Category: Unit 08

After reading Jones’ article about the influence of technology and computer graphics in society, one thing he brought up really stuck with me. He talked about how some people set limits on success: “examples express the tendency to set limits of ‘the possible’ based on previous experience, knowledge and conceptual frames” (Jones 21). This made me wonder, why do people set limits on how much they can succeed and accomplish? Why does society tell you you can only achieve as much as others, and not much more? I feel like this quote shows that people would rather stay the same and do not believe that can they can achieve the unexpected because previous generations tell them there’s a limit to how much you can succeed. So my question is, why did this thought process come to be and why does it still exist in our society?

In the article, “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins,” Beverly Jones talks about the influence of technology and computer graphics in society.  His main thesis is art and computer graphics reflect the origins and prior practices of our culture. He argues that although the reflections and origins may “fade or become more evident… be deemphasized or emphasized” old cultural patterns do not completely disappear with the rise of new technology (Jones 21). To support his thesis, in the middle of the essay, he says that “new [computer graphics] users bring additional assumptions and considerations of… technique [to the field]… however, some traces of the origins… remain in these” new ideas (21). Throughout the article, it talks about how the origins of art remain in computer graphics, in many aspects of our daily life. Since everyone uses graphics and multimedia to enhance work in the fields of education, communication, entertainment and many more, Jones’ claims it is hard to categorize computer graphics as a unique field that does not influence others parts of society. Jones’ also claims “both scientific and artistic sources rely on culturally embedded patterns of reality represented by varying degrees of abstraction in symbolic and material culture” (29).

Another reoccurring theme in Jones’ article is the idea about limits. Not math limits, but limits society puts on its growth and development. While discussing the early advancements of technology and its beginning stages of becoming embedded in society, Jones’ talks about how people originally did not believe that technology would become such a prominent force in today’s culture. They set boundaries that they did not think could be broken: “these examples express the tendency to set limits of ‘the possible’ based on previous experience, knowledge and conceptual frames” (21).  While reading this section and seeing how limits are set, I think that Jones’ is trying to challenge the audience, asking them to reflect quickly on themselves. He seems to indirectly be asking, “Why do we set limits?” Why, as a community, do we try to set boundaries regarding how far and how successful something new can be? One of the historical connections Jones includes in his work in the connection to people setting limits on how successful computers and technology would be and Mercedes Benz motors: “early market predictions of the Mercedes Benz Corporation… limited the number of potential automobile sales to the very low number of trained chauffeurs then available” (21). Jones believes that Mercedes Benz underestimated the amount of cars they could sell because they underestimated how many people actually knew or could learn how to drive. This company set limits on their potential success like many people does and this is exactly the same as when people did not expect technology to become so important. But guess what, in current day, everyday life revolves around computing and the use of computers and technology (26).

People seem to set limits on goals because they are afraid of the unexpected. Dani Shapiro wrote that “the job- as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy – of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it” (Popova). I think this connects to what Bones’ believes, that computer graphics has been so successful because it consists of a workforce or people who are creative and risk-takers. They embody the beginning of society’s mindset of achieving the unachievable and accomplish the unexpected. This mindset has allowed for such great advances and has allowed technology and computer graphics to become such a powerful force in today’s society. Because the people who founded the computer graphics field and who stuck by their origins and used creativity and imagination to their advantage, technology has become so important in our society. Computer graphics is a way for people to try new things, while pushing the limits of society because they know that “uncertainty is where things happen. It is where the opportunities – for success, for happiness, for really living – are waiting” (Popova).

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

Popova, Maria. “Stop Making Plans: How Goal-Setting Limits Rather Than Begets Our Happiness and Success.” Brain Pickings RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.