Contemporary Arts

Hybridity
 Hybrid Art Forms

What is a hybrid?
A hybrid means something of mixed origin or composition that adds variety or
complexity to a system. In science, a hybrid is the offspring of genetically dissimilar
plants or animals, especially produced by breeding or grafting different varieties or
species. In language, a hybrid word is one whose elements are derived from
different languages. In an automobile, a hybrid combines an electric motor with a
gasoline engine.
Given these definitions of the word hybrid, what would it mean to make a hybrid
art form?
In art forms, hybridity could mean the blurring of traditional distinct boundaries
between artistic media such as painting, sculpture, film, performance,
architecture, and dance. It also can mean cross-breeding art-making with other
disciplines, such as natural and physical science, industry, technology, literature,
popular culture, or philosophy. Hybrid art forms expand the possibilities for
experimentation and innovation in contemporary art.
Todays artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can
imagine. This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It
also opens up a number of challenges, choices, and decisions for artists:
 Should I work to master a traditional art form or should I work to
create innovative new art forms? Or should I do both?
Should I experiment with materials that are industrial or outside the
scope of my studio if those materials seem to be the best way to
express my artistic goals?
How can I define myself as an artist if I am shifting, combining, and
recombining techniques from inside and outside the worlds of art?

- Blurring boundaries, breaking rules, and creating hybrids occupies

much artistic work today. However, making meaning in art
whatever tools, materials, or techniques are usedremains central
to artistic practice. It is important for viewers to keep this in mind as
they explore innovative art today.
 Hybridity
In science, a hybrid is created by mixing the characteristic of two different species in order to create one that is
better or stronger. In an automobile, a hybrid combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine.

What are some plants or animals that are hybrids?

How could this idea transfer when we use the term hybridity to
describe contemporary art?
The concept of hybridity can be applied to two aspects of art today.
Material Hybridity/Blurring the Boundaries
What do artists use to make art? For artists today, the choice of materials and media for creating art is wide open.
Some artists continue to use traditional media such as paint, clay, or bronze, but others have selected new or
unusual materials for their art, such as industrial or recycled materials, and newer technologies such as
photography, video, or digital media offer artists even more ways to express themselves. Many artists working
today incorporate more than material or technique in ways that create hybrid art forms. Combinations of still
image, moving image, sound, digital media, and found objects can create new hybrid art forms that are beyond
what traditional artists have ever imagined.

Artists today are comfortable using whatever seems best to fully investigate and express their ideas or concepts
and often move among different media and techniques to express new things in their work. One approach to
understanding art today involves identifying what media and materials the artists chose and considering why they
chose to work with them.