Difference between revisions of "Digital environments"

From Cinemachines
 
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== DATAMOSHING in popular culture ==
+
As mentioned before, the digital environment is based on ''binary code'' (of discrete bits) and each image in a film will be sampled in pixels. The digital computer process these signals through software that change the code. Although the digital signal is sent electronically, it is not manipulable in the same way as the video signal. For example, while one can bend an analog electrical signal by adding resistance in the wires, the digital signal "high/low" bits cannot be bent to a new signal. And if one tried to mount Paik magnets on a computer cabinet to "scramble" the signal, or "scratch" a DVD like a vinyl record, the signal would work normally until the load became too heavy and playback stopped.
−
Intro to "Unfriended: Dark Web" (glitching "RTL releasing") - produced as screencast, ie. a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_screen_film computer screen film]
+
 
 +
With it's built-in noise sensitivity, the digital hardware does not bend, but only break. The digital filmmaker must, so to speak, play the game on the terms of the environment and use software if any film should ever come out of the digital computer's "black box".
 +
 
 +
A large part of the programs found in the digital environment are remediates the effects and structure of the other environments. This includes non-linear editing software that mimic the clipboard and optical printer. Image editing software that mimics analog development techniques and collage. VJ apps that mimic the video synthesizer with button, cable and handle interfaces. Animation software that automates the traditional key-frame/in-between process. And so on. Reproducing these well-known forms, the digital can seem almost an anonymous environment, but as designer Anthony Dunne has noted, this familiarity is also very problematic: "Designers using existing codes and conventions to make new products more familiar often unconsciously reproduce aspects of the ideology encoded in their borrowed motifs. The easy communication and transparency striving for champions of user-friendliness simply make our seduction by machines more comfortable." (Dunne 1998: 30). On the one hand, software designers like to reassure and seduce us by showing us the things we know in new packaging, but on the other hand, these tools can easily reproduce ideological values. The "black box" of the computer is particularly suspicious here, because it so rarely reveals it's nature.<sup>Hmm... I'm very sceptical of the Dunne quote as something specifically digital. This would be a feature of design in any environment, obviously.</sup>
 +
 
 +
It is important to note that I do not see the digital computer itself as a film machine. First of all, the "computer" is not even one type of machine - for example, Whitney's first film machines were mechanical computers that could execute one kind of program and did it primarily in the environment that I have called plastic-mechanical. But even if one regards the "computer" as the digital, personal computer capable of performing many kinds of operations on everything from text files to video material, it is also not a film machine, but a platform for the digital environment, which we shall see from the creative practice in which it is used.
 +
 
 +
By contrast, computer programs are film machines to the extent that they create, manipulate and display the video files. Most programs will have a graphic user interface that makes them accessible to the user of the computer, and of course they require the computer hardware to run. But essentially, a program's possible operations are defined by the software's built-in packages of functions and algorithms. Although interfaces also play an important role in the filmmakers' practice, it is the packages that determine the capabilities and limitations of the software, and these are often the subject of a software manufacturer's patent.
 +
 
 +
In the light of the digital, a number of media theorists have re-read the avant-garde film history, in a way where they demonstrate that many of these films could easily have been programmed <ref>see Le Grice 1996 on Eggeling and Manovich 2001 on Vertov</ref>. Among other things, artist Barbara Lattanzi took the consequence of this programmability and designed open-source software over classic "structural films" such as Hollis Frampton's ''Critical Mass'' (1971), which lays down the film's special cut pattern over any film clip (Enns 2011)
 +
 
 +
Finally, there are also filmmakers who turn their practice towards playback software as film machines - perhaps in the absence of being able to hack the screen itself. E.g. compression of video files is a theme of Nick Briz' ''Black Compressed'' (2009), where a black screen has undergone repeated manipulation by video file compression. Just as the emulsion film couldn't render Wilfred's real motion at 24 fps, and video merges images into interlaces, digital films are compressed by merging single pixels into blocks ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intra-frame_coding intra-frame coding]). The effect is particularly noticeable on black surfaces, and in Nick Briz' film, what was supposed to be a black image is suddenly filled with small flakes in a slightly lighter variations.
 +
 
 +
Finally, video files are also temporarily compressed ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_frame inter-frame coding]). Because most video file formats do not have full information about all the frames of the movie, they have divided them into primary I-frames that contain information about the whole picture, and a large amount of intermediate P and B frames that the computer calculates. Gregory Zinman explains: "P-frames contain information predicting the changes in the image between the current frame and the previous one, and B-frames contain information predicting the image differences between the previous, current, and subsequent frames. Because P- and B -frames use data from previous and forward frames, they are more compressed than I-frames." (Zinman 2015: 107). The intermediate frames are thus continuously calculated as relative differences from the latest and upcoming I-frames. Thus, if removing I-frames from a movie file, you suddenly start a domino effect in the video, where all the middle frames are forced to "reach out" to find the nearest reference point.
 +
 
 +
This effect is called ''data mashing'' and the result is often a psychedelic color pool of digital flicker. Among other things. Takeshi Murata has used the technique in ''Monster Movie'' (2005) where he removed key frames in a clip from an old horror B-film. The work alternates between the suddenly recognizable shots and abstract explosions of digital colors.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
== What is the digital? ==
 +
Notes on the digital 10th of July 2019 + modified 23th of December 2019
 +
 
 +
As the literature shows, it is hard to define what "digital film" is and how to distinct it.
  
