WebGL - Andrea Ward

WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API (Application Programming Interface) that allows you to render 3D graphics in your web browser. It was developed at Mozilla in 2006 and has become a common medium for programming web applications.

After some research, I've found that WebGL has been used to create well-known music videos, animated shorts, computer games, and has even been utilized in the lab for projecting 3D images of microscopic chemical structures.

I watched a few videos about WebGL, and the understanding that I've gained is that it simplifies the programming process to a level at which beginners can not only comprehend but can have fun with as well.

WebRep

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1/28 Class Blog

Hey class,

Sorry it took me two days to get this up -- we dance majors have a show coming up and rehearsals have been wild. Anyway, here are the notes I took during class along with some vocabulary and the homework assignments. Comment if I left anything out or unexplained. Have a great week!

Covered in class:

Uvisual

Web browser that does the alpha channeling for us; we’re playing with alpha in real-time

--Google "UVisual" > Choose the Kharkov link > Click the 1^st row for practice in making your own montages

(http://huh.quartz.kharkov.ua/digitalworlds/uvisual/index.xhtml)

>>Start montage, hit space to pause, take and save screenshots

RAM Dance

--Google “RAM dance” > click the first search result (RAM Dance Toolkit) > Scroll to bottom, click "github wiki" link > Scroll down, download and install the RAMdance Toolkit Application for your OS

(https://github.com/YCAMInterlab/RAMDanceToolkit/wiki/Overview) 

Isadora

--Video source>movie player>drag into space

--Video renderer>projector>connect first dots of each box

--Windows>show>media

--Open Isadora example

--Output>force stage preview

**Spacebar goes to the next scene

**Media go into bins (film used to come in canisters called bins)

To register for Isadora: (this will allow you to start saving your projects) 

--WINDOWS USERS:

Isadora>Edit>Registration>Agree

Username: University Of Florida, Digital Worlds Institute

Password: present-wire

Serial number: 00823

--MAC USERS:

See Pat about your individual license when you meet to discuss your midterm

Homework:

1. Create a Flickr account, take as many pictures as you can/like and tag them with your name so that you can pull them up on UVisual next week and display your pictures

2. E-mail Pat about “Control Space” if you're going to be in town and are interested (the Summer B installation he talked about in class)

3. E-mail and set up a meeting with Pat to discuss midterm groups, concepts, and for Mac users, Isadora licensing 

4. Watch and follow along with Isadora tutorials 1 and 2

5. Each midterm group: find and save 10 panoramic photos for next week's class (use wallbase.cc to find them)

6. Find 3-4 minute piece of music

7. Download the free version of Manycam if you haven't already (the virtual camera we used for recording photo monstages) http://www.manycam.com/

8. Sign up for Videopong if you haven't already

- ^Find at least 3-4 videos (or make them): 30-60 seconds long

** Use .MOV Quicktime files only, use Photo Jpeg codec (the codec is called Photo Jpeg) We use .PNG codec for photo because it uses alpha; we use Photo Jpeg codec for video because it turns every frame into a viewable still photo; it's also compatible with everything (Windows, Mac, Linux)

9. Write down and google your OpenGL info, read about it

WINDOWS: Edit>Preferences>Video tab

MAC: IsadoraCore>Preferences>Video tab 

-   

     10.  MAC USERS ONLY:

      a. Google and download the Hap Codec (the new generation of video codec: pushes everything onto the GPU for faster processing)

b. Google and read about Syphon

c. Blog about one of the two

**ALWAYS EXPORT VIDEOS IN PHOTOJPEG CODEC

- Exceptions can be made as long as the video doesn't stutter, lag, etc.

- You can look at the file in Isadora to see which codec works

Vocabulary:

API – Advanced Program Interface

Reve - Research Education Visualization Environment; “dream” in French

Luminence Key - two movies are combined where the darkness of one movie is replaced by the lightness of another

>>chroma key (color key): blue/green

>>luma key: black/white

HSL - hue, saturation, light

Codec -  compression/decompression; encoding/decoding, therefore “co-dec”

**VOCABULARY QUIZ: Tuesday, February 11th in class**

25 questions

MAC LICENSES

MAC LICENSES ARE IN
There was obviously an error with the password for them last night, please contact me asap so you can get your license for your mac and you can start thinking about what you want to do with your team. Remember to start doing the ISADORA tutorials online this week.

