Abstract
Noise-Signal Series realized between 1986-1990 can be considered as one of the first works that address the transformative state of the analog photograph into the digital. The series are ‘born digital’, meaning that they were created on a computer with the C computer programming language, stored as data files and digitally transferred to a prototype inkjet printer. They were created once the first full color pixel-based technology, the AT&T Truevision Targa analog-digital image capture system became available in the mid-1980s. Titled “Noise-to-Signal” the series innovates by synthesizing a broad range of theoretical, aesthetic and technological references introducing computer-generated image creation years prior to digital cameras, the internet, and Photoshop. The series introduces randomization, Guassian noise / Brownian motion, data sampling as the fundamental basis for the digital photograph, and integrates theoretical perspectives from Claude Shannon’s Information Theory’s addressing the rleationship between noise and signal in relation to Roland Barthes’ visual semiotics analysis of the staging of television news. The prints are unique vintage inkjet prints 59.69 cm x 72.39 cm digitally transferred from 5.25” floppy disks to a prototype Fuji printer titled Jetgraphix.
Presenters
George LegradyDistinguished Professor, Director, Experimental Visualization Lab, Media Arts & Technology, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Creative and Cultural Technologies
KEYWORDS
Digital Imaging, Born Digital, Computational Processing, Fine Arts, Data Sampling
