Digital Aesthetics Celia Pearce lcc4730 Spring 2007

A calculator (computation) A tool (computer-aided design, word processing) A medium (Marshall McLuhan, Alan Kay) What is a computer?

What is a medium? 1.an intermediate state or condition halfway between two extremes 2.one of the means of mass communication such as television, radio, or newspapers 3.a means of conveying ideas or information 4.a substance through which something is carried or transmitted 5.somebody who is supposedly able to convey messages between the spirits of the dead and living people 6.the means by which something is carried out or achieved 7.any form of material on which data is stored or printed, for example, paper, tape, or disk 8.a substance in which specimens of animals and plants are preserved or mounted 9.See culture medium 10. a substance or the environment in which an organism naturally lives or grows 11. a method that an artist uses or a category such as sculpture in which an artist works 12.the materials that an artist uses in creating a work 13.a solvent mixed with a pigment or paint to make it thinner 14.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

Spacewar! (1961) First fully implemented computer game MIT Model Railroad Club/Steve "Slug" Russell DEC Digital PDP-1 Recreational Technology/Hobby Culture

Sketchpad (1963) Ivan Sutherland’s Ph.D. Thesis First “computer graphics” application Allowed you to draw directly on the screen with a stylus “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

Head-Mounted Display, Ivan Sutherland ( ) First “virtual reality” system Virtual Reality "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

Scott Fisher, VR Simulation for NASA, 1980s Jaron Lanier Virtual Reality To be continued next week…

Human Computer Interaction ALTO Computer Designed at Xerox PARC in k 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 Aspen Movie Map, MIT

Computer Animation

Lumigraph Oskar Fischinger's color organ (1960’s)

“Motion Graphics” John Whitney ( ) “Vertigo,” 1958 John and James Whitney with their mechanical analog computer animating device, modified from an M-5 Antiaircraft Gun Director

“Composition” John Whitney

Aesthetic Computing Larry Cuba First Fig (1974) 3/78 - Objects and Transformations (1978) <Two Space (1979) Calculated Movements (1985)

Computer Animation Computer Graphics Laboratory (1974 to 1992) New York Institute of Technology 1979 to “The Works” First attempt at animated feature

Computer Animation Information International Inc. of Culver City, CA MAGI of Elmsford, NY Robert Abel and Associates of California Digital Effects of New York City “Tron” (Disney, 1982)

Computers in Film “Luxo, Jr.” (Pixar Studios, 1986)

Computer Rotoscope “Waking Life” (Richard Linklater, 2001)

Aesthetic Investigations

Visualization Electronic Visualization Lab (1973-present) University of Illinois, Chicago Thomas A. DeFanti, Daniel J. Sandin (Filmed by Phil Morgan, aka “Cross-Eye”)

Proto-Network Art

Visualization The CAVE (1992) Carolina Cruz-Neira, Thomas A. DeFanti, Daniel J. Sandin Application: Dana Plepys

Scientific Visualization 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 Margot Lovejoy Male=Female

Database Narrative Gloriana Davenport, MIT Media Lab

Interactivity Ken Perlin