Contact ME directly via email and come over to see me so we do not have any unusual licensing issues

Patrick

Looking for Partner for Midterm

Hello all!
If a dancer in the class is looking for a non dancer to team up with for the midterm, I would love to pair up! (Or if a group of two would like to add a third member to the group) Please contact me - 8137279512 :)

Kendall

UVISUAL

INTERACTIVE IMAGE GEN

http://128.227.252.117:8080/lvtv/send-message-idmaa-2010.xhtml

Andrea Ward - Radical Evolution and Future Shock in the Paleocybernetic Age

Andrea Ward

1/28/14

PART ONE: THE AUDIENCE AND THE MYTH OF ENTERTAINMENT

Radical Evolution and Future Shock in the Paleocybernetic Age

One can define the term, ‘paleocybernetic’ by dividing the term into two parts; paleo and cybernetic. The word, ‘paleo’ means old or ancient. Cybernetics describes the transdisciplinary (the crossing of disciplinary boundaries in order to develop one holistic approach) exploration of systems along with their limitations and potentials. Thus, the Paleocybernetic age would denote an age in which systems and structures that act as platforms upon which societies can function, are undergoing rapid change, or, evolution. Change has become such a consistency within society that society depends on change itself for progress. This applies to all aspects of society, including the physical and metaphysical, and as a result, the decreasing gap between man’s definitions of physical and metaphysical. As evolution becomes more radical, we begin to fill empty spaces of knowledge, and in turn, create more empty spaces of knowledge elsewhere. As man’s knowledge is expanded, his understanding of the universe and his place in it seems smaller.

This concept relates to cinema in that cinema has illusioned man by projecting an image of reality to man that does not actually exist. This phenomenon of illusion prevents man from understanding the radical evolution that is currently defining his world for him. Radical evolution is happening at a pace at which man cannot comprehend. Thus, man continues to live based on outdated values without knowing it. Values become outdated simply because of change. One discovery leads to the next, and to the next, until eventually man’s basic core values, including morality, are replaced. This is why it is called radical evolution rather than revolution. Revolution implies a change that man is deciding to make on his own terms. This is an evolution because man does not quite have the option to remain the same. Change is a necessity inherent to today’s terms.

Just as change has become a constant, future shock has become a constant. People from everywhere are experiencing future shock in one way or another. Regardless of the way that they are experiencing it, the human race as a whole seems to be becoming comfortable in this constant feeling of change. This initiates the pattern of polarization between people who sustain their ‘old-fashioned’ ways and people who learn to quickly adapt. As new generations are born, these generations are more adept to adaptation. The youth and its following generations have become accustomed to change accompanied by ephemerality, ranging from the small scale to the large scale. One the small scale, products will live shorter lives. On the large scale, services and careers will live shorter lives. In order to illustrate this phenomenon, Gene Youngblood draws upon an observation made by Sociologist Alvin Toffler; that when parents plan for their sons to become lawyers, they are deceiving them, "Because we have no conception of what being a lawyer will mean twenty years hence. Most probably, lawyers will be computers." He explains that we can't even promise that certain occupations will exist when the youth join the work force. A computer programmer could be considered unneeded ten years from now, as computers will be responsible for reprogramming and regenerating themselves. He mentions that IBM has even introduced a computer that reprograms itself.    

As computers reprogram themselves, humans are forced to redefine their view of the world- politically, economically, ecologically, socially, and spiritually. With this idea, Youngblood incorporates a series of examples that demonstrate the way in which radical evolution forces the human race to grasp a new perspective of their environment. For instance, how is our definition of ‘intelligence’ altered by the growth of artificial intelligent systems? How is morality threatened by sciences and technologies that open up immoral possibilities? What does it mean to be human when the human life can be sustained utilizing inorganic resources? What is nature when humans don’t need it as much as they used to? What is creativity in a world of globalized art?

I suppose that we are just an audience entertained by myth. To put it all together, if radical evolution is causing the audience to experience future shock, and cinema provides us the proper illusion, then it’s no question that the solidity of what’s considered to be truth and what’s considered to be mythical is questionable. Also note the fact that research has been done to prove that there is more to the eye than what the brain receives. With that, there is more to reality than what we have projected, thus giving us more imagery to project upon the screens, and thus bringing our view of reality to an unrealistic level, or should I say more realistic? One can use the example of art. One art is utilized as a platform for another and so on. The art of photography provokes the art of film. The art of music provokes the art of dance. The art of cinema provokes the art of digital projections. As the world updates itself, and the screen upon which it is shown becomes more detailed, then the lenses through which the audiences view the screen become old and need to be replaced. The paleocybernetic age will never be one of the past, but one that is always reassigned to the present.

Definition of a term I did not know before:
Metaphysics: A branch of philosophy that deals with the fundamental nature of existence, aiming to explain what is ultimately existent and how we go about describing it. This branch discusses the theories of knowledge, identity, time, and space. 