−
== Cellular Automata ==
+
'''Digital''' is opposed to analog - this should be distinguished from the term '''computer''' (both analog and digital computers exist) and '''electronic''' (an electronic computer is not necessarily digital and a digital computer isn't necessarily electronic). These are ''substantial'' aspects of the digital.
−
Amazing ressource: https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
 
−
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_(cellular_automaton) Gun at wiki]
 
  
−
== Programming languages ==
 
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|-
 
|-
−
! Name !! Header text !! Examples !! Characteristics !! Conversion
+
! Analog !! Digital
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Machine code (source code)<br>(1st generation) || Machine instruction ("opcode") directly readable by processor - as stream of raw binary data or encoded as hex, octal or decimal || Front panel of PDP-8/E || || Machine code is fed into a processor whose instruction set defines the manipulation of registers and so on
+
| Continuous || Discrete
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Assembly code (symbolic machine code)<br>(2nd generation) || One human-readable line pr. machine instruction - symbols for opcodes, addresses, numbers and strings.<br>Also: Macro (macro-instructions) of grouped instructions || MASM (Microsoft) || Describes writing instructions to specific (named) registers in computer.<br>No "return" and thus no concept of "function" || Assembler converts assembly code into executable machine code
+
| Low precision || High precision
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Compiler language || || C || Operations on ''named variables'' rather than "shift position" (e.g. n as int). || Compiler converts to assembly language (e.g. for a specific architecture)
+
| Measuring || Counting
 
|-
 
|-
−
| High level with some low level || || PL/S<br>BLISS<br>BCPL, extended ALGOL (for Burroughs large systems)<br>C || ||
+
| Immediate || Sequential
−
|-
 
−
| High level (first major)<br>(autocodes) || First widespread high-level machine-independent language || Fortran<br>[BASIC??]<br>[also COBOL] || nested functions<br>while-do<br>if-then-else
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
−
ASSEMBLER (SIMULATOR):
+
Some ''pragmatic'' aspects of the digital are '''interactivity''', '''automation''' and '''programmability''' (hardware and software). As we have seen in the history of cinemachines, a lot of these aspects are already there. Interactivity is known from video synthesizers and installations. Automation [].
−
* https://schweigi.github.io/assembler-simulator/ = super nice!
+
 
−
* http://carlosrafaelgn.com.br/Asm86/ = x86 assembler
+
Lev Manovich connects the digital film "'''animation'''", e.g. a detachment from the indexical condition of photographic film. Another way to describe digital film is through "virtual camera" as seen in Projecting a Camera (Gravity, Ice Age).
 +
 
 +
Finally, the '''internet''' should be mentioned as a non-necessary cause. It also causes cultural forms such as sharing, re-mixing etc. Also streaming of media.
 +
 
 +
'''Universal Turing Machine'''?
 +
 
 +
== Hybrids ==
 +
There are several historical hybrids of analog and digital systems.
 +
 
 +
On the one hand, a lot of analog system implement analog controls - e.g. control of laser lights, control units in video synthesizers, and so on. This is described in Larry Cuba's report on "Digital film".
 +
 
 +
Most digital systems began with analog displays - first as vector graphics on oscilloscopes and later as composite signals on CRT raster displays. This spilled in to the term "video game", and the first major "digital disc", Laserdisc, was a hybrid of digital encoding of an analog composite signal. Similarly the VGA signal is serial RGB-signal open to analog manipulation. DVI combines both digital and analog signal standards.
 +
 
 +
The "real" digital systems comes with random-access memory storage such as DVDs.
 +
Digital display types are LED, LCD and so on.
 +
The digital signal is on HDMI.
 +
 
 +
How to define it?
 +
* As display? (oscilloscope, CRT, neon sign, LED, LCD, Plasma)
 +
* As signal/encoding? (composite, VGA, DVI, HDMI)
 +
* Storage? (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, streaming)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
After a definition based on signal, the question remains: What are the operations of the digital?
 +
 
 +
We must base these in:
 +
* Data as information
 +
 
 +
bytes are the encoding entity of the digital - these may be alphanumeric, images, sounds, even programs
 +
 
 +
random access memory/storage is something that is essentially digital
 +
 
 +
the digital processor defines the operations of the digital. These might be
 +
* logical
 +
* mathematical (adding, substracting, multiplying and so on of operands)
 +
* database (sort, find)
 +
* memory (read, write, goto)
 +
and more.
 +
 
