CuuDuongThanCong.com Chromatic Algorithms CuuDuongThanCong.com Chromatic Algorithms Synthetic Color, Computer Art, and Aesthetics after Code Carolyn L Kane The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London CuuDuongThanCong.com CuuDuongThanCong.com For Alex Galloway and Fred Turner CuuDuongThanCong.com The gray rock of the industrial proletariat has been pulverized into a multicolored sand Its colored grains form dunes, obeying the winds that blow into the scene from the outside —Vilém Flusser Life is won by wresting colors from the past —Gilles Deleuze CuuDuongThanCong.com Contents CuuDuongThanCong.com Introduction How Color Became Code Part Chromatic Visions (400 B.C.–1969) Colors Sacred and Synthetic 22 I Classical and Modern Color: Plato through Goethe II Industrial Color: Synthetics through Day-Glo Psychedelics Synthetic Color in Video Synthesis 60 Part Disciplining Color: Encounters with Number and Code (1965–1984) Informatic Color and Aesthetic Transformations in Early Computer Art 102 Collaborative Computer Art and Experimental Color Systems 140 From Chromakey to the Alpha Channel 174 Part “Transparent” Screens for Opaque Ontology (1984–2007) Digital Infrared as Algorithmic Lifeworld 210 The Photoshop Cinema 242 Postscript A New Dark Age 278 Acknowledgments 295 Notes 296 Bibliography 312 Index 328 CuuDuongThanCong.com Introduction How Color Became Code CuuDuongThanCong.com Arriving in off-the-shelf commercial software in the early 1990s, the appearance of digital color as flexible, intuitive, and user-friendly is actually quite puzzling There is no way for users to find out how these colors actually work or how different people see colors differently in different contexts (even the same hue fluctuates between monitors) Nor seductive software interfaces explain that, on a technical and material level, digital color is in fact a series of algorithmic codes While traditional color studies thrive in visual analysis, with little interest in the industrial or laboratory histories of color, the fact that digital color is a product of heightened technologization (through cybernetics, information theory, and mathematics) complicates matters because it is just as much a part of the history of computing as it is the history of aesthetics Chromatic Algorithms responds to this dilemma by analyzing the ways in which a few brilliant and extremely talented computer scientists and experimentally minded artists in the 1960s and 1970s managed to transform postwar computing technology and massive number-crunching machines (figure I.1) into tools used to produce some of the first computer-generated color in what they called “computer art.”1 The colors made to appear from these former death machines were so fantastic that many viewed them as revolutionary, psychedelic hues that promised a bigger and better future for humans and machines Unfortunately, after the massive shift to personal computing, automated off-the-shelf software, the graphic user interface (GUI) in the 1980s, which readily employed icons in place of text commands, and the standardization of color in the 1990s, this experimental field closed and the wild pioneering visions dissolved By the end of the 1990s, however, personal computing had wedded the Internet and a different kind of utopianism filled the air The new frontiers of cyberspace and the World Wide Web temporality reinvigorated the world of computing, transforming pixel-pushing knowledge work into a new paradigm of art and design cool Computing, it now seemed, paved the road to yet another global village of wired e-commerce and sexy cosmopolitan connectivity And then there was the “burst” of the dot-com bubble, after which another temporary lull befell the new media, until enthusiasm was amplified once again in the late 