Kendall Robertson Exploration

I found it extremely interesting that the "canvas" of webGL was the actual web page - what a great way to integrate technology and accessibility! At first I was pretty confused by this website - I wasn't exact;y sure what to do with that spinning box. After some research, I found that webGL scenes could be created without programming using a content creation tool such as Blender, CopperCube, or Autodesk Maya, so I started playing around with Maya and then would export to WebGL - very cool result!! As for Mr.Doob, I could stare at that colorful spinning shape all day. It was interesting to experiement with Mr.Doob because I wasn't exactly sure how to control it at first but it seemed that the shape reacted to the motions of my mouse. As I swiped fast across the screen, the shape would appear to "break up" and shatter into a million pieces or just spin faster or change direction. Sometimes the shape would disintegrate into almost nothing and then, when my mouse calmed down, would form again into the shape. Something odd that I noticed is that when I started playing music while Mr.Doob was up, the image COMPLETELY disappeared, and did not form again even when the bass dropped - not sure why this is. All together, these websites are very informative and fun to play with especially as a beginner!

As for my .obj files, I found them all on www.turbosquid.com ! You have to create an account, but it is free and they have thousands of fantastic .obj files!

Kendall

Ebony Bass chapter 7

The importance of the chapter is to explain the youth of holographic cinema and how it should evolve and prosper in the upcoming years.  The author takes an initial stance in the production of holographs by amplifying the history and mentioning that he was apart of the first viewing of the holograph. The first successful holographic motion picture was viewed only a little over forty years ago. And has been escalating into a new exciting form of image display ever sense, according to youngblood.  In this article the author makes an appoint to thoroughly explain the process that went into the development of holographs and the path that holographs have taken. The author uses a concise and scientifical explanation of holography. He makes it clear that holographs are the work of the future. The author used the term Cybernetic age to explain upcoming holographic revelations. The chapter explains how holographs are made by manipulating light waves in such a way that a wave front is stored. The wave is then reconstructed so that an image would appear to be three dimensional to the viewer. Dr. Dennis Gabor discovered the idea of storing and reconstructing wave fronts in 1947. Dr. Gabor obtained holograms by understanding the cohesiveness of light waves and their frequencies.  Later in 1965 Emmett N. Leith and Juris Upatnieks used the laser, invented by Dr. Theodore Maiman five years prior, in order to modify Dr.Gabor’s original technique. They successfully created the first holographic image by using a prism to develop two beams from one laser. Then the “subject” beam was used to bring attention to the object, while the “reference” beam was used to interfere with it, this created a pattern that was then recorded on a photo- graphic plate, which therefor formed the hologram. The reconstruction process is especially vital to the true three dimensional image. In order to reconstruct the image an additional laser is directed at the hologram which forms a picture identical to the object. The reconstruction process reveals a three dimensional image that can be viewed with the absence of three dimensional glasses. Dr. Alex Jacobson  used brought motion to the idea of holography. Jacobson used a pulsed ruby laser to design and build the camera apparatus which later produced thirty seconds of film generating fish in an aquarium.  The chapter continues to explain that there are three different types of lasers used in holography the ruby laser used by Dr. Jacobson, used in his aquarium motion picture, the helium-neon laser and the argon laser. The limitations in holography thus far is that we can not use the helium-neon laser because it is not a pulsed laser which is vital for commercial holography.  The argon laser is not fast enough to make action holograms and the ruby laser who’s quality is lacking in cohesiveness.  The author uses these ideas to express the limitations in holography. Another limitation is that we are stuck with a shaded red image unless full-color holograms are made.  Using white light to reconstruct a hologram is a temporary solution to a very significant issue that is the amount of energy that the laser is capable of producing.  Furthermore this chapter illustrates that holographic movies have a popular misconception that Youngblood explains is the interactive hologram. This misconception however may quite possibly become a reality. This idea is expressed by seeing the real image as opposed to the virtual image. A special optical system to reverse the holographic process would be all that is required in order to the real image. “The illusion of the rose in a vase” a technique known to the ancient Egyptians and used by magicians is performed by manipulating lenses and mirrors in order to levitate an object in space wherever desired. This idea required an actual object but now that we have holography we can use the holograph in place of the actual object.  Another idea for the evolution of holography that Dr. Wuerker explains addresses the limitation of viewers that can view the image. He says that 3-d is only seen up to twent or thirty feet so his idea is to seat the audience in the round. Introducing a way to view the image by conceiving a holographic cylinder. The evolution of holography seems unending, Dr. Lou Lesem has created methods to generate three-dimensional holographic images through computers.  The author furthermore demonstrates the importance of technology on art in itself. The use of holographs opens doors to many different ways to expand the viewing of art. Science is eternally vital in the new discoveries of holographs and structures that expand holography. The author of this chapter describes very clearly the discoveries and history that has driven us to where we are technically in holography today.  By the end of this chapter Youngblood expresses the impact that modern technology has on our human nature. He feels very strongly about the affect of art and technology and states that “we shall create heaven right here on earth”. He concludes this chapter by expressing the liberation of mankind through technology .