 +
These are archetypal models of the digital machines, e.g. developed in advanced mathematics, in textile weaving and more.
 +
 
 +
What does educational computers such as Geniac and Minivac teach us about computers?
 +
 
 +
How can reality be translated into "digital objects"? (Niels Ove Finnemann's speak)
 +
 
 +
How does early digital cinema (and art) help define what is "digital"?
 +
 
 +
== Fra arbejdspapir (20/7-2019) ==
 +
'''ERKENDELSE:'''
 +
 
 +
Det er måske relativt få af disse displays, hvor der er opbygget et "system" omkring dem, så det giver mening at tale om storage, processor, source osv. (mest film-projektor, raster tv).
 +
 
 +
Tilgengæld er det meget udfoldet i optisk miljø og muligvis i digital miljø. Det kan hjælpe med at aflive myten om, at der er "mange digitale ting lige pludselig"....?
 +
 
 +
 
 +
'''VEDR DIGITAL:'''
 +
* Mange digitale "forløbere" er hybrider med andre miljøer, fx.
 +
** digital kontrol af laser/lys-show (optisk miljø)
 +
** digital plotting på filmstrimmel (plastisk miljø) - herunder med elektrisk skrivemaskine, med linje (pantograf) og med dot/line-plotter<br>+ langtidseksponering af bevægelse på film (optisk-plastisk-kombination)
 +
** digital konvertering til CRT - herunder vektor og raster (elektronisk miljø)
 +
* Det egentlige digitale er et signal kendetegnet ved, at det "pakkes" (encodes og decodes), men i kodningen kan det ikke direkte manipuleres (modsat et elektronisk signal, der kan forstyrres)
 +
* Der findes grader af interaktive og non-interaktive teknologier i det digitale - det gør der nok også i de andre miljøer...
 +
 
  
  
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| style="color:#000000;" | "Polar Geometric Display Program" and "animated Design Program" (programmed in GRAF - on FORTRAN system)[4]
 
| style="color:#000000;" | "Polar Geometric Display Program" and "animated Design Program" (programmed in GRAF - on FORTRAN system)[4]
 
| style="color:#000000;" | IBM 360 w/ IBM 2250 vector display systems[4]
 
| style="color:#000000;" | IBM 360 w/ IBM 2250 vector display systems[4]
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Optisk printer (farve)
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Optical printer (color)
−
| style="color:#000000;" | IBM at UCLA[4]
+
| style="color:#000000;" | IBM at UCLA[4], Medical center at UCLA [10]
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Osaka 1-2-3
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Osaka 1-2-3
Line 94: Line 172:
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
||  
 
||  
−
||  
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Film plotter
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Optisk printer (farve)
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Optical printer (color)
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Funded by NEA grant
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Triple-I [10]. Funded by NEA grant
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Moon drum. Twelve works for videodisc
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Moon drum. Twelve works for videodisc
Line 139: Line 217:
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | GRASS
 
| style="color:#000000;" | GRASS
−
| style="color:#000000;" | PDP-11/45
+
| style="color:#000000;" | [[PDP-11/45]]
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Overført via Mitchell camera
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Transferred via Mitchell camera
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Circle Graphics Habitat at University of Illinois, Chicago[wiki]
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Circle Graphics Habitat at University of Illinois, Chicago[wiki]
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
Line 147: Line 225:
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
 
| style="color:#000000;" | Larry Cuba
−
|| <div style="color:#000000;">2GRASS environment på Cuba’s egen PC</div>
+
|| <div style="color:#000000;">2GRASS environment on Cuba's own PC</div>
  
 
<div style="color:#000000;">[2]</div>
 
<div style="color:#000000;">[2]</div>
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Cuba’s første raster graphics-film (solid - 4 farver)[2]
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Cuba's first raster graphics-film (solid - 4 shades)[2]
−
| style="color:#000000;" | Optaget m/ Ly-onLamb system[2]
+
| style="color:#000000;" | Recorded with Ly-onLamb system[2]
 
||  
 
||  
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
Line 279: Line 357:
 
||  
 
||  
 
| style="color:#000000;" | [7][8]
 
| style="color:#000000;" | [7][8]
 +
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | NLoops
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | 1989
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | Vibeke Sorensen
 +
||
 +
||
 +
||
 +
||
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | CalArts[9]
 +
|- style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:0.0694in;"
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | [http://visualmusic.org/Biography/CalypsoCameo.htm|Calypso Cameo]
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | 1983
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | Vibeke Sorensen and Tom DeWitt
 +
||
 +
||
 +
||
 +
||
 +
| style="color:#000000;" | [9]
 
|-
 
|-
 
|}
 
|}
  
  
−
KILDER:
+
'''SOURCES:'''
 
[1] = Larry Cuba: “Computer Animation Primer”
 