2000s, when sleeker hypersaturated computer colors underwent yet another (re)evolution of sorts Through increasingly ubiquitous user-friendly interfaces and social media applications, integrated with cross-platform production techniques introduced in the late 1990s, luscious and automated electronic hypercolors came to “empower” millions of artists, designers, architects, animators, students, educators, consumers, and children to push, pull, remix, and mashup media from multiple locations and platforms, using a variety of computer, electronic, cloud, and automated PDA devices Human-computer interaction became cool and sexy once again, and even a touch utopian, at least on the surface CuuDuongThanCong.com Beige, 176, 199 Bell Laboratories, 148–54; black-and-white computer art at, 120; Bute’s connection with, 132; conservative trends of 1970s and 1980s at, 149, 169–70, 288; creators of computer art at, 17, 142 (see also specific artists and engineers); democratic userfriendly color and, 172; Shannon’s work at, 7; Zajac’s non-mystical film produced at, 137 Belton, John, 253, 254 Benjamin, Walter: blue flower allusion of, 98, 303n126; on color, 41, 42; on “cult of beautiful semblance,” 105, 119; on mechanically reproducible art, 105, 106–7, 113; on new technology, 90–91, 106–7, 231 Benkert, Ernst, 156 Bense, Max, 103, 104, 105, 106; information aesthetics founded by, 16, 108, 111–12, 120; Kittler and, 113, 303n12; lack of critical attention to, 138; Mohr’s approach and, 120; New Tendencies movement and, 119; rational aesthetics of, 103, 112–14, 303n28; Struycken’s approach and, 122; U.S style compared to, 17, 135 See also Programming of the Beautiful Berkshire Fangs (Blake), 260, 261 Berman, David, 268 Bieri, Sean, 199 Bilal, Wafaa, 287, 293 Billups, Scott, 179 bio art, 285–86, 286, 287 Biorn, Per, 147, 230 Birkhoff, George David, 110–11, 114 Birren, Faber, 25 bitmap images, 141, 145, 305n3; of Photoshop, 270–71 Björk, 251 black frame inserts, 155, 157 Blake, Jeremy, 19; Angel Dust, 261, 263; Berkshire Fangs, 260, 261; Bungalow 8, 257, 260, 263; Chemical Sundown, 245, 248, 260, 261, 264, 274, 275, 276; cool indifference in work of, 243, 257, 276, 292, 293; Dancer in the Dark, 245, 249, 251–52, 252, 257; Glitterbest, 268; inversely reflecting histories of color, 257, 262; layering in work of, 263–64, 265, 267, 271, 273; Liquid Villa, 261, 263; narrative use of color by, 245, 249, 251–53, 254, 255, 256, 257, 260–63, 276; Photoshop used by, 243, 268, 272, 274, 276; possibilities in work of, 293; postmodern sensibilities of, 267, 272; Punch Drunk Love, 245, 249, 250, 251–52, 253, 262; Reading Ossie Clark, 245, 246–47, 264, 268–69; voiceover narration used by, 267–69; Winchester, 262, 264, 265, 266 See also Photoshop cinema Blanc, Charles, 37, 38 Blaszczyk, Regina, 47, 52 330 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Bloch, Ernst, 198, 289 Blotkamp, Carel, 124, 125 blue screen, 177–79, 180, 181, 187, 195 Bolter, David Jay, 267 Bordwell, David, 250–51, 254 Boulding, Kenneth, 273 Bowman, Bill, 163 Brakhage, Stan, 254, 256 break boundary, 273 Breton, André, 232 Brown, Robert, 133 Brown, Trisha, 82 Brücke, Ernst, 37 Buna, 43, 51 Bungalow (Blake), 257, 260, 263 Burke, Edmund, 271 Burnham, Jack, 108 Bush, Vannevar, 5, Bute, Mary Ellen, 38, 103, 125, 127, 130, 132, 135 Cabaret Voltaire, 176 Cage, John, 82, 88, 130, 150, 177, 230, 305n100 cam-girl exhibitionism, 18, 238 Campus, Peter, 17, 82, 178, 186–90, 195; Three Transitions, 186–90, 187, 204 capitalism: commodification of culture and, 288; synthetic fluorescents and, 48 See also postindustrial culture Caro, Heinrich, 47 Catalog (John Whitney Sr.), 127, 128, 129 Cates, Jon, 307n5 cathode-ray tubes See CRT screen systems Catmull, Ed, 17, 194–95 catoptrics, 26–27 Century 21 (Blake), 264, 265 CGI technologies, 