Vocab

Holos- a whole, referring to a whole picture both ntensity and frequency.

Laser- Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Wave front-  diffraction pattern of light waves.

Parallax- The phenomenon that distinguishes true 3-D from stereoptic illusion is called

Pulsed ruby laser- emits light in bursts 35-billionths of a second in duration

Integral photography-  technique in which many ordinary photographs from different perspectives are combined in holographic form.

Real image-  which comes to focus on the side of the film nearest to the viewer.

Virtual Image- located on the opposite side of the film from the viewer, as though one were looking through a window

Kinoform- a pattern created by A computer-controlled laser interference system

Mr Doob

When playing with Mr Doob, I found it particularly interesting when I could control the image.  For example, I was playing with the Sphere on Mr Doob and in whichever direction my mouse moved, the sphere moved and changed color.  I had complete control of the direction and speed of the sphere, with a simple swipe of my mouse.  While experimenting, I had music playing and a one point I tried to collaborate the image's movements with the music.  It was an experiment that produced me with a curious feeling!

Exploration of Caitlin Pilette

Hey!

So I was looking at WebGL. It was super confusing at first. I must have watched that box spin for like two minutes. But it seems like a pretty cool place to create 3D graphics. Good news! My browser and computer lets it run! Bad news: I am not the best person with technology. One day. One. Day. It seems pretty straight forward.

Mr. Doob must be one really cool guy. The opening graphic with the shape whose colors branched off from it was the coolest thing ever. I enjoyed how the branching action made it seem like a new shape, but it wasn't. The optical illusion was fascinating. I wasn't quite sure how to navigate downloading the files though. But I'm sure his graphics will be awesome to use in the future.

In regards to my .OBJ files, I made shapes in MAYA and the exported them as object files. :)

Popular Culture and the Noosphere

Popular Culture and the Noosphere

The chapter, Popular Culture and the Noosphere, defines the realm of cinema knowledge.  This idea of knowledge in broken up into different parts; Youngblood displays the root of the knowledge, as well as the different ways in which it is used, for art or for entertainment.  Youngblood begins the chapter with the root of the knowledge, by revealing that contemporary Man has access to a tool.  This tool is one that expands his awareness of enculturation (cultural habits and characteristics that have gradually developed), giving man freedom that was never experienced by his ancestors.  This tool is called the Noosphere.  The Noosphere is a culmination and organization of knowledge of twenty-five percent of the human race.  It is dispersed through the intermedia network, creating World Communications.  These closely interacting communications have changed the definition of cultural traditions.  The comprehension of other cultures’ traditions has produced “…a commonly-shared cultural experience…” and the ability to “…span the world …in unprecedented ways.”  All of this would be impossible without the Noosphere.  With an understanding of this fact, Youngblood refers to the Noosphere as potentially becoming “… one of the most powerful tools in man’s history.”

The Noosphere has produced an overwhelming amount of knowledge that is available to every person.  With this abundance of knowledge, humans are constantly impressed with the “influx of information”.   This easily impressionable attitude creates opportunity for manipulation.  Youngblood points out the negative uses of the Noosphere by disclosing the capability of craft to appear as creativity.  This opportunity to mislead is just the beginning of a world for of impersonation within cinema.  Youngblood then goes on to differentiate between craft and industry.  Craft he condescends as being local, whereas industry he defines as having a universal effect.  A similarity of these two opposites is shown in the differences between art and entertainment.  Similar adjectives are used to describe the differences between art and entertainment.  He refers to art as being universal with unlimited significance in its effect, while entertainment is described as limited and local.

