In the article about computer graphics, Beverly Jones mentioned that computer graphics as a new form of technology is essentially an interdisciplinary invention and a derivation from older forms of artistic representations. The author also argued that the development of technology is not just limited to the time point in which the technology is invented. Instead, the development of technology could be very helpful to the construction of future technologies and tools. The author introduced computer graphics as a ‘transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary’ outcome and claimed that the developments of computer graphics should not be viewed as isolated from other developments of graphic technology and artistic representations.
One of the historical backgrounds given by the author is that in the late 1970s, computers were used by artists more often and many artists such as Giorgioni and Marcus started to generate artistic designs with those computational technologies, resulting in the outcome that artworks in that time period was visually similar to modernist art. It is also mentioned that the construction of these computer graphics have largely affected the modern art history and redefined aesthetic values with the contemporary developments of computer graphics technology.
In today’s culture, many artworks are developed with graphic technology and extended to different realms beyond art. For example, the invention of three D imaging is not only helpful in representing the dimensions, textures and mass/forms of an object, but also is very essential to many other areas such as medical imaging and industrial productions. Things such as three dimensional movies and print artworks give people brand new experiences of visual aesthetics, yet are based on earlier developments of technology such as print imaging and the use of perspectives in artwork productions. Moreover, later developments of medical imaging are largely established upon earlier technological inventions and the basics in computational graphics.
In my research, I have found that computer graphics also have a very tight connection with multimedia. In John DiMarco’s book titled ‘computer graphics and multimedia: applications, problems and solutions”, it is indicated that although no one could fully discourse the extensive disciplines and sub0topis within computer graphics, people are always looking for the next big thing based on interdisciplinary trends and methods. What we are inventing now and what we have invented in the pass essentially determines where computational graphics is going in the future.
References:
DiMarco, J. (2004). Computer graphics and multimedia applications, problems and solutions. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Pub.