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2	"How the Power of Images..." How the Power of Images meets The Power of Computation and results in the need for Visual Digital Literacy
3	Roadmap Image canon Image explosion Suspicion of the visual Continuous/dense vs. discrete forms of communication Computer graphics as a tipping factor for visual literacy Visual Digital Literacy
4	What is the Image Canon?
5	Roadmap Image canon Image explosion Suspicion of the visual Continuous/dense vs. discrete forms of communication Computer graphics as a tipping factor for visual literacy Visual Digital Literacy
6	Images Explosion Factoids For most our history, books were one of few leisure-time activities Pictures used to be rare—had to be in special locations devoted to art (e.g., caves, then tombs, temples, churches, etc.) Photography is not even 200 years old 1895: first public viewing of a motion picture (Lumiere Brothers, Paris) – 50 years later half the population of the US went to a movie at least once a week 1946—commercial TV. By HS graduation more TV than hours in school (AACAP) Early 1980s—USA Today and other highly graphical newspapers 1970s: public begins to see images made with computers 1990s: images on Internet—WWW
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8	Roadmap Image canon Image explosion Suspicion of the visual Continuous/dense vs. discrete forms of communication Computer graphics as a tipping factor for visual literacy Visual Digital Literacy
9	From Ancient Times: “The prison-house is the world of sight” “Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.” This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. Plato’s Republic 360BC 19^th c French thinkers: Saussure, Derrida, and others (discussed later)
10	Current Academic Writings… “The passionate visualist, roaming the labyrinth of the postdisciplinary age, is haunted by the paradoxical ubiquity and degradation of images: everywhere transmitted, universally viewed, but as a category generally despised.” p11 [Stafford1996] Call to lead images out of Plato’s “ill-lit and second-class hotel for ghostly transients.”p40 [Stafford1996]
11	To Ongoing Everyday Suspicion Ever read a positive article about TV watching? Or a negative one about doing any type of reading or math? Which do people think smarter: math grad or art student? Under suspicion in academia, e.g., although Greeks relied on geometry, visuals shut out of math until recently (Phil Davis lecture)
12	But… History of Suspicion of New Communication Technologies J Plato: “’This invention will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it… They will not need to exercise their memories, being to reply on what is written,’ and since written words come without ‘benefit of a teacher’s instruction’ they will produce only ‘a semblance’ of ‘;wisdom,’ not ‘truth,’ not ‘real judgment.’” [Plato’s Socrates tells the story of the God Thoth offering writing to the Egyptian King Thamus. The Rise of the Image/The Fall of the Word p 23]
13	More Suspicion of Technology Archdeacon Frollo in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831): “This will destroy That. The Book will destroy the Edifice.” Alexander Pope: printing press unleashed a “deluge of authors” most of which were not fit to read. Also expressed fear of people with false experience gained through reading rather than real life… Henry David Thoreau on telegraph lines: “ Maine an d Texas… have nothing important to communicate.” In 1877 NYT on Bell’s telephone: “horrible invasion of privacy.” Photographs in newspapers called “infantile” Early 20^th century: pencils with erasers banned in some schools. “The easier errors maybe corrected, the more errors will be made.” (An argument also used against students’ use of word processing in the 1980s.)
14	“VJ Day,” 1945
15	“Execution of a Viet Cong Guerrilla,” 1968
16	So What’s New?
17	Change in the Nature of Images In the past: images and text made in same way, by hand (e.g., Medieval manuscripts) Changed in 1450s with Gutenberg’s printing press Why no similar technology for images? Text already an abstract, discrete method of encoding meaning (paperback has same content as original manuscript) In general, no way to abstractly encode images until computer graphics. Print of a painting not equivalent in content to original… Now have abstract (text- and numbers-based) representation of images—images produced are different views of that same data
18	CG as Tipping Point for Visual Literacy Gladwell’s Tipping Point Understanding rapid change, e.g., epidemics Why did crime drop so dramatically in New York City in the mid-1990's? Why is word-of-mouth so powerful? E.g., viral marketing Printing press à textual literacy Computer graphics and networks à visual literacy
19	More Detail − Tipping Factors Moore’s “Law” Ubiquity of visual software Web/Internet for distribution/communication Now amateurs can play Output from instrumentation (e.g, Hubble) Computation of everything (new way of looking at world) Globalization
20	Moore’s “Law” – What is it? Actually a prediction that the number of transistors doubles every 18 months Or… price/performance improves x 2 every 18 months)
21	How Big is a Nanometer? 10^-9meters see http://www.wordwizz.com/10exp-9.htm The distance your fingernails grow in one second One hundred million times smaller than a large potato If you stretched a rubber band appr. one yard in length from Los Angeles to New York, then one nanometer would have been stretched to 0.16 inches. http://www.cientifica.com/archives/000048.html
22	Moore’s Law and Graphics Graphics chips doubling price/performance every 6-9 months! Already more complex than microprocessor chips. People thinking of using them to substitute for microprocessor chips—because graphics so compute-intensive Graphics processor never idle whereas microprocessor often idle.
23	Raj Reddy slide
24	Finally, If Cars…[1996] If, over the past 30 years, transportation technology had improved at the same rate as information technology with respect to size, cost, performance, and energy efficiency, then an automobile would ... be the size of a toaster cost $200 go 100,000 miles per hour travel 150,000 miles on a gallon of fuel And would blow up two or three times a day killing all the occupants…