The article is devoted to the comparison of two realities – the digital and the artistic. We demonstrate the principal difference in the mechanisms of their creation. Contemporary artistic practice and theory are undergoing changes to reflect cultural and technological transformations. Today, digital technologies are ubiquitous and widely used in documenting artworks, making them popular and widely available. Also, digital technologies that work with more subtle tools and materials become especially popular and open new horizons for art. However, the structure of digital technologies does not, and possibly never will, enable a living energy impulse of the artwork to become a part of the virtual world. The nature of digital reality is rooted not in the rhythmic but in algorithmic elements, thus putting limitations to what can be achieved through such methods. We discuss the role of a work of art as a biogeochemical factor and the role of digital technologies in deeper connection between viewers and artworks.
Keywords: artistic reality, digital reality, ”living matter”, computer graphics, theory of art.