CMA Seminar   - Digital Image as Material Object: Archaeologies of Computer Graphics

The computer is not a visual medium. While today our interactions with computational technologies are almost all mediated by screen interfaces and digital image technologies, visual representation is in no way essential to the theory of computation itself. Likewise, most of us think of computer graphics as a relatively recent invention, enabling the spectacular visual effects and lifelike simulations we see in current films, television shows, and digital games. In fact, computer graphics have been around as long as the modern computer itself, and played a fundamental role in the development of computer science in the second half of the twentieth century. This talk takes up that history. Focusing on the groundbreaking research program at the University of Utah from 1965 to 1980, I argue that while visual representation is not essential to the theory of computation, computer graphics are one of the principal technologies of our historical present, and have reshaped the way we understand, relate with, and engage the material world today.