[1] = Larry Cuba: “Computer Animation Primer”
 +
 
[2] = Wayne Carlson: “Computer Graphics and Computer Animation” ([https://osu.pb.unizin.org/graphicshistory/ https://osu.pb.unizin.org/graphicshistory/])
 
[2] = Wayne Carlson: “Computer Graphics and Computer Animation” ([https://osu.pb.unizin.org/graphicshistory/ https://osu.pb.unizin.org/graphicshistory/])
 +
 
[3] = http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ph/nyit/masson/history.htm
 
[3] = http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ph/nyit/masson/history.htm
 +
 
[4] = Richard Stamp: “Experiments in Motion Graphics - or, when John Whitney met Jack Citron and the IBM 2250” ([https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=426 https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=426] )
 
[4] = Richard Stamp: “Experiments in Motion Graphics - or, when John Whitney met Jack Citron and the IBM 2250” ([https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=426 https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=426] )
 +
 
[5] = "Hummingbird" at Csuri Project, Ohio University ([https://csuriproject.osu.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/775])
 
[5] = "Hummingbird" at Csuri Project, Ohio University ([https://csuriproject.osu.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/775])
 +
 
[6] = "Kitty" at RU Wiki: [https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B0_(%D0%BC%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%82%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC)]
 
[6] = "Kitty" at RU Wiki: [https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B0_(%D0%BC%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%82%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC)]
 +
 
[7] = Metadata at YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkxrVpzPK4U&app=desktop]
 
[7] = Metadata at YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkxrVpzPK4U&app=desktop]
 +
 
[8] = [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation]
 
[8] = [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation]
  
−
PIONEERER:
+
[9] = [http://visualmusic.org/Biography/Index.html]
 +
 
 +
[10] = Mail from Larry Cuba (02.09.2020)
 +
 
 +
'''PIONEERS:'''
 
* John Whitney
 
* John Whitney
 
* Lillian Schwartz
 
* Lillian Schwartz
Line 301: Line 408:
 
* Robert Abel
 
* Robert Abel
 
* Steve Beck
 
* Steve Beck
−
* Karl Sims
+
* Karl Sims (parallel computing)
−
* Jeffrey Schier
+
* Jeffy Schier/Woody Vasulka
−
 
 
−
== What is the digital? ==
 
−
Notes on the digital 10th of July 2019 + modified 23th of December 2019
 
−
 
 
−
As the literature shows, it is hard to define what "digital film" is and how to distinct it.
 
−
 
 
−
'''Digital''' is opposed to analog - this should be distinguished from the term '''computer''' (both analog and digital computers exist) and '''electronic''' (an electronic computer is not necessarily digital and a digital computer isn't necessarily electronic). These are ''substantial'' aspects of the digital.
 
  
 +
== Programming languages ==
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
{| class="wikitable"
 
|-
 
|-
−
! Analog !! Digital
+
! Name !! Header text !! Examples !! Characteristics !! Conversion
 +
|-
 +
| Machine code (source code)<br>(1st generation) || Machine instruction ("opcode") directly readable by processor - as stream of raw binary data or encoded as hex, octal or decimal || Front panel of PDP-8/E || || Machine code is fed into a processor whose instruction set defines the manipulation of registers and so on
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Continuous || Discrete
+
| Assembly code (symbolic machine code)<br>(2nd generation) || One human-readable line pr. machine instruction - symbols for opcodes, addresses, numbers and strings.<br>Also: Macro (macro-instructions) of grouped instructions || MASM (Microsoft) || Describes writing instructions to specific (named) registers in computer.<br>No "return" and thus no concept of "function" || Assembler converts assembly code into executable machine code
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Low precision || High precision
+
| Compiler language || || C || Operations on ''named variables'' rather than "shift position" (e.g. n as int). || Compiler converts to assembly language (e.g. for a specific architecture)
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Measuring || Counting
+
| High level with some low level || || PL/S<br>BLISS<br>BCPL, extended ALGOL (for Burroughs large systems)<br>C || ||
 
|-
 
|-
−
| Immediate || Sequential
+
| High level (first major)<br>(autocodes) || First widespread high-level machine-independent language || Fortran<br>[BASIC??]<br>[also COBOL] || nested functions<br>while-do<br>if-then-else
 
|}
 
|}
  
−
Some ''pragmatic'' aspects of the digital are '''interactivity''', '''automation''' and '''programmability''' (hardware and software). As we have seen in the history of cinemachines, a lot of these aspects are already there. Interactivity is known from video synthesizers and installations. Automation [].
+
ASSEMBLER (SIMULATOR):
 +
* https://schweigi.github.io/assembler-simulator/ = super nice!
 +
* http://carlosrafaelgn.com.br/Asm86/ = x86 assembler
  
