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In the article “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins”, the author Jones discussed about how computer graphics development influenced by the old forms of art. The primary thesis of this article is that the development of modern technology highly depends on the historical art and cultural background. Jones mentioned in her article that “These changes are not simply technical effects. They contribute to maintenance and change of culturally conditioned conceptual patterns in the larger cultural historical context” (Page 21). This is the key idea for this course reading, and the author gave us many examples to explain the meaning of this thesis. One of the historical examples that Jones mentioned in her article is that “The stone columns of ancient Egyptian architecture were based on earlier bound papyrus columns” (Page 21). This gives us the idea that our technology development is influenced by old art or historical content. There is the need for people to learn from the past and create new ideas from what they learned. People will be influenced by the cultural background and their knowledge, and those historical content will make the people become who they are. It is impossible for us to develop each technology without the help from older content, and it also wastes time to create a brand new technology from scratch. This article tells us that the importance for us to keep learning from the old content and then develop new ideas based on those learnings.

I think one of the illustrations of Jones’ thesis is the example of the invention of the flying car. I think people will not able to design the flying car if we have never create cars and airplanes. The flying car is a combination of cars and airplanes, which means it is close related to the development of those two technologies. This is how we learned from the past and create the new things for our future. In the article, the abstract mentioned that “New forms of art and technology are frequently cast in the mode of old forms, just as other aspects of material and symbolic culture have been,” (Page 21). The flying car is a perfect example for this article.

Reference:

Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.

It is really interesting topic to discuss about how gaming change our life. In the presentation from Jane McGonigal, she talked about the current situation about online gaming and how games can make a better world for us. I am a gamer for several years, and I will spend about 10 hours each week to play games. It is true that play games will spend us lots of time for doing other things. However, I view gaming as a good way for me to entertain and make friends with others. For me, gaming is a communication tool for my friends. We really enjoy playing games together and we learned how to cooperate with others to finish the games. It is a good idea to design games that can solve our real world problems, and I am willing to play this kind of games to make some contribution. I think it is a good thing for us to explore the possibility that gaming can make some good effort for our real world.