97 Chang, Chris, 257 Chemical Sundown (Blake), 245, 248, 260, 261, 264, 274, 275, 276 Chevreul, Michel-Eugène, 36–37, 66, 171 Chow, Rey, 238 chromakey, 17, 82, 177–79, 184–86; Campus’s use of, 187–90, 204 chrominance signals, 64–65, 300n15 chromophobia: aesthetics of continuity and, 267; color saturation in cinema and, 254; extending to the Other, 31; Goethe and, 23, 41; Hegel and, 41; Italian Renaissance aesthetics and, 29; rampant from Antiquity through nineteenth century, 30; reflected in early computer art, 121; Taussig on age of, 23; Web 2.0 style and, 198 See also dirty colors chromotherapy, 25 CIE system, 36 cinematic avant-garde: Blake’s work compared to, 256; color alteration techniques in, 157; light and color experiments in, 38; midcentury experimental film colorists, 254–55; narrative use of color in, 249; split-screen techniques in, 183; stylized color in 1960s, 53; subjective and emotional use of color in, 256; subjective perception and, 158; VanDerBeek’s association with, 132, 256; Youngblood’s analysis of, 154 Ciocci, Jacob, 199, 201, 202, 287 Ciocci, Jessica, 199 Citron, Jack, 129, 165 Clooney, George, 220 CLUSTER 16 (Struycken), 122, 123 coal tar dyes, 37, 46, 48, 299n88 code/interface disparity, 2, 109 cold colors, 45 coldness: of automated digital color, 18, 211; of LCD, LED, or plasma systems, 69, 274; of Web 2.0 look, 197, 198 See also cool Coleman, Ornette, 127 color: as ambivalent phenomenon, 27, 30–31, 48; from chemical transformation of death, 51; as function, in chromakey, 188; as a matter of technics, 2, 31; in Nake’s early computer art, 114–19; in Paper Rad’s dirt style, 205–6; in post-optic media, 67, 70; rationalization and reification of, 79; relativity of responses to, 23, 24–25, 40; subjective and objective approaches to, 25–26, 32, 114, 303n28; symbolic approaches to, 25; as system of control, 211–12 See also algorithmic color; democratic color; digital color; dirty colors; psychedelic colors; synthetic color colorblindness, 24, 172 color casting, 47 colore, 29, 303n8; Blake’s allusions to, 245; controlled by algorithm, 195; narrative saturation and, 251, 254; Photoshop as manifestation of, 271; Sharits’s films and, 256 colored filters: Laposky’s use of, 130; Whitney’s use of, 129 color field painters, 254 color film: of I.G Farben chemical factories, 43–44; as subtractive system, 67; transition of moving image to, 57, 58 See also color photography; Technicolor color-grading techniques, 19, 244, 253–54, 267 color intensification, 158–59, 306n60 colorizer: defined, 73; Process Chrominance Synthesizer, 72–74, 75 color lookup tables (LUTs), 159, 160, 161, 162; alpha channel and, 178, 194; Scorsese’s use of, 244 color mixing: subjective vs objective, 158 See also additive color systems; subtractive color systems color paint systems, 160, 163–69 See also SuperPaint color photography: of Maxwell, 36 See also color film color television: advent of, 57–58, 58, 65–66; history of, 63–69; as medium of nonstop movement, 63; standardization of, 63–67, 301n21 See also television commodity culture, 272–73, 288 commodity fetish, 48 compositing: Campus’s use of, 187–88; hyperdividuation and, 191 See also chromakey; digital compositing compression in twentieth-century media: cool inscrutability and, 211; democratization of color and, 170, 172; of digital vs analog images, 97, 166; neglected in visual studies, 301n20; Paik’s colors and, 88; standardization and, 67, 142, 159 See also informatic data reduction computer art: black-and-white, 120–21; changing usage of the term, 150, 153; defined, 297n1; in multiple early contexts, 119–21; origin date of, 150, 305n31; pioneering visions of, See also German approach in early computer art; U.S style of early computer art constructivism, 109, 120 Conway, John, 122 cool: of Paper Rad