Twenty Years of Arts Computing
CHArt Twentieth Annual Conference
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FUTURES PAST: Twenty Years of Arts Computing |
Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Institute for Media and Re/presentation, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
1300 Brushes - The History of the Computer as Painting-Machine
“I used 1300 brushes to paint in the background”, a student comments on her work for a short 3D animation. Eloquent or not, the metaphor of painting seems to be irrevocably stuck to computer-generated imagery. It shaped the iconic representation of tools and graphical surroundings in software, the visualization of technologies, and the terminology of those producing and researching CGI.
William T. Mitchell introduced the metaphor into the theoretical discourse, describing how digitisation returned the photographic image to the realm of painting (The Reconfigured Eye, 1992). Later, Lev Manovich extended Mitchell’s argument to the moving image, redefining digital film as “a series of paintings” (The Language of New Media, 2000).
This ‘pictorial turn’ can indeed be witnessed in the many ways digital images are created, edited and post-produced; it is deeply embedded into the working procedures of digital artists. But while conveniently applying the metaphor, it is rarely asked what kind of painting is actually meant and whether digitality is not redefining the very notion of painting itself.
The intention of this paper is to look at the history of the computer as “painting-machine” and the development of the painting metaphor in the discourse surrounding CGI. First, the technical evolution of CGI will be briefly retraced and its close resemblance to the technical history of painting observed. The second part will focus on the development of “digital ateliers” in software like Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Maya or Combustion and the invention of painterly icons.
In conclusion the present status of the painting-machine will be considered. Do artists find themselves restricted by the referential frame of painting? Does this frame merely represent a rather persistent phase of remediation that will bring on new tools, procedures and metaphors? Or will we keep on working with thousands of brushes and virtual pigments because painting is essentially what CGI is all about?