The Noosphere has made it simple to imitate art.  This has become something of regularity in the world today.  Youngblood states: “A decade of television-watching is equal to a comprehensive course in dramatic acting, writing, and filming.”  We, of course, know this to be untrue, but in today’s world it is becoming all too easy to master a skill.  Where in 1970, when this text was written, the Noosphere was television, our Noosphere has become the internet.  With access to Google and YouTube, it is simple to type a skill or topic into the search engine and receive step-by-step instructions.  Youngblood’s point is that because a person has the ability to view and learn information with such ease, does not equate to phenomenal effects.  In fact, Youngblood states that these imitators can only comprehend effect and not cause, leading to their effect being defined as “…sub-mediocre talent in the entertainment industry.”  An artist has the ability to create art.  Youngblood defines the imitators abilities simply by saying, they “…are little more than adroit (skillful) imitators, collectors of data and phenomena, which they glean from the Noosphere and amalgamate (combine) to create packages that are far from whole."  Essentially, this leads to an unsatisfying performance.

The Noosphere has provided us with the information needed to form opinions about the popular arts.  However, this battle, between imitation and true art, creates a cloud of confusion.  This cloud causes difficulty in deciding the differences between excellence and sub-mediocre.  Youngblood expresses how eclectic (ideas deriving from many outside sources) thinking becomes confused with creative thinking.  Keeping this in mind, the parameters that Youngblood sets for creativity are connected to originality.  Since eclectic thinking is developed through many different sources, styles and ideas, creative thinking must derive from the original thought process of the artist. 

Through Cinema knowledge, and the text, we discover how science and art interact.  In Youngblood’s words, “…art and science function to reveal similarities in an a priori universe of dissimilarities.”  Youngblood is pointing out a sense of tug-o-war between the functional similarities of art and science and the dissimilarities that are evident in the world.  However, all of the segments of the Noosphere somehow find their way back to the difference between art and craft.  Throughout the chapter, Youngblood continually points out how industry, entertainment, and eclectic thinking are topics of craft thinking; the skill is developed to deceive humans that what they are viewing or learning is art.  Nevertheless, art is still the goal of craft thinking, but because it is local and not universal thinking, craft can never reach that goal.

In the final paragraph of the chapter, Youngblood states that television is cinema’s imitator.  Because craft thinking, or television in this scenario, has brought about a do-it-yourself way of thinking, cinema is forced expand its way of thinking into complexity.  Unfortunately, Youngblood expresses that the state that we live in, hyperawareness, we become overloaded with information.  This overload removes our “…technological zeal…”, leaving us without opportunity to explore the lengths and depths at which the Noosphere is capable.

MrDoob

What I've found very interesting about the Mr Doob website is the organization of the graphics. There was a portion where Mr Doob featured a graphic everyday on a calendar. I feel like there is an overwhelming amount to look at, so that feature alone helped me sort through some cool things. I really loved playing with anything that was interactive or involved a Kinetc (not that I used one, I just enjoyed the concept).

Web GL and Mr. Doob (Andrea Terrasa)

Playing with the images on the Mr. Doob site was really interesting. I am curious to see if I could integrate any of these images into some of my projection work and even a dance. I can already see these graphics synced with music. After looking at the Web GL website, I want to find a way to combine the use of both 2-D and 3-D images. They have a lot of variety and many versatile possibilities for use. These are two wonderful resources that will definitely be helpful to me as a beginner.

“Expanded Cinema”: Chapter 7 Holographic Cinema

In this chapter, Youngblood examines the wonders of holographic cinema through his explanation of its creation and development. He begins by providing some background context concerning the first successful holographic motion picture of fish in an aquarium at the Hughes Research laboratories in April 1969 by Dr. Alex Jacobson and Victor Evtuhov. He makes a strong comparison between the holographic cinema of 1970 to the conventional cinema that existed in the 1900s. Youngblood views holograms as the next great technological advancement and even predicted that they would be common place by the year 2000. He didn’t however, predict the high cost of holograms which has made them uncommon during this century. 

Youngblood examines and clarifies any misconceptions relating to holographic cinema through his clear and scientific explanation of how holograms work. He first defines “Wave-front Reconstruction” by comparing it to lensless photography that does not form any optical image. The chapter continues to define “Wave front/ Wave diffraction” as a pattern of light waves bouncing off the subject captured on a photosensitive surface without passing through the lens to form an image. He compares this process to the circles formed by pebbles thrown in water. The collection of these circles and interference patterns result from intersecting trajectories make up the wave front of light from the object. 3-Dimensional images are created effectively when the wave front can be “frozen” or stored. 

