Abstract
Does a tension exists between the technical realities of a digital image and the artistic purpose of those contemporary fine art practitioners who create them? Before engaging in the wider discursive issues of digitallity, cultural theorists keenly postulate that all digital images exists in the form of binary data. Furthermore, Digital collage (the focus of this report), whilst clearly an established medium of artistic expression is often described using simile; this can leave the artist feeling that his or her work is overshadowed by the medium itself. The author, an advanced digital image-maker, senses this tension in his own professional participation with digital art, and after examining the existing discourse surrounding the areas of the digital image, collage and photography, discovers that digital collage, is a medium that lends itself to the creation of highly personal artistic outcomes. The project concludes with a theoretically driven online presentation of 10 highly personal digital images that deal with memory, remembrance and mortality following the recent death of the author's father. They are published on the website http://www.johnwashington.co.uk/journal/smallfinds/