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Art in the age of digital simulation

The computer represents the end of Renaissance space in art - the demise of

Eucl idean geometry . . . Digi t izat ion represents the new world order, the

transi t ion f rom simulacra to s imulat ion, f rom copyingto model ing'

The computer . . . beginsto assimilate representation i tself . . . video, f i lm, and

pr incipal ly photography are being chal lenged to hold their author i ty against

v isual model ing systems that are emerging which ecl ipse their forms . . . As

representation and technology converge, a crlsls emerges.

Computers represent a challenge to conventional notionsof visual representation

Until recently, images have been created through acts of human perception either through

ski l ls based in eyelhand coordinat ion or through the lens of photocopying processes of

media tools such as photography, c inemat ic f i lm, or v ideo, where what is seen is recorded

through various chemical or electronic processes as an immediate copy of reality. However,

the computer reads electronical ly scanned aspects of real i ty as informat ion about I i$ht

structures, stor ing th is numerical informat ion in i ts database, which can eventual ly be

programmed to appear as v isual imagery.

Computers greatly accelerate the process of mathematical abstraction in the visual arts.

Digi ta l images simulate the real by mathematical ly model ing i t rather than imitat ing i t through

a copying process. Simulat ions cannot be considered as "s imulacra" or copies, for there is

no point in regarding digi ta l informat ion models as s imple fakes or reproduct ions. They can

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A digi ta l photographic image is, then, a representat ionbased mathematical language structures achieved through

. : r . . . , ' . . KetthHaning, Untitled,1984. acryl ic oncanvas, sfb x sf t .

[The Keith HaringEstate and the PaulMaenz Gallery,

Cologne; Photo;

lvan Dalla Tanal

made through logical , numerrc_encoding informat jon about the

generate any kind of imagery or any kind of "reality." Although the Cubists and Constructivistschal lenged crassicar not ions of r inear space, they retained the r ine, the prane, the forms socharacteristic of Euclidean geometry with the body sti l l the measure undertyjng the structure.wi th in the logical wor ld of computers where number, not shape or volume def ines geometr icspace, nature and the body as we know them do not exist .

Although a digital image looks Iike its photographic counterparl, it is very different fromthe light-sensitized granules of f i lm or the electronic variation of l ight intensities in video. Adigit ized image is composed of discrete elements called pixers each having assrgned precisenumerlcal values, whlch determine hor izontal and vert ical locat ion as wer as a speci f jc gray-scale or color intensi ty range. such a structure of p ixels is control lable through a ser ies ofenormously com plex effects.

A digitar image does not represent an opticartrace such as a photograph butprovides a rogicar moder of visuar experrence. rn other words, it describes notthe phenomenon of percept ion, but rather the physicar raws that govern i t ,manifesting a sequence of numbers stored in computer memory. rts structureis one of ranguage: Iogicar procedures or argor i thms through whrch data rsorchestrated into visual form.1

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: , , : : . . t r r : . r : ) . , i i . Joseph Nechvatal , The tnformed Man, 1986, computer, /nobot ic-assis led

Scanamural [acryl ic on canvas], 82f t x 1 ' ' l 6f t

ln making the decis ion to enlarge his image to epic pnopont ions using the scanamural pnocess, Nechvatal

wanted to make a speci f ic point in neferen ce Eo The lnformed Man, a paint ing produced electnonical ly,

that is composed of degr"aded informat ion patterns. The air"bnush guns that nepnoduce the lmage are

guided by computeT-dflven fobotic anms fed with infoPmation derived from scanning the oniginal art wonk

las a smal l t ranspanency) and enlanging i t to 82ft x I 1 6f t onlo a canvas support

[Caltection Dannheisser FoundationJ

l ights, darks, and colors of real i ty captured and digi t ized through any kind of lens or scanning

procedure. The computer reads electronical ly scanned (digi ta l ) informat ion about a scene and

transforms i t into numerical data which can be made vis ib le as imagery. once an image's

structure of l ights and darks, its "information," has been digit ized bythe computer into its

numeri0aIdataspace, i tspictureelementsorpixe|scanbecontro| |edindiv idual ly.Theycanbe al tered, manipulated, weighted, warped, or reposi t ioned to create not only a s imulat ion of

a photograph l rut a lso an art i f ic ia l or paral le l "v i r tual" real i ty '2

Seeing is no longer believing

Photographs were once recognized as the epitome of truth. A photograph is actually, of course,

an i l lusion of the "true." lt is throu$h photography that many artists have examined questions

of originality and authenticity. Now a photograph's information can be processed or changed

by manipulat ing or warping i ts structural l ight components in the computer to create images

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which are complete s imulat ions. The computer 's art i f ic ia l s imulat ions of real i ty are indis-t inguishable in appearance from photographs. The capabi l i ty to invade rmages and createinvis ib le al terat ions to photographs, thereby undermining i ts accepted ' t ruth, , ' author i ty, andauthent ic i ty through a seamless process of retouching and edi t ing is a destabi l izat ion ofthe image. l t has created a cr is is of bel ief which has pol i t ical impl icat ions. We can no longerrely on the old system of " t ruth in images." For example, dur ing the 1991 Gulf war, a photo_graph of l raqi d ictator Saddam Hussein, seamlessly manipulated on the computer so that hismustache was made to resemble Hitler's, was produced as wall posters for the city streets.writ ing in the catalog for the lnfotainment exhibit ion, George Trow commenteo:

