Digital Image—Digital Cinema

DIGITAL IMAGE-DIGITAL CINEMA The theme selected for this supplemental issue of LPoncirdo is, in part, an acknowledgment of the lack of appropriate language to describe the diverse ways the computer is used in artistic practice. This artistic practice is progressively leading us through a continuum of digital variation. Static images, moving images, interactive images-all are being rendered as digital versions of their former selves.The hyphenated theme “Digital Image-Digital Cinema”is meant to suggest this continuum of practice. Many professional artists and filmmakers are pushing aside the traditional boundaries associated with earlier methods and strategies for work. ACM-SIGGRAPHhas sponsored art exhibitions for the past 10years. These SIGGRAPH art shows have become an important venue for visual artists who are using digital processes in their work. Much of the early defensiveness relating to the computer and art is now fading away. Earlier fears that the computer would mechanize, standardize or trivialize aesthetic values have not proved to be valid. The art community is truly in an exploratory mode with digital processes. The artists selected for the Digital Image-Digital Cinema exhibition have found that digital means extend their artistic reach. The variety and strength of the work in the exhibition demonstrate the power of these digital means and the mastery of the artists who use them. The authors selected for this catalog chronicle this continuum and variety of artistic practices. The research methods employed by the authors vary from the theoretical to the empirical. The articles examine issues as diverse as the role of digital imagery in art-historical practice (Michael Ester), the degree to which early film theory accounts for current practice in digital cinema (John Berton) and the role that prior knowledge (based on earlier forms) has on our conceptions of the possible in digital imagery (BeverlyJones). Also in this issue Rudolf Arnheim extends his early work in film theory with a new English translation of work originally published in German in 1932. Peter Voci explores the use of the digital image in facial reconstruction for forensic purposes. The strength of the writing and of the artistic practice are to found in their diversity. Thousands of artists worldwide are exploring digital processes for artistic purposes . The SIGGRAPH ’90Art Show presents the work of many of these professionals who are defining the character and nature of a digital art movement. Artists are testing these new means, digital processes, to see if they can extend their purposes. It is likely not only that such an investigation will uncover new ‘means’for traditional ‘ends’but also that new artistic ends will become available to the artist. THOMAS E. LINEHAN 0 1990ISAST PergamonPress PIC.Printedin Japan 0024-094)(/9053 OO+O.OO ...