Transcript Machine Aesthetics
Digital Aesthetics
Celia Pearce lcc4730 Spring 2007
What is a computer?
• A calculator (computation) • A tool (computer-aided design, word processing) • A medium (Marshall McLuhan, Alan Kay)
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an intermediate state or condition halfway between two extremes one of the means of mass communication such as television, radio, or newspapers 8.
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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
What is a
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 12.
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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 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
Virtual Reality
Jaron Lanier
To be continued next week…
Scott Fisher, VR Simulation 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
Interactivity
QuickTime™ and a Sorenson Video 3 decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Aspen Movie Map, MIT 1978-1981
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
John Whitney
(1917-1995) “Vertigo,” 1958
“Composition”
John Whitney
Aesthetic Computing
Larry Cuba
http://www.well.com/~cuba/ First Fig (1974) 3/78 - Objects and Transformations (1978) 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. Computer Rotoscope QuickTime™ and a Sorenson Video decompressor are needed to see this picture. Visualization Electronic Visualization Lab (1973-present) University of Illinois, Chicago Thomas A. DeFanti, Daniel J. Sandin (Filmed by Phil Morgan, aka “Cross-Eye”) 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 Visual Expression Joan Truckenbrod Visual Expression http://margotlovejoy.com/ Margot Lovejoy Male=Female Database Narrative Gloriana Davenport, MIT Media Lab http://ic.media.mit.edu/projects/JBW/JBWJava.html Interactivity QuickTime™ and a TIFF ( Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see thi s pi ctur e. http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/“Luxo, Jr.” (Pixar Studios, 1986)
“Waking Life” (Richard Linklater, 2001)
Aesthetic Investigations
Proto-Network Art
Ken Perlin