No wonder art has had another nervous breakdown: the invented image hadbeen i ts specialty, i ts raison d'6tre ever since photography took over , , l i fel ike

render ing" more than a century ago. Indeed, art 's current cr is is is analogous tothat which occurred when photography was introduced, only now the cr is is inart . . . has f inal ly reached vision i tself . The discovery that seeing is no longerbel ieving is not so f r ightening when you consider that t ruth i tsel f can onlv beleased.3

ir: :1,. : t t l : : . : l NancyBui'son with DavidKramlich andRichard Car l ing,Androgyny [Six Menand Six WomenJ,1982, s imulatedphotogra ph,Bin. r 1Oin.

ln th is composi te image, the portrai ts of s ix men and six women have been scanned Into tne computerand fused into one sjmulated pontnai t . The wonk suggests the tension and fascinat ion of " face value,,- i .e. ,whethen male on female characteristics predominate in a face. Yet, infor-mation simutatron nesonares withthe tmpossible' nevealing what nefers to nothing, a ghostlike personality without real substance and histor.y.Burson taps an important postmodern vein in hen subject matter. and in her use of infolmation as simulation.

INancy Burson]

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Woody Vasulka,Number 6, circa

1982, comPuter-manipulatedimages.

These visual invest igat tons make use of the process of scanning on digi t iz ing the informat ion about I ights

and darks into the compu[ef . The infonmatton is then al ter-ed by a scan processen' an analog device' on

other image-pr.ocessing equipment. Vasulka has played a pioneer ing nole in developing sucn lmage-

pnocessing tools.

IWoody Vasulka]

Operat ingindependent lyof thebody,svisua|Senses,thecomputerhassubsumeda||ofvisualization within the realm of mathematics. Paradoxically, the computer's capacity to "see

mathematical ly" is helping us to see more completely than we can with the human eye alone'

Vast amounts of visual information about a particular subject or scene can be encoded on a

digital video disk, or DVD as a visual database. For example, a landscape view could comprise

sequences of satell i te photos which first Show aerial views of a coastl ine' and compare them

with multiple views of other coastl ines hundreds of miles apart, then closer portions of the

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region' Distant v iews of New York c i ty and of Phi ladelphia can be explored in detai l throughcroser v lews of their street patterns, and f inal ly, through isolat ion of indiv idual bui ld ings, wi tha tour of their rooms' The computer can sort out in a complex way the oroered structure ofprograms stored in i ts database as coded informat jon for later retr ieval and display oncommand. Bi l l Viola, v ideo art ist , referred to tne pnenomenon:

what fascinated me was that the progression was not a zoom or a 'row-up.r t 's not as though they used four di f ferent renses and made four di f ferentprctures. Ai l the buirdings in the crose-up existed arready in the grobar v iewbecause lt 's actually a computer data base and they're in the information sothe image doesn' t rose detair or become grainy when i t ,s enrargeo becausei t 's computer enhanced. That 's not zooming. you determine the scaie of whatyou're seeing by processing informat ion that 's arready there. Everything isencoded into the system and as a viewer or producer you just determine whatpan you're revealing.a

This new computer-enhanced, expanded , ,grobar informat ion, , v is ion, where a paft icurarrmage or sequence of images can be cai led at wi i l f rom the data bank, goes far beyondconventional photography to an area termed digital image processin{.

I!l?_::y,:lphaber: sound, rexr, and image asolglEat Intormat ion

Because the computer, with its new digitar arphabet, is capabre of encompassrng ail aspectsof informat ion - sound, image, text wi th in a s ingle database - a new fusion of d iscipl ines isunder way which wil l affect the way knowledge is acquired and created. The universality ofthe computer as a tool for working in the humanities, the sciences, and the ar-ts is creatingInteresting interdisciplina ry effects whose promise we are onry beginning to fathom. scientistsare now using visuar images as a way of verifying visuaily their ,"."ur"h urp"riments, in suchareas as meteorology and geology. writers incorporate sound and visuals in their texts. Artistsaccess sound, text , and image in their mult imedia product ions.Digital technologies have thus become the catalyst for tendencies in the convergence ofdisciplines' for the universal computer is both a lool and a medium. The new cognrtrve l inkagesand means of product ion are creat ing f resh relat ionships between f ie lds of knowledgean0 understanding. These represent a ma]0r shift, in the paradigm of representation, onethat goes beyond the crisis described by walter Benjamin wtren tre referred to the edited,movlng grammars of f i lm as a shatter ing of t radi t ion. Photographic tecnnologies acted asthe underlying structure for the evolution of nineteenth- and twentieth-century vrsual culture.However, d ig i t izat ion has superseded and subsumed them, in a compretery new paradigmfor representation.