material girl in a digital world

I've been thinking lately about the impact digital technology has had on the art world and I am most impressed by its ability to create new realities almost magically. Never before has it been so easy to alter visual appearances. The validity of the photographic image can no longer be trusted as artists blur the line between fantasy and reality. Programs such as Photoshop allow for a new and improved kind of hyper-beauty, instantly erasing all flaws and signs of age. Figures can easily be placed in new settings, creating new histories. Filters can transform the photograph's appearance into that of a painting, drawing, or mosaic. It's incredibly liberating to have such power at the tip of your fingers. It's modern magic, allowing for the creation of grand, beautiful illusions. This semester I would like to focus on this idea of altering reality through the use of digital media. I plan to do this through the use of digital photography and Photoshop by taking images of people and objects from the material world and placing them in fabricated or appropriated scenes of a utopian nature to capture that grey area where fantasy and reality blurs, existing together in imperfect harmony.