What are we seeing, exactly?

Part of a symposium on how digital technologies affect the practices of art and art history. The writer shows that the average resolution of images is plummeting and that their color is as undependable as it was back in the days of hand-colored lithographs. He also discusses computer art and the uses of digital images for research. These three issues, he explains, are intended to be simple statements of existing conditions. He asserts, however, that each one leads rapidly into thorny questions about the discipline in general: about the kinds of images we prefer and the art history that can be written using such images.