misleading knowledge
as said by the author, “we do not look closely at pictures unless we are looking for
symbols or historically pertinent signs”, which means we only see but we do not look.

Even with these shortcomings, digitalization is still useful in some cases such as
research purposes. Elkins shared an experience where he used an imaging software
to magnify in order to see the details as well as used a threshold that allowed him to
change the contrast of the image that made him understand more about the artwork.
It helped him see images differently allowing him to see analytic possibilities and
meanings. For Elkins, art historians and technology have a love-hate relationship.

Elkins’ article showed informative ideas. Personally, I do agree with what he stated.
Digitized images are indeed inaccurate to the original artwork, unless we used a
high-quality camera to scan. I, myself, have experienced this recently. I submitted
assignments that are art drawn traditionally. Whenever I scan the artwork, the image
on-screen shows inaccurate versions especially when it is drawn using only pencils.
It shows an inexact version that may result in disadvantages, particularly on my end,
in which I can receive a low grade. However, technology is not all negative, because
just like what Elkins stated in his article, there are softwares that are useful that can
help us thoroughly understand artworks. We can zoom in and out the images,
allowing us to see accurate details. This is very beneficial when attempting to
reproduce or reference digital artworks into traditional artworks. Zooming in and out
can also be advantageous in digital art, where it is easier to input little details in a
precise location, while in traditional art, small details must be drawn with pencils or
pens with a small point. Similar to Elkins' idea that computers just accelerate the
creation of images, or in this instance, artworks.

Therefore, it is important to know the proper use of digitization and to be informed

that digital images of traditional artworks, which may be similar to the original, are
still slightly different. That is why, Elkins as an art historian, counsels students to
return frequently to the original pieces. We have a significant role to play in
connecting the future to the past. It is essential to teach and learn about art history
because it expands our opportunities for discovery and helps us grasp the stories of
the past.

Takeaways:
● Digitized copies of traditional and historical artworks will tend to be inaccurate
especially when it is not scanned by a high-quality camera.
● It is important to be aware that there will be subtle changes in images when it
has gone through a series of digitization.
● In order to thoroughly understand the background of an artwork, specifically
historical artwork, we must look at it deeply.
● Computers speed up the production of images/artworks, however this does
not mean that using technology in creating art is cheating.