−
Lev Manovich connects the digital film "'''animation'''", e.g. a detachment from the indexical condition of photographic film. Another way to describe digital film is through "virtual camera" as seen in Projecting a Camera (Gravity, Ice Age).
+
== Digital main themes ==
 +
* Key frame animation
 +
* Skeletal animation
 +
* Programmability
 +
* "Routing" inputs and outputs
 +
* Transcoding (e.g. text to video)
 +
* Virtual projection (shading, perspective, 3D, texture, light/shadows)
 +
* Morphing
  
−
Finally, the '''internet''' should be mentioned as a non-necessary cause. It also causes cultural forms such as sharing, re-mixing etc. Also streaming of media.
+
== Cellular Automata ==
 +
Amazing ressource: https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
 +
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_(cellular_automaton) Gun at wiki]
  
−
'''Universal Turing Machine'''?
+
== NEW ISSUES ==
−
 
 
−
== Hybrids ==
 
−
There are several historical hybrids of analog and digital systems.
 
−
 
 
−
On the one hand, a lot of analog system implement analog controls - e.g. control of laser lights, control units in video synthesizers, and so on. This is described in Larry Cuba's report on "Digital film".
 
−
 
 
−
Most digital systems began with analog displays - first as vector graphics on oscilloscopes and later as composite signals on CRT raster displays. This spilled in to the term "video game", and the first major "digital disc", Laserdisc, was a hybrid of digital encoding of an analog composite signal. Similarly the VGA signal is serial RGB-signal open to analog manipulation. DVI combines both digital and analog signal standards.
 
−
 
 
−
The "real" digital systems comes with random-access memory storage such as DVDs.
 
−
Digital display types are LED, LCD and so on.
 
−
The digital signal is on HDMI.
 
−
 
 
−
How to define it?
 
−
* As display? (oscilloscope, CRT, neon sign, LED, LCD, Plasma)
 
−
* As signal/encoding? (composite, VGA, DVI, HDMI)
 
−
* Storage? (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, streaming)
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
After a definition based on signal, the question remains: What are the operations of the digital?
 
−
 
 
−
We must base these in:
 
−
* Data as information
 
−
 
 
−
bytes are the encoding entity of the digital - these may be alphanumeric, images, sounds, even programs
 
−
 
 
−
random access memory/storage is something that is essentially digital
 
−
 
 
−
the digital processor defines the operations of the digital. These might be
 
−
* logical
 
−
* mathematical (adding, substracting, multiplying and so on of operands)
 
−
* database (sort, find)
 
−
* memory (read, write, goto)
 
−
and more.
 
−
 
 
−
These are archetypal models of the digital machines, e.g. developed in advanced mathematics, in textile weaving and more.
 
−
 
 
−
What does educational computers such as Geniac and Minivac teach us about computers?
 
−
 
 
−
How can reality be translated into "digital objects"? (Niels Ove Finnemann's speak)
 
−
 
 
−
How does early digital cinema (and art) help define what is "digital"?
 
−
 
 
−
CASES:
 
−
* John Whitney
 
−
* BEFLIX (somewhat similar to ASCII)
 
−
* Stan VanDerBeek
 
−
* Lilian Schwartz
 
−
* Larry Cuba
 
−
* Jeffy Schier/Vasulka
 
−
* Steve Beck
 
−
* Karl Sims (parallel computing)
 
−
 
 
−
NEW ISSUES:
 
 
* Machine learning [wekinator]
 
* Machine learning [wekinator]
 
* Quantum computing
 
* Quantum computing
Line 389: Line 450:
 
* Deep fake (digital transplantation - Pinscreen app [stammer fra SFX])
 
* Deep fake (digital transplantation - Pinscreen app [stammer fra SFX])
 
* Virtual reality (interactivity)
 
* Virtual reality (interactivity)
 +
* Datamoshing as compression
  
−
== Fra arbejdspapir (20/7-2019) ==
 
−
'''ERKENDELSE:'''
 
−
 
−
Det er måske relativt få af disse displays, hvor der er opbygget et "system" omkring dem, så det giver mening at tale om storage, processor, source osv. (mest film-projektor, raster tv).
 
  
−
Tilgengæld er det meget udfoldet i optisk miljø og muligvis i digital miljø. Det kan hjælpe med at aflive myten om, at der er "mange digitale ting lige pludselig"....?
+
== DATAMOSHING in popular culture ==
 +
Intro to "Unfriended: Dark Web" (glitching "RTL releasing") - produced as screencast, ie. a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_screen_film computer screen film]
  
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+
== Interface as film ==
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'''VEDR DIGITAL:'''
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produced as screencast, ie. a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_screen_film computer screen film]
−
* Mange digitale "forløbere" er hybrider med andre miljøer, fx.
 
−
** digital kontrol af laser/lys-show (optisk miljø)
 
−
** digital plotting på filmstrimmel (plastisk miljø) - herunder med elektrisk skrivemaskine, med linje (pantograf) og med dot/line-plotter<br>+ langtidseksponering af bevægelse på film (optisk-plastisk-kombination)
 
−
** digital konvertering til CRT - herunder vektor og raster (elektronisk miljø)
 
−
* Det egentlige digitale er et signal kendetegnet ved, at det "pakkes" (encodes og decodes), men i kodningen kan det ikke direkte manipuleres (modsat et elektronisk signal, der kan forstyrres)
 
−
* Der findes grader af interaktive og non-interaktive teknologier i det digitale - det gør der nok også i de andre miljøer...
 

