Art?
Emphatically YES and emphatically NO! (There goes my split personality again)
What am I saying? Well IMHO while some computer generated design is definately art, some is definately not. Much of my work I consider to be on the "artistic" end of design, but I still consider it design. My partner however is a pure artist. She creates amazing works in Photoshop that are intrinsically creative and beautiful, and I have seen a great deal of other amazing works done by talented computer artists.
As jhilgeman pointed out, time changes how we look at things, and to me the computer is a new medium for artists. At one stage painting was basically used only for landscapes, portraits and thing that were "real". When the camera came into play some thought that painting would die out, but instead it opened the possibility of new things and new movements of art. Even the camera itself, while used as a tool by many, is used by a talented group to produce its own form of art.
On the flip side, this doen't mean that everything created on a computer or in Photoshop is "true art". As I mentioned before, I still consider what I do with my work to be design. I am given the brief etc and design something around it. I am being creative, and I would be so bold as to say I have an artistic flair in my work, both on paper and when it gets to the computer, but it is a different level and purpose and I would not call it "art". It is almost like the line between "art" and "craft". To me a craft is a skill, not a talent. Many can learn the skill, but the creative talent is the one who tends to produce something truly original and imaginative and it can be seen in their work, no matter what the medium...
So while I think it definately can be art, in the hands of "Joe Blogs" who has a fantastic computer and all the creative software you could dream of but who doesn't possess a creative bone in his body... no. And in the middle, the line gets all blurry.
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