-Correctly identify the primary thesis of  ”Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins”:

When Beverly Jones begins writing about her ideas and deductions on technology and art, more specifically digital art, she brings in many important points and themes. She focuses in on one, however, as she states, “old cultural patterns do not die. They may fade or become more evident; that is, they may be deemphasized or emphasized.” She brings the theme more toward the technological argument in stating that “computer graphics from 1945 to the present are examined to reveal cultural patterns embedded in their material and symbolic form… these embed patterns may have existed in art, technology or other aspects of material and symbolic culture.” (Jones 51) Essentially she is saying that in digital art we see that there are both computer cultural and social cultural patterns that shine through the artwork that comes out.

-Identify one of the three historical examples Jones provides as an illustration of her thesis:

One historical example of this thesis is found in the Second West Coast Computer Faire in 1978. Talk focused around projections that were made for “application programs with many operational branches could assist in the design process” (Jones 53). This is showing both the computer cultural patterns and social cultural patterns shine through the idea of digital art. The computer cultural patterns come when “completed design in the form of digital data could be used to direct mechanical production” (Jones 53). The theme of computers being use for logical expression is used to direct mechanical process, which fuels creation of cultural ideas formed in creativity.

-Provide a compelling and accurate illustration of Jones’ thesis at work in today’s culture:

In today’s culture one can look no further than the use of the Adobe suite. Our culture has turned to this feature to reshape design and general use art. Posters, cards, banners, and countless other designs utilize the tools of Photoshop, In Design, or Illustrator. The applications use the original computer patterns of logical processes to actually implement a design that is made by people’s imagination. Through it all the initial themes of computers and cultural ideals stay constant today when looking at how technology is combined with artistic creations.

In her Ted Talk: Gaming can make a better world, Jane McGonigal speaks video games’ effect on people and how they can be used to make the world better. She insists, “if we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity I believe that we need twenty one billion hours of online gameplay a week” (McGonigal). She goes on to tell that gaming is a way to learn the skills to fight these problems and eventually work on these. Her mistake, however, is when she moves on to her proposed solution using this. She proposes several games that she has created and they are not online video games at all. The games are simply real life possible scenarios that created in order to prepare people for the potential results of problems and do not actually solve the problems themselves.