Digital environments
Contents
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"?
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]
- Quantum computing
- Neurale netværk
- Deep fake (digital transplantation - Pinscreen app [stammer fra SFX])
- Virtual reality (interactivity)
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] | Optisk printer (farve) | IBM at UCLA[4] |
| 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 | Optisk printer (farve) | 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 | Overført via Mitchell camera | Circle Graphics Habitat at University of Illinois, Chicago[wiki] |
| Calculated Movements | 1985 | Larry Cuba | Larry Cuba | 2GRASS environment på Cuba’s egen PC
[2]
|
Cuba’s første raster graphics-film (solid - 4 farver)[2] | Optaget m/ 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] |
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]
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):
- https://schweigi.github.io/assembler-simulator/ = super nice!
- http://carlosrafaelgn.com.br/Asm86/ = x86 assembler
Cellular Automata
Amazing ressource: https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page Gun at wiki
DATAMOSHING in popular culture
Intro to "Unfriended: Dark Web" (glitching "RTL releasing") - produced as screencast, ie. a computer screen film
