Electronic Imaging One Art 48.11 History of Computing in the Arts

History of Computing in the Arts

- How can we describe the computer?

Computers are the first, and only, general purpose machines. They manipulate symbols. With software, they become specific. The capabilities of computers are not predefined and can constantly expand to take advantage of underlying technology.

- The major distinction between the two are mainframe and personal computers.

The Printing Press

Important because its development highlights an intrinsic difference between text and images. Text is already an abstract code composed of a limited number of symbols. As long as these are reproduced recognizably, the meaning is intact. For images, there was, until computers, no equivalent system of reproduction. Now, the technology of image creation is close to that of text. Computer images are generated from textual and numerical symbols (code). In a paint program like Photoshop, the image is stored as a series of color values that can be changed to make new pictures. If the image is stored as geometric descriptions (like in Illustrator or Freehand) the artist can edit and reorganize 2D or 3D images.

Early Computing

One fore-runner of computer graphics was the Jacquard Loom of 1806. The pattern the loom generated was broken up into discrete areas with discrete color values. Punch cards were used to convey instructions.

In 1823, Charles Babbage invented a steam powered, analytic device called the difference engine. It was used for ballistic calculations. With Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, he developed four characteristics that describe computer functioning even today.

1. input
2. processing
3. storage
4. output

Babbage stopped working on the project due to lack of funding.

In 1890, Herbert Hollerith developed a "tabulating machine" which calculated the census in months, rather than in the years it was expected to take. This endeavor was the genesis of what later became IBM in 1924.

It was after WWII, that the greatest advances were made in computing. The practical application was to break codes. The most successful endeavor was ENIAC or the Electronic Numerical Integrator Computer. It was completed in 1946 and used 18.000 vacuum tubes. It ran for 10 years and helped to develop the hydrogen bomb.

In the 1960's, plotters were developed and computer graphics moved beyond text toward image generation. Initially, these images contained no curve elements (think of the etch-a-sketch). Images are made by generating algorithms to describe them (instructions for completing a specific task). These functions were handled abstractly through notation until the development of monitors, which enabled one to previsualize the information on a screen.

In 1965, the Howard Wise Gallery presented the first showing of digital graphics. Other shows followed. In 67, Robert Rauschenberg and Billy Kluver from Bell Labs formed Experiments in Art and Technology which brought together artists and scientist. These endeavors gave crediblity to the new form. Early artists working with computers include Manfred Mohr, Charles Csuri, Stan Vanderbeek,and John and James Whitney. The work was presented as wall work or as experimental film. Some 3D sculpture was also created.

The current status of personal computing arose thanks to advances in miniturization of computer components and extreme drops in price. Old mainframe computers are not as powerful as todays PC. A mainframe that cost $3.4 million in 1970 would have cost $11,000 in 1987. In terms of the widespread computer graphics use, the development of interactive graphics widened the user base. In 1963, MIT developed Sketchpad, the first interactive graphics system. In the 1970's, Xerox commissioned a group at their Xerox Parc to create office machines for non-scientists. Developments included new screen technologies which allowed more than the plotter's one or two color limit, raster graphics, which describes image like a television does with phospor dots turned on or off, the GUI or graphical user interface which established the 'desktop' metaphor, and the mouse and its point & click function. In 1984, Apple computers came on the scene and advertised the home computer as a tool for personal empowerment. They also developed the window metaphor and created MacPaint, the first full-color software application.