Latest revision as of 17:07, 2 September 2020

As mentioned before, the digital environment is based on binary code (of discrete bits) and each image in a film will be sampled in pixels. The digital computer process these signals through software that change the code. Although the digital signal is sent electronically, it is not manipulable in the same way as the video signal. For example, while one can bend an analog electrical signal by adding resistance in the wires, the digital signal "high/low" bits cannot be bent to a new signal. And if one tried to mount Paik magnets on a computer cabinet to "scramble" the signal, or "scratch" a DVD like a vinyl record, the signal would work normally until the load became too heavy and playback stopped.

With it's built-in noise sensitivity, the digital hardware does not bend, but only break. The digital filmmaker must, so to speak, play the game on the terms of the environment and use software if any film should ever come out of the digital computer's "black box".

A large part of the programs found in the digital environment are remediates the effects and structure of the other environments. This includes non-linear editing software that mimic the clipboard and optical printer. Image editing software that mimics analog development techniques and collage. VJ apps that mimic the video synthesizer with button, cable and handle interfaces. Animation software that automates the traditional key-frame/in-between process. And so on. Reproducing these well-known forms, the digital can seem almost an anonymous environment, but as designer Anthony Dunne has noted, this familiarity is also very problematic: "Designers using existing codes and conventions to make new products more familiar often unconsciously reproduce aspects of the ideology encoded in their borrowed motifs. The easy communication and transparency striving for champions of user-friendliness simply make our seduction by machines more comfortable." (Dunne 1998: 30). On the one hand, software designers like to reassure and seduce us by showing us the things we know in new packaging, but on the other hand, these tools can easily reproduce ideological values. The "black box" of the computer is particularly suspicious here, because it so rarely reveals it's nature.Hmm... I'm very sceptical of the Dunne quote as something specifically digital. This would be a feature of design in any environment, obviously.

It is important to note that I do not see the digital computer itself as a film machine. First of all, the "computer" is not even one type of machine - for example, Whitney's first film machines were mechanical computers that could execute one kind of program and did it primarily in the environment that I have called plastic-mechanical. But even if one regards the "computer" as the digital, personal computer capable of performing many kinds of operations on everything from text files to video material, it is also not a film machine, but a platform for the digital environment, which we shall see from the creative practice in which it is used.

By contrast, computer programs are film machines to the extent that they create, manipulate and display the video files. Most programs will have a graphic user interface that makes them accessible to the user of the computer, and of course they require the computer hardware to run. But essentially, a program's possible operations are defined by the software's built-in packages of functions and algorithms. Although interfaces also play an important role in the filmmakers' practice, it is the packages that determine the capabilities and limitations of the software, and these are often the subject of a software manufacturer's patent.

In the light of the digital, a number of media theorists have re-read the avant-garde film history, in a way where they demonstrate that many of these films could easily have been programmed <ref>see Le Grice 1996 on Eggeling and Manovich 2001 on Vertov</ref>. Among other things, artist Barbara Lattanzi took the consequence of this programmability and designed open-source software over classic "structural films" such as Hollis Frampton's Critical Mass (1971), which lays down the film's special cut pattern over any film clip (Enns 2011)

Finally, there are also filmmakers who turn their practice towards playback software as film machines - perhaps in the absence of being able to hack the screen itself. E.g. compression of video files is a theme of Nick Briz' Black Compressed (2009), where a black screen has undergone repeated manipulation by video file compression. Just as the emulsion film couldn't render Wilfred's real motion at 24 fps, and video merges images into interlaces, digital films are compressed by merging single pixels into blocks (intra-frame coding). The effect is particularly noticeable on black surfaces, and in Nick Briz' film, what was supposed to be a black image is suddenly filled with small flakes in a slightly lighter variations.

Finally, video files are also temporarily compressed (inter-frame coding). Because most video file formats do not have full information about all the frames of the movie, they have divided them into primary I-frames that contain information about the whole picture, and a large amount of intermediate P and B frames that the computer calculates. Gregory Zinman explains: "P-frames contain information predicting the changes in the image between the current frame and the previous one, and B-frames contain information predicting the image differences between the previous, current, and subsequent frames. Because P- and B -frames use data from previous and forward frames, they are more compressed than I-frames." (Zinman 2015: 107). The intermediate frames are thus continuously calculated as relative differences from the latest and upcoming I-frames. Thus, if removing I-frames from a movie file, you suddenly start a domino effect in the video, where all the middle frames are forced to "reach out" to find the nearest reference point.

