Full Description
A Cultural History of Computer Graphics presents a fundamentally new approach to analyzing digital images aesthetically through the example of 3D computer graphics (CG). While numerous methods for creating digital imagery have long existed, the advent of AI-generated content is causing a rise in debates and conflict. It is becoming increasingly difficult to aesthetically differentiate digital photographs, CG and AI images, and yet, because these types of images carry different cultural or even political implications, it is becoming increasingly important to do so. In response to the need of new methods to culturally decode digital imagery, this book starts from the production process and describes computer graphics as an independent method of expression, containing a specific ideological concept of realism. Through this study, it becomes clear that a particular understanding of the world is inscribed in computer graphics software and, consequently, the image creation process. As the image surface does not reveal much about these cultural artifacts, it becomes necessary to focuson the historical development of this imaging practice and analyze it production-aesthetically. In its own unique way, this is true for every digital imaging method. Each embodies its own sense of the world that is only accessible through their production aesthetics. This book will be of great interest to researchers of computer graphics, 3D image generation and the cultural history of computer-generated imagery.
Contents
Acknowledgements. Preface. Part 1: Introduction. 1 Methodology and Structure of the Study. 2 Introductory Overview. Part 2: The Computer as a Creative Partner: The Early Developments of Computer Graphics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 3 Ivan E. Sutherland's Sketchpad and the Birth of the "Universal" Computer Drawing. 4 Parallel Developments: The Computer in the Fine Arts and Design of the 1960s. 5 Steven A. Coons: A New Confluence between Man and Machine. Part 3: University of Utah: The Cradle of Contemporary 3D Computer Graphics. 6 A Common Goal: 3D Computer Graphics between Credibility and Realism. 7 Opacity, Light and Animation: A Strategy for Realizing the Common Goal. Part 4: Realism in US Visual Culture. 8 Pixar's Realism: Edwin Catmull as a Bridge between Production Aesthetics and Visual Aesthetics. 9 The Tangibility of Things: Feeling and Precision in Painting. Part 5: Retrieving 3D Computer Graphics' Lost "Context of Meaning". 10 Technological Progress and Image Practice in the United States. 11 On the Cultural-Historical Background of Synthetic Imaging. 12 Conclusion. 13 A Brief Outlook: What About AI? Figures. List of Films. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. Organizational Chart of the Historiography.