The chapter continues to explain the inventions and history that led to the development of holograms. The author acknowledges the work of Dr. Dennis Gabor, who discovered the secret to the capture and reconstruction of waves. In the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, Dr. Gabor discovered that waves are described by both intensity and frequency. He explained that normal optical photography only measure the waves of objects and not the frequency. Frequency, however, is necessary for the reconstruction of a 3-Dimensional image. The hologram was even named after the Greek word for whole “holo” to emphasize the need for both frequency and intensity. Gabor argued that light waves lose the cohesiveness the farther away they travel. Cohesive light is necessary for the 3-D images and the ideal for light waves would consist of them being at the same frequency. In addition, “cohesive” means in regards to the distance over which its waves remain in sync with each other. Sunlight, for example, possesses a short cohesive length. Youngblood also acknowledges the importance of the groundbreaking work done by Dr. Theodore Maiman in regards to the development of the laser. In 1960, Dr. Maiman invented a coherent beam of light that was operated on the same wave length and called it the laser after the term: Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation. In 1965, Emmett N. Leith and Juris Upatnieks modified Dr. Maimans technique to create the first 3-Dimensional image. The duo derived two beams from one laser through their effective use of a prism. The first beam, or subject beam, illuminated the object while the other, the reference beam, interfered with the first to create a pattern that could be “recorded on a photographic plate”. The image was rebuilt through the use of another beam that was directed at the hologram from the same position as the reference beam. The beam that emerged from the film formed the shape of wave fronts that had been reflected from the original object. 

Youngblood explains that 3-D and stereoptic illusion are different because of the concept of “parallax.” Parallax is the apparent displacement of perspectives when one object is viewed from different angles. The author argues that having a large photographic plate allows objects to be large enough to provide a comfortable peripheral perspective. He highlights that holography allows the viewer to see different areas of the picture depending on their angle of approach. He addresses “panoramic holography” and the viewing affect on the audience. Youngblood argues that the audience would always have to be small for these viewing with no more than two people because the viewing affect would be that of looking through a small window. 

Before the the world’s first real-time holographic film made by Dr. Jacobson and Evtuhov, artificial animation had created holography. Separate holograms of a single object were placed into tiny vertical strips and the illusion was created as people moved their head from side to side or the plate was moved by the laser beam horizontally. Youngblood goes on to define the three types of lasers used in holography that are identified “by the active element whose atoms are electronically charged to generate light.” The first is the Helium-neon laser which cannot be pulsed because it is a strictly continuous wave. Next is the argon-laser, which cannot meet the nanoseconds needed to form holograms. Lastly is the ruby laser, which creates a red and grainy image that is not incredibly cohesive.

Youngblood comments on the misconception that holograms are physically touchable. Instead, holograms create a virtual image that can be seen across from the viewer. In contrast, the real image focuses on the side of the film closest to the watcher and requires a unique optical system to watch. He comments on its current use in Japan through the puppet theatre. Holograms can also be produced through computers according to Youngblood. Kinoform is a type of holographic computerized projection that uses a computer-controlled and, “a laser interference system to create this pattern on plates or film.” In his concluding statements, Youngblood emphasizes the importance of the use of technology and the arts in collaboration with one another to progress our society. 

 

Holographic Cinema: A New World

Laura Smithson

DIG4905

Expanded Cinema

PART SEVEN: Holographic Cinema: A New World

Youngblood begins this chapter with a story of his own, recalling being one of the few people to view the world's first successful holographic film in California in 1969. He compares the progress of holographic cinema at that time to that of conventional cinema in 1900 – flourishing though in a embryonic, developmental stage. As this new technology emerges and we learn more about it through experimentation, several myths and misconceptions arise regarding the present and future of this new field. Youngblood uses Part Seven of his text to debunk some of those myths, and to describe some real future possibilities brought to us through holographic technology.

The first and most extraordinary aspect of holographic film is the idea that no optical image is actually formed.  Unlike conventional photography, the light waves used to create a holographic image need not pass through a lens; instead, the diffraction patterns of the light waves reflecting off the subject are captured straight onto a photosensitive surface. The diffraction pattern, or wave front, of the object is created by the reflection of light waves off every point on the object. Youngblood compares the way these points reflect circular waves to the way that ripples form concentrically in a puddle, intersecting and losing amplitude as the concentric waves move outward.

In 1947, Dr. Dennis Gabor of the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London discovered that the key to capturing and recreating these wave fronts was to record both the intensity and frequency of the light waves hitting the object. Unlike conventional photography, which recorded only the intensity of the light, creating a 3-dimensional image required information about the frequency of the light waves. The way to do this was to imprint the interference patterns of the light waves onto a photosensitive surface.