This effect is called data mashing and the result is often a psychedelic color pool of digital flicker. Among other things. Takeshi Murata has used the technique in Monster Movie (2005) where he removed key frames in a clip from an old horror B-film. The work alternates between the suddenly recognizable shots and abstract explosions of digital colors.


What is the digital?

Notes on the digital 10th of July 2019 + modified 23th of December 2019

As the literature shows, it is hard to define what "digital film" is and how to distinct it.

Digital is opposed to analog - this should be distinguished from the term computer (both analog and digital computers exist) and electronic (an electronic computer is not necessarily digital and a digital computer isn't necessarily electronic). These are substantial aspects of the digital.

Analog Digital
Continuous Discrete
Low precision High precision
Measuring Counting
Immediate Sequential

Some pragmatic aspects of the digital are interactivity, automation and programmability (hardware and software). As we have seen in the history of cinemachines, a lot of these aspects are already there. Interactivity is known from video synthesizers and installations. Automation [].

Lev Manovich connects the digital film "animation", e.g. a detachment from the indexical condition of photographic film. Another way to describe digital film is through "virtual camera" as seen in Projecting a Camera (Gravity, Ice Age).

Finally, the internet should be mentioned as a non-necessary cause. It also causes cultural forms such as sharing, re-mixing etc. Also streaming of media.

Universal Turing Machine?

Hybrids

There are several historical hybrids of analog and digital systems.

On the one hand, a lot of analog system implement analog controls - e.g. control of laser lights, control units in video synthesizers, and so on. This is described in Larry Cuba's report on "Digital film".

Most digital systems began with analog displays - first as vector graphics on oscilloscopes and later as composite signals on CRT raster displays. This spilled in to the term "video game", and the first major "digital disc", Laserdisc, was a hybrid of digital encoding of an analog composite signal. Similarly the VGA signal is serial RGB-signal open to analog manipulation. DVI combines both digital and analog signal standards.

The "real" digital systems comes with random-access memory storage such as DVDs. Digital display types are LED, LCD and so on. The digital signal is on HDMI.

How to define it?

  • As display? (oscilloscope, CRT, neon sign, LED, LCD, Plasma)
  • As signal/encoding? (composite, VGA, DVI, HDMI)
  • Storage? (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, streaming)


After a definition based on signal, the question remains: What are the operations of the digital?

We must base these in:

  • Data as information

bytes are the encoding entity of the digital - these may be alphanumeric, images, sounds, even programs

random access memory/storage is something that is essentially digital

the digital processor defines the operations of the digital. These might be

  • logical
  • mathematical (adding, substracting, multiplying and so on of operands)
  • database (sort, find)
  • memory (read, write, goto)

and more.

These are archetypal models of the digital machines, e.g. developed in advanced mathematics, in textile weaving and more.

What does educational computers such as Geniac and Minivac teach us about computers?

How can reality be translated into "digital objects"? (Niels Ove Finnemann's speak)

How does early digital cinema (and art) help define what is "digital"?

Fra arbejdspapir (20/7-2019)

ERKENDELSE:

Det er måske relativt få af disse displays, hvor der er opbygget et "system" omkring dem, så det giver mening at tale om storage, processor, source osv. (mest film-projektor, raster tv).

Tilgengæld er det meget udfoldet i optisk miljø og muligvis i digital miljø. Det kan hjælpe med at aflive myten om, at der er "mange digitale ting lige pludselig"....?


VEDR DIGITAL:

  • Mange digitale "forløbere" er hybrider med andre miljøer, fx.
    • digital kontrol af laser/lys-show (optisk miljø)
    • digital plotting på filmstrimmel (plastisk miljø) - herunder med elektrisk skrivemaskine, med linje (pantograf) og med dot/line-plotter
      + langtidseksponering af bevægelse på film (optisk-plastisk-kombination)
    • digital konvertering til CRT - herunder vektor og raster (elektronisk miljø)
  • Det egentlige digitale er et signal kendetegnet ved, at det "pakkes" (encodes og decodes), men i kodningen kan det ikke direkte manipuleres (modsat et elektronisk signal, der kan forstyrres)
  • Der findes grader af interaktive og non-interaktive teknologier i det digitale - det gør der nok også i de andre miljøer...


