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4. A mathematics of competitive processes based on recombination: HoIland insists on the need for rigorous mathematical generalizations that will define the trajectory of the evolution of a system based on the interaction of competition and recombinationsomething that computer-based experiments cannot provide on their own. Holland's book is almost breathless with the excitement and optimism of the founder of a new scientific discipline . It speaks with joy about the way that the scientific method is being enlarged to deal with phenomena previously thought to be resistant to scientific inquiry. Just as our concept of science was enlarged with the advent of quantum theory at the turn of this century , so the theory of complex adaptive systems promises to redefine the scientific landscape of the next century. I highly recommend this book, particularly to artists and others developing interactive artworks. If Holland is right, there is no reason why a good theory of complex adaptive systems should not also apply to the creation of the interactive art systems of the future. THE SPIRIT OF COMPUTER ANIMATION: THE WORLD OF ELECTRONIC IMAGES AND LEvELs OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Alexey M. Orlov. Mirt, Moscow, Russia , 1993. 105 pp. ISBN: 5-85029-018-4. Reviewed by Tatyana Shulga, Pilot Animatographic Center, Maly Vuzovsky pereulok 4/6, Moscow 109028, Russia. Tel: 7/095/925-16-79. Fax: 7/095/230-08-82. This book is a theoretical work devoted to an analysis of computer imaging and computer animation. This book was preceded by several articles on the topic by Orlov in the Russian national magazine TVT. The book consists of four chapters. The first, "Aesthetics of 'Infantile Periods ' in Cinema Technology," is devoted to an analysis of the peculiarities inherent in the language of cinema, primarily of animated cartoon films. He has identified such phenomena as the "zombie" effect, "plasmatic images," "consciousness in space and in primordial emptiness ," "transformer," "psyche of an infant ," and so on. Their metaphorical form helps him to pinpoint such features of drawn images as unnatural movement, unlimited transformation 236 Reviews possibilities, weightlessness, and so on. Chapter two reviews the most important technological aspects of the creation of computer images in view of their artistic effects. The author considers the structure of pixel images, wireframe models of vector graphics, combinatory geometry as a basis for simulation of complicated objects in the computer medium, the effects of multispectra imaging and pseudocolor, as well as the effects of the perception of an object's delayed movements and the point of view (virtual camera). Chapter three, "The Ecology of Computer Images," considers virtual reality as an ecological niche or environment. The author uses the ecological approach to perception developed by James]. Gibson, a noted American researcher . Such an approach reveals the constants of perception, which remain in the world of computer images and which become the characteristics not of earthly homo sapiens but rather of homo cosmicus, an intermediary who connects all the dimensions of the multiplex universe by his/her "ornni-existence " and penetrates through them. The analysis shows that "transcendent aesthetics," with its corresponding world picture, is similar to ideas from relativistic physics, which present the world as a boundless ocean of energy fields of different density. This is opposed to the commonplace ideas of a mechanistic central orientation, which still continues to be the basis of the world-picture reproduced by traditional cinema, video and animation. In this chapter the author also pays tribute to two outstanding animation film directors of our time-James Whitney, an American, and Piotr Kamler, a Pole who lived in France. Without using computers, they set the stage for the aesthetics that are now the norm for electronic images. The concluding chapter, "Computer Animation with a Human Face," reviews the problem opposite to the previous one: how to adapt the cosmic, transcendent picture of the world, which is typical for electronic images, to the conditions of ordinary perception; how to make it comfortable and intelligible for the ordinary viewer. This chapter brings up perceptual factors that can be used to imbue computer images with earthly features and warmth and can ease the psychological and emotional discomfort that often accompanies the perception of virtual realities . The...

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