As implied by the example of the rings-in-a-puddle behavior of light diffraction, light waves lose their cohesiveness in the same way that ripples dissipate as they move farther from their point. The ability of light waves to remain “in step” with one another over distance is referred to as light’s cohesiveness. White light, or sunlight, has a very short cohesive length and would not make for quality holographs; the ideal light to use would be one whose waves all traveled at the same frequency and therefore were totally coherent. It wasn’t until the mid-1960s when the LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) was invented and used to improve upon Dr. Gabor’s initial technique that the first successful three-dimensional image was created by Emmett N. Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan.

In Leith and Upatnieks’ technique, a prism was used to derive two beams from one laser: a subject beam to illuminate the object, and the reference beam to interfere with it. The pattern created by the interaction of these two beams was recorded onto a photographic plate to form the hologram. When the image is recreated using a beam shaped exactly like the object itself, no polarized lenses are required to see the image as in the stereoptic process of “3-D” movies. Youngblood distinguishes between true 3-D and stereoptic illusion by explaining the phenomenon of parallax. In Theoretically, in holographic cinema, one could actually view all sides and perspectives of the object by moving peripherally around it.

Of course, there are limitations to this concept. The viewer’s perspective is restricted by the frame size of the plate or film strip being used as a photographic surface. The largest holographic plates are only one to two square feet, and the largest practical motion-picture film is only 70mm wide. This limitation creates the effect of looking through a small window into a larger 3-D space. Because of this small viewing window, the size of its audience would be greatly limited: only one or two people could comfortably view a holographic plate at a time.

The first successful motion-picture hologram to which Youngblood refers in the beginning of this chapter was created by Dr. Alex Jacobson and his colleague Victor Evtuhov, and it debuted in 1969 at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California. It was the first film to animate in real-time a holographic image: 30 seconds of footage of tropical fish swimming in an aquarium. Until this point, the only holographic animation was artificial; the technique involved recording several separate but stationary holograms on tiny vertical strips across a plate. To view the “animation”, one moved either his head or the plate side to side which created the illusion of movement. Jacobson’s aquarium movie used a pulsed ruby laser for extremely brief exposure to avoid blurred movement, and very high resolution holographic film. This 30-second film was the product of eight months of labor and several thousands of dollars in equipment.

The different types of lasers used in holography each have benefits and drawbacks: some have higher speed capability, some have higher quality resolution.  With all types, the hologram created is a monochromatic red or blue-green (black and white holography is not possible) image. The possibility of optically mixing these colors using two lasers has been suggested, but Jacobson argues that color is not the prior limitation to holography. First and foremost, he says, holographic cinema is limited by illumination. In order to illuminate a room-sized scene viewable to several audience members at once, one would need a laser just about as powerful, he jests, as Grand Coulee Dam. For successful commercial holography, Jacobson says,

“You need two combinations: enough energy to illuminate the scene and expose the film, and you also need it in a very short time to avoid motion blur. Instead of using one illuminator you could use ten or fifteen lasers. That's a possibility. But the cost and volume of equipment would still be prohibitive."

Youngblood addresses the misconception of the interactive hologram – an image with which an audience can move around and through in 3-D space while viewing it. He explains that though this is a possibility for the future of holographic cinema, the lens-free creation of the image always yields a virtual, rather than real, image on the opposite side of the film from the viewer. In order to see the real image itself, a system would have to be invented to reverse the holographic process and project it onto the opposite side of the film. We can look to ancient mirror-and-lens techniques used by Egyptians to create the famous “Illusion of the Rose in the Vase” for inspiration in developing a system like this.

Another limitation of projected holography is its total dependence on actuality. Youngblood explains that, unlike television or cinema in which the focus of the audience’s eye is controlled by the camera lens, holography allows its audience to look at whatever aspect of the image that it wants, and to focus on whatever it chooses, much like any live performance.  The tricks and jumpcuts that can be done with a camera are unlikely to be seen in holography. The prospect of computer-generated holographs, however, creates a potential window of opportunity to create abstract 3-D images without manually recording wave front patterns from a physical object. The possibilities created when the necessity for a physical object is eliminated are endless.

The end of this chapter makes a brave leap into a conjecture that technology will be our savior in our human condition. Youngblood argues that technology is the only thing that keeps man human: we are only as free as the deployment of our technology and the effectiveness of our politics allow us to be. He discusses a new consciousness that suits the technology, the government we create, to man – not the other way around. He coins the term “technoanarchy” for the way technology will help us to find a natural order, to rid ourselves of officialdom, and to close the gap between ourselves and our environment. Technology is man’s most valuable accomplishment. We can use it to create our own world for ourselves – each and every one of us, with our own perception of the world – and bring ourselves closer to what we perceive to be a perfect world.