Early digital films

Film Year Artist Programmer Software Hardware Other techniques Institution
Homage to Rameau 1967 John Whitney IBM at UCLA[4]
Permutations 1968 John Whitney
Jack Citron,
Porter Rosenberry
 "Polar Geometric Display Program" and "animated Design Program" (programmed in GRAF - on FORTRAN system)[4] IBM 360 w/ IBM 2250 vector display systems[4] Optical printer (color) IBM at UCLA[4], Medical center at UCLA [10]
Osaka 1-2-3 1968 John Whitney IBM at UCLA[4]
Matrix I 1971 John Whitney Cal Tech[3]
Matrix II 1971 Cal Tech[3]
Matrix III 1972 John Whitney Dean Anschultz Information International FR 80 (?) Triple-I [3]
Arabesque 1975 John Whitney Larry Cuba Film plotter Optical printer (color) Triple-I [10]. Funded by NEA grant
Moon drum. Twelve works for videodisc 1989-1995 John Whitney Jerry Reed (based on Jack Citron?) Whitney-Reed RDTD (Radius-Differential Theta Differential)
First Fig 1974 Larry Cuba NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab
3/78 (Objects and Transformations) 1978 Larry Cuba GRASS
Two Space 1979 Larry Cuba RAP COM + PDP-10[1] Los Angeles firm Information International Inc. (III)
Star Wars: Death Star Instructions 1977 Larry Cuba Larry Cuba GRASS PDP-11/45 Transferred via Mitchell camera Circle Graphics Habitat at University of Illinois, Chicago[wiki]
Calculated Movements 1985 Larry Cuba Larry Cuba
2GRASS environment on Cuba's own PC
[2]
 Cuba's first raster graphics-film (solid - 4 shades)[2] Recorded with Ly-onLamb system[2]
Pixillation 1970 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton Bell Labs(?)
Olympiad 1971 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
UFOs 1971 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Enigma 1972 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Googolplex 1972 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Apotheosis 1972 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Affinities 1972 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Kinesis 1975 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Alae 1975 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Metamorphosis 1974 Lillian Schwartz Ken Knowlton
Poemfield #2 1966 Stan van der Beek Ken Knowlton BEFLIX (extends FORTRAN) IBM 7090 (mainframe) Stromberg-Carlson SC2040 microfilm recorder for output Bell Labs
Hummingbird 1968-70 Charles Csuri, James Shaffer Punch Cards, IBM 1130 [5][8]
Kitty (Кошечка) 1968 Nikolai Konstantinov BESM-4 [6][8]
Metadata 1971 Alain Clavier Peter Foldès [7][8]
NLoops 1989 Vibeke Sorensen CalArts[9]
Cameo 1983 Vibeke Sorensen and Tom DeWitt [9]


SOURCES: [1] = Larry Cuba: “Computer Animation Primer”

[2] = Wayne Carlson: “Computer Graphics and Computer Animation” (https://osu.pb.unizin.org/graphicshistory/)

[3] = http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ph/nyit/masson/history.htm

[4] = Richard Stamp: “Experiments in Motion Graphics - or, when John Whitney met Jack Citron and the IBM 2250” (https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=426 )

[5] = "Hummingbird" at Csuri Project, Ohio University ([1])

[6] = "Kitty" at RU Wiki: [2]

[7] = Metadata at YouTube: [3]

[8] = [4]

[9] = [5]

[10] = Mail from Larry Cuba (02.09.2020)

PIONEERS:

  • John Whitney
  • Lillian Schwartz
  • Stan van der Beek
  • Larry Cuba
  • Charles Csuri = morphing figures
  • Robert Abel
  • Steve Beck
  • Karl Sims (parallel computing)
  • Jeffy Schier/Woody Vasulka

Programming languages

Name Header text Examples Characteristics Conversion
Machine code (source code)
(1st generation)		 Machine instruction ("opcode") directly readable by processor - as stream of raw binary data or encoded as hex, octal or decimal Front panel of PDP-8/E Machine code is fed into a processor whose instruction set defines the manipulation of registers and so on
Assembly code (symbolic machine code)
(2nd generation)		 One human-readable line pr. machine instruction - symbols for opcodes, addresses, numbers and strings.
Also: Macro (macro-instructions) of grouped instructions		 MASM (Microsoft) Describes writing instructions to specific (named) registers in computer.
No "return" and thus no concept of "function"		 Assembler converts assembly code into executable machine code
Compiler language C Operations on named variables rather than "shift position" (e.g. n as int). Compiler converts to assembly language (e.g. for a specific architecture)
High level with some low level PL/S
BLISS
BCPL, extended ALGOL (for Burroughs large systems)
C
High level (first major)
(autocodes)		 First widespread high-level machine-independent language Fortran
[BASIC??]
[also COBOL]		 nested functions
while-do
if-then-else

ASSEMBLER (SIMULATOR):

Digital main themes

  • Key frame animation
  • Skeletal animation
  • Programmability
  • "Routing" inputs and outputs
  • Transcoding (e.g. text to video)
  • Virtual projection (shading, perspective, 3D, texture, light/shadows)
  • Morphing

Cellular Automata

Amazing ressource: https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page Gun at wiki

NEW ISSUES

  • Machine learning [wekinator]
  • Quantum computing
  • Neurale netværk
  • Deep fake (digital transplantation - Pinscreen app [stammer fra SFX])
  • Virtual reality (interactivity)
  • Datamoshing as compression


DATAMOSHING in popular culture

Intro to "Unfriended: Dark Web" (glitching "RTL releasing") - produced as screencast, ie. a computer screen film

Interface as film

produced as screencast, ie. a computer screen film

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