From: utzoo!utcsrgv!alain
Newsgroups: net.graphics
Title: Re: art and c.g.
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1142
Posted: Wed Mar  2 21:30:12 1983
Received: Wed Mar  2 21:45:10 1983
References: cornell.4037 turtleva.169

Oh, I can't resist anymore. To those who say that nothing produced in c.g.
could not have been produced by "traditional" means, it is as true, and as
meaningful, than saying than you can walk to anywhere a fast train can take you.
Maybe oyu are not in a hurry, but it is not the issue. Besides, they 
conveniently neglect animated pictures. Show me a team of animators
that can do three-D animation right. But again, again, this is not the real
issue.
Closer to the real issues are those who confuse art (ART) and pleasure.
So you like to sit and play guitar, or do watercolo(u)r on a sunny day.
Great. I too can enjoy the simple pleasure of trimming my toenails
on a sunny day. But do I call it art? Noooooo! Art is not easy and enjoyable
and should not be (I accept arguments about the latter clause, not the former).
Do you think chiseling marble or stone, getting silicosis in the process,
do you think engraving copper plates, and getting blind or sick from aqua
regia fiumes (sorry fumes), do you think practicing calligraphy for fifty
years and turning the neighbouring pond black from spent ink, do you
think spending months upside down painting a damn ceiling, do you think
that is enjoyable, do you think that is user friendly, do you think that is
art. Well of course it is enjoyable in some (quasi) perverted sense.
But certainly not as a sunny day in the shade. (How come you can spend
a sunny day in the shade, but not a shady day in the sun?). And for you
still puzzling, the answers to the big question (is this art) is yes.
People describing musical instruments as the archetypal user friendly
interface to very complex tasks make me laugh. What's user friendly about
a violin? Any computer system that hard not only to master, but just
to make work halfway properly, would have been junked a long time ago
(unless it were an IBM product).
But then again, what is the real issue?
Damned if I know.
~e
!