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Relevant Definitions

Wave front: the locus of points having the same phase: a line or curve in 2d, or a surface for a wave propagating in 3d

Cohesiveness (coherence): the propagation distance over which a coherent wave (e.g. an electromagnetic wave) maintains a specified degree of coherence

Parallax: a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight; parallax is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines

Popular Culture and the Noosphere

Caitlin Pilette

Summary of “Popular Culture and the Noosphere”

Expanded Cinema Summary

DIG 4905

Summary of “Popular Culture and the Noosphere”

            This chapter discusses the relationship between current culture and the “noosphere”, the “film of organized intelligence that encircles the planet” (Youngblood 57).  This concept suggests that there is another layer beyond the biosphere in which we live life where all human thought accumulates. Youngblood proposes that this is in some ways a “technology” that we use on a daily basis. It is becoming one of the human race’s most valuable and dynamic tools. It allows us to think along the same lines. This new layer gives humans the ability to draw from others’ experiences and thoughts to help themselves out.

            Although, this power can be viewed in a negative aspect, and used for selfish purposes; it allows us to steal. When we are thinking along the same lines as everyone else, it is easy to pull an idea from the noosphere and call it your own. Ideas can easily be manipulated to where they take on an originality when first presented, when in reality they are just stolen ideas tweaked the minimum amount to be different. Youngblood discusses that artists in the media industry are becoming increasingly good at “[disguising their] craft as creativity]” (Youngblood 58).  Conveying this with a comparison to art and entertainment having different limitations, he describes craft as possessing a locality and industry as being universal. Because of this stealing, creativity is becoming extinct. Humans are losing their ability to create original products.

            Using this image, Youngblood continues onto discuss that artists in media possess this amazing ability to be class act imitators. Collecting information from the noosphere, these media artists “think along the same lines” as other media artists. Ever notice how every Disney Channel Television Series in the past six years possesses the same plotline? Any sitcom for that matter reflects the plotline or aspects or characters as some other television show past or present. But because media artists know how to sell themselves, their work is easily accepted as a new idea; Youngblood calls them “merchants of mannerisms.” This is similar to how any artist has to sell themselves in an audition; the goal is to make what you are presenting seem like something fresh and worth wanting. New traits are desirable in a television series, but who said that it had to be numerous traits? Youngblood implies that people blindly view the changing few things about an idea as the creation of a completely new thought. With the skills of a salesman floating around the proposal tables, any show can get on the air these days.

            Due to these similarities, this makes criticism a difficult task. Because of the noosphere we are gaining productions that are basically mirror images of one another, but why do we get so many different types of critiques for the same information? Again, we are thinking along the same lines. Now there comes the idea that thinking is an art within itself. With the noosphere floating around, thinking originally is a new talent. Thinking without reaching into the noosphere for a beginning, middle, or end of your opinion is nearly impossible these days; which is why it is such a rare talent. Because of the noosphere, products within the realm of entertainment remain at the level at which they were created. Youngblood states that this level is the level in which they were created to be in.

            Youngblood then moves onto discussing intermedia in this aspect. He declares that the field of intermedia makes us all artists by association. By watching television for decades, people gain the basic skills to be writers and actors. With the noosphere, we acquire a basic level of skills for most things simply through osmosis. The more exposure we have to the media that steals from other media that steals from other media, etc, the more we can peel away the layers and learn how to do it ourselves. For example, if a dance uses the same movement phrase every other time, the audience will often walk away knowing how to do at least some version of the step. Maybe it won’t look the same as the dancers, and maybe it will upset the performers that have trained all their lives to do these phrases, but people would happily go see a performance produced by the thieves. Like mentioned before, this osmosis is a way to steal; but the ability to steal from a field you know little about and thoroughly understand what you are stealing is impossible.

            Youngblood suggests that because we all assume that we can perform these talents by gaining it through the process of osmosis instead of legitimately working on a craft, we end up with mediocrity amongst the talent. Nowadays, mediocrity is growing, because more people have decided that their knowledge from the noosphere is just as good as an opponent’s knowledge from Julliard. And with the products we are viewing, it seems that whoever makes decisions about what they produce agree that mediocrity should take the stage.

            Due to the mediocrity in television, it is beginning to spread into the cinema entertainment field. Our obnoxious knowledge from the noosphere is growing.  The population’s hyperawareness is heightening and we are allowing ourselves to fall victim to the temptation of the noosphere. Youngblood describes it as an “aesthetic overload.”  We are constantly being swept up in the “current” and will forever be lost in the ideas of others. Lacking originality, no human can generate a one hundred percent individual thought. Our species will forever be drawing from everything to produce anything we can. But drawing from experience is the human nature.