In the last CHArt Newsletter (Spring 2004) I outlined the theme for our forthcoming 20th Annual Conference, Futures Past, and invited contributions reflecting upon ‘the successes, failures, dead ends and futures past of arts computing'. This theme was intended to serve as a reminder that arts computing now has a history which goes back forty or fifty years. I am glad to say that this invitation was responded to with some excellent papers, covering a great number of different topics, including early computer art, the rise and fall of virtual reality, early and ongoing database projects and web projects, as well as digital technology's relation to architecture and conceptualism. I think that this bodes well for what should be a fascinating conference. Above all I believe that looking at the past of arts computing will greatly help our understanding of both its present and, perhaps most important of all, its future.
Charlie Gere
Professor Will Vaughan, the founding member of CHArt and its Chair from 1985 to 2002, will deliver the Keynote Address. The papers will be presented by sixteen international speakers from the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and France, and will cover a wide range of subjects, including contemporary computer art practice, issues in the history of computer art in the 1960s; the aspirations of innovative technologies and the pitfalls of digitisation projects, not forgetting of course the achievements, successes, and examples of best practice. A full conference programme and booking details are available at www.chart.ac.uk.
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The old issues of the CHArt Newsletter are an invaluable source of information on CHArt's past activities. Judging by the content of CHArt Newsletter No. 3, covering autumn-winter 1986, the network of CHArt's contacts has developed significantly, bringing an international community of humanities computing enthusiasts closer. The communication between members was much eased by the introduction within the UK of electronic mail through JANET (Joint Academic Network). The Newsletter Editor invited contributions to his email address @uk.ac.ucl.euclid (which makes one wonder when a reverse order became a standard). He longed for email to become more readily and widely available, and ‘for the day when all copy arrives by wire', and his job is 'no more than an electronic cut and paste'. The CHArt Annual Conference was held at the National Gallery in London on 27 and 28 November 1986. The programme was split into two main strands; Text, and Image. Word-processing applications were then still a hot topic, and the videodisc emerged as a promising interactive format for digitised images. Among the software novelties presented were two word-processing packages, Nota Bene and Word Perfect, both of which seem to have withstood the test of time. Demonstrations by commercial organisations were included for the first time, alongside the academic projects. Rob Dixon demonstrated his ‘remarkably flexible' STIPPLE MACHINE. Perhaps those who remember it would care to tell us more about this forgotten technological innovation?
In an attempt to demystify the possibilities of computer power and temper overenthusiasm for computer technology, a number of speakers talked about the complexities of preparation work – often manual and tedious - prior to computerisation (something which still tends to be underestimated). Processes described as grading and structuring of information were particularly difficult owing to the lack of standards. Here the experience of two London-based projects, at the Wellcome Institute and the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute respectively, were both received as very useful for those who considered similar cataloguing and indexing initiatives.
At the imaging strand, the videodisc demonstrated current cutting-edge technology. The demonstrations of videodisc systems included the University of Iowa (Art History Core) videodisc retrieval project. A videodisc demonstrated by Terry Genin of the Northumberland Park School, UK, must have been one of the earliest imaging projects of this kind developed for secondary school students. The wide range of imaging applications in teaching, museums and libraries were discussed by Anthony Hamber, while David Saunders presented a strictly technical paper concerned with the application, at the National Gallery in London, of digital imaging for recording colour change in pictures.
There were a number of much-debated issues such as whether developments in image storage and retrieval will in future "be massive and online or fragmented and 'project-based'; be developed within the hopelessly under-resourced and apathetic academic institutions or given over to Mammon's spoilt and eager pups; be as fascinatingly un-useable (and expensive!) as the BBC Domesday Videodisc, or as enervating as Word Star: all will be revealed", reads the 1986-87 Newsletter. We are wiser today by the experience of the past 18 years and know the answers to many of the then pressing questions. Sadly, some of the past concerns have remained all too familiar.
The image of faces reproduced below from the 1986-87 CHArt Newsletter, and originally published by A. K. Dewdney in the Scientific American, October 1986, illustrates a computer-based drawing process used for plotting images of caricatured faces. The Complete Computer Caricaturist software was devised by Susan E. Brennen, a computer scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.
Reporting on this development in the CHArt Newsletter, Will Vaughan argued for the relevance of this computer programme to Art History: ‘it might help us to understand a bit more about the principles of caricature, the principle of ‘overloading' (from the Italian caricare) a norm'
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Bringing this review to the attention of CHArt readers, there are a few points worth noting. As we know, very few computer programmes have been created with the needs of art historians in mind. It is the ability of spotting the potential of a commercial software package as a research tool that lies behind many successful applications of computer techniques in art historical interpretations. Vaughan was interested in using Brennan's software to find out how the deformation processes work in caricature. Hence his question: what are the principles of a caricature? He believed that using the software might help in exploring the answers. Replaced by morphing techniques, that seem more flexible and user-friendly, the Computer Caricaturist might have become obsolete. It found, however, new users. Surprisingly, these new users are computer scientists working in the area of automated face recognition. They continue to refer to the plotting techniques employed by the Computer Caricaturist, looking for answers to the question: what makes a ‘normal' or ‘standard' face.
Anna Bentkowska |
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Edited by Anna Bentkowska, Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner.
Published by intellect, ISBN 1-84150-116-6, Paperback, 100 pp
Extract from the Introduction by William Vaughan |
This book, forthcoming in November 2004, looks at the transformation that Art and Art History is undergoing through engagement with the digital revolution. Since its initiation in 1985, CHArt has set out to promote interaction between the rapidly developing new Information Technology and the study and practice of Art. It has become increasingly clear in recent years that this interaction has led, not just to the provision of new tools for the carrying out of existing practices, but to the evolution of unprecedented activities and modes of thought. This collection of papers represents the variety, innovation and richness of significant presentations made at the CHArt Conferences of 2001 and 2002. Some show new methods of teaching being employed, making clear in particular the huge advantages that IT can provide for engaging students in learning and interactive discussion. It also shows how much is to be gained from the flexibility of the digital image‚ or could be gained if the roadblock of copyright is finally overcome. Others look at the impact on collections and archives, showing exciting ways of using computers to make available information about collections and archives and to provide new accessibility to archives. The way such material can now be accessed via the Internet has revolutionized the search methods of scholars, but it has also made information available to all. However the Internet is not only about access; it also offers the opportunity of exploring the structure of images and dealing with the fascinating possibilities offered by digitisation for visual analysis, searching and reconstruction. Another challenging aspect covered by the book are the possibilities offered by digital media for new art forms. One point that emerges is that digital art is not some discreet practice, separated from other art forms. It is rather an approach that can involve all manner of association with both other art practices and with other forms of presentation and enquiry, demonstrating that we are witnessing a revolution that affects all our activities and not one that simply leads to the establishment of a new discipline to set alongside others.
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