From: utzoo!utcsrgv!ralph Newsgroups: net.graphics Title: Art and C.G. Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1071 Posted: Sun Feb 20 00:29:21 1983 Received: Sun Feb 20 02:01:46 1983 I have been reading with interest the discussion about art and c.g. that has been going on. I think many good points have been made, and that there is still a great deal of disagreement. I see the latter as a good thing, since it shows that people's ideas of art and how to make it are growing and changing. Re. SIGGRAPH 82: I thought much of the still art was very interesting, but was very disappointed with the video [tapes]. Some of these I found to be visually and sonicly offensive. It seemed (to me) that the artists where just throwing sounds and images onto the tape. A friend characterised this as "masturbating into the medium". I think either my views of art, or these peoples ways of doing things have to change a lot before I will think much of this work, as it seems to me that these people really are masturbating into the medium. Moving to more general things, I agree with elf in Tarana (Toronto?) that there are many things that paint programms can do that are not possible with other media. Perhaps the problem is that the interfaces to these systems frequently impede the creative process or the artist can not afford the bill. I think that the time is not yet ripe for art and c.g. to really achieve symbiosis. The problem is that computer systems are still primarily designed for technical people, not artists, and fast systems are still to expensive. An area where I see some productive working being done, is artists assisting scientists to present information and ideas better. Admittedly, this is not art for art's sake (as this discussion has centred on) but, I am currently involved in a project that involves extensive interaction between two graphics artists and five or six computer scientists. The goal is to improve the visual presentation of program text, but I have learned a great deal about the tools that graphic artist use. It is not hard to see that TEX and [device independent] troff, as text formatters, are hideously inadaquate for the types of things the artists want to do (and the things I now want to do). Perhaps, as a result of interdisciplinary research like this, we (computer scientists) will begin to produce better tools for the production of visual (or sonic) art, and will benfit from the knowledge that the artists can share with us. With luck, either these tools, or out knowledge, will result in better art. To end on a personnal note, my medium of expression is colour photography - primarily of landscapes and cityscapes. I try to keep it well removed from my work in computer science as I find them to be incompatible. However, I do try to use my [limited] understanding of form and composition to help improve the visual presentation of my work, and to assist me in interfacing with the artists in the project. I see this as a case where knowledge from my artistic life is put to practical use. I think this is a key point, evidence, that art really has a place in c.g. at large. not an... Officer and a Gentleman, just a... pseudo-artist and a reformed hack ralph hill ...!decvax!utzoo!utcsrgv!ralph