Transcript Machine Aesthetics

Immersive Media/
Virtual Reality Part 1
Celia Pearce
lcc4730
Fall 2007
What is a
computer?
• A calculator (computation)
• A tool (computer-aided design, word
processing)
• A medium (Marshall McLuhan, Alan
Kay)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
an intermediate state or condition halfway between two extremes
one of the means of mass communication such as television, radio, or
newspapers
a means of conveying ideas or information
a substance through which something is carried or transmitted
somebody who is supposedly able to convey messages between the spirits of
the dead and living people
the means by which something is carried out or achieved
any form of material on which data is stored or printed, for example, paper,
tape, or disk
a substance in which specimens of animals and plants are preserved or
mounted
See culture medium
a substance or the environment in which an organism naturally lives or grows
a method that an artist uses or a category such as sculpture in which an artist
works
the materials that an artist uses in creating a work
a solvent mixed with a pigment or paint to make it thinner
any of several similar sizes of paper, especially 47 cm by 58.5 cm /18.5 in. by
23 in
What is a
medium?
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc.
Early Experiments
w/ Computers
Recreational Technology/Hobby Culture
•
•
•
•
Spacewar! (1961)
First fully implemented computer game
MIT Model Railroad Club/Steve "Slug" Russell
DEC Digital PDP-1
“Medium” for Creation
"A display connected to a
digital computer gives us a
chance to gain familiarity
with concepts not
realizable in the physical
world. It is a looking glass
into a mathematical
wonderland."
– Ivan Sutherland
•
•
•
•
Sketchpad (1963)
Ivan Sutherland’s Ph.D. Thesis
First “computer graphics” application
Allowed you to draw directly on the screen with a stylus
"The ultimate display
would, of course, be a
room within which the
computer can control the
existence of matter. A chair
displayed in such a room
would be good enough to
sit in. Handcuffs displayed
in such a room would be
confining, and a bullet
displayed in such room
would be fatal. With
appropriate programming
such a display could
literally be the Wonderland
into which Alice walked.”
—Ivan Sutherland
Virtual Reality
• Head-Mounted Display, Ivan
Sutherland (1969-1970)
• First “virtual reality” system
<video>
Virtual Reality
Jaron Lanier
Scott Fisher, VR Simulation
To be continued next week…
for NASA, 1980s
Human Computer Interaction
• ALTO Computer
• Designed at Xerox
PARC in 1973
• 128k RAM, 608x808
screen, 2.5MB
removable hard disk and
built-in Ethernet.
• About 1,000 in use by
1979
• Was the model for the
Apple computer GUI
<video>
Computer Animation
Lumigraph
Oskar Fischinger's color organ (1960’s)
“Motion Graphics”
John and James
Whitney with their
mechanical analog
computer animating
device, modified from
an M-5 Antiaircraft
Gun Director
“Vertigo,” 1958
John Whitney
(1917-1995)
“Composition”
John Whitney
<video>
Aesthetic Computing
First Fig (1974)
3/78 - Objects and
Transformations
(1978)
<Two Space (1979)
Calculated
Movements (1985)
Larry Cuba
http://www.well.com/~cuba/
Computer Animation
1979 to 1986- “The Works”
First attempt at animated feature
Computer Graphics Laboratory (1974 to 1992)
New York Institute of Technology
Computer Animation
“Tron” (Disney, 1982)
•
•
•
•
Information International Inc. of Culver City, CA
MAGI of Elmsford, NY
Robert Abel and Associates of California
Digital Effects of New York City
Computers in Film
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
“Luxo, Jr.” (Pixar Studios, 1986)
Computer Rotoscope
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
“Waking Life” (Richard Linklater, 2001)
Interactivity
“Artificial Reality”
Video Place
Myron Krueger, 1960s-1980s
Visualization
Electronic Visualization Lab (1973-present)
University of Illinois, Chicago
Thomas A. DeFanti, Daniel J. Sandin
(Filmed by Phil Morgan, aka “Cross-Eye”)
<video>
Visualization
http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=8&type=8&indi=3
The CAVE (1992)
Carolina Cruz-Neira, Thomas A. DeFanti, Daniel J. Sandin
Application: Dana Plepys
Scientific Visualization
http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=8&type=2&indi=53
Quaternion Julia Sets in Virtual Reality (1989)
Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL)
John Hart, Maggie Rawlings
Maxine Brown, Thomas A. DeFanti, Louis H. Kauffman, Daniel J. Sandin
Performance Augmentation
The Catherine Wheel (Twyla Tharp & David Byrne, 1982)
http://www.rebeccaallen.com/v1/work/work.php?isVideo=1&wNR=20&wLimit=15
Bush Soul (#1), 1992
http://www.rebeccaallen.com/v1/work/work.php?is3D=1&wNR=26&wLimit=3
Rebecca Allen
Interactivity
QuickTime™ and a
Sorenson Video 3 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Aspen Movie Map, MIT 1978-1981
Visual Expression
Joan Truckenbrod
Visual Expression
Male=Female
http://margotlovejoy.com/
Margot Lovejoy
Visual Expression
Joan Truckenbrod
Interactivity
Quic kTime™ a nd a
TIFF (Un co mp res sed ) d eco mp re sso r
ar e n eed ed to see thi s p ictu re.
Ken Perlin