style, 203, 204–5; of Web 2.0 style, 197, 198 See also coldness cool colors: of new dark age, 292; of television, 65 cool indifference: of Blake’s colorism, 257; in new media aesthetics, 203; of Photoshop cinema, 243, 276 cool media, 65, 155, 232, 234, 273–74 Copernican turn in aesthetic philosophy, 271 Cornell, Lauren, 200 Cortright, Petra, 199 counterculture, 52–53, 55, 108, 202 Crandall, Jordan, 18, 231–36, 292, 293; Drive, 234–35, 235, 236, 237; Heatseeking, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238 Crary, Jonathan, 30, 34, 78, 210, 214 Crichton, Michael, 222 Critchley, Simon, 193, 289 critical theory: Goethe’s influence on, 41; humanity’s decline and, 211 CRT screen systems, 45, 67, 68; Beck’s adaptation of, 76; pure and unmediated blue of, 98; Scanimate and, 92, 93, 95, 96; Siegel’s adaptation of, 75; uncompressed animations made with, 97; Whitney’s use of, 129 See also oscilloscope; television; video 331 CuuDuongThanCong.com Cubitt, Sean, 67, 305n94 Cunningham, Merce, 150 cybernetics, 2, 5–9; algorithmic image and, 228; art and ideas of 1960s influenced by, 107–8, 154; European applications of, 108; of human-machine television system, 69, 97; of human-machine video system, 190–91; hyperdividuation and, 190–92; networked global relations and, 63; phenomenology and, 10, 11, 12, 297n32; Siegel on video mind expansion and, 78; society of control and, 213; subjective approach to color prior to, 42; technological lifeworld and, 15 Dada, 176, 307n8 Daisy Bell (Steinkamp), 292, 292 Dalí, Salvador, 144–45 Dancer in the Dark (Von Trier), 245, 249, 251–52, 252, 257 Dark Age See new dark age Dasein: Heidegger’s concept of, 10; the ready-tohand and, 80, 81; Stiegler on, 14, 193, 297n33; transcendence and, 81 data reduction See informatic data reduction data visualization: Bense’s aesthetics and, 108, 138; infrared image as, 215, 224; meaning and, 224; Struycken’s methods and, 121; SuperPaint as precursor to, 163; transformed by digital color, 289 See also algorithmic image Davis, Douglas, 82 Day-Glo fluorescent colors, 16, 24, 44–45; invention of, 49–50, 50; postwar uses of, 51–57, 55, 56; Switzer brothers and, 49–50, 51–52; World War II uses of, 50 See also fluorescent colors dead media, 81, 204, 205, 302n83 Dear Raindrop, 199 death: color-related transformation of, 49, 51; cybernetic applications to, 106; dark side of the 1960s and, 57; synthetic color implying, 44 Debord, Guy, 237 deconstruction, 41 DeFanti, Tom, 70 Deleuze, Gilles, iv; on abstraction, 257; on breaking with habit, 205–6; on genealogy, 297n2; hyperdividuation and, 193; on painter’s circumstances, 288; on perception, 3; on society of control, 213, 238, 239t, 287–88 della Porta, Giovanni Battista, 28 democratic aesthetic, of Flurry screen saver, 96 democratic color, 141, 142–44, 159–60, 169–73, 276, 288 Demos, Gary, 161, 303n3 Denes, Peter, 154, 163–65, 306n68 332 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Derrida, Jacques, 30–31, 42 Descartes, René, 8, 10, 12, 28, 30, 35 digital color: algorithmic processes and, 216, 226, 309n30; democratization of, 142, 159; dramatic transformations enabled by, 289; failure and, 289; homogenization of, 143–44; in Photoshop cinema, 243, 273; Richter’s paintings and installations using, 290; standardization of, 18, 142, 159, 172, 196; transparency claimed for, 170 See also algorithmic color; color digital color grading, 19, 244, 253–54, 267 digital compositing, 177–78; layering aesthetics and, 263; of Paper Rad, 199, 201 See also alpha channel; compositing; digital color grading; spatial compositing digital computers vs analog computers, 62 digital image: as adjunct to algorithm, 240; algorithmic processes and, 216; vs analog image, 97, 309n34; iconic character of, 227 digital infrared, 211, 215, 218, 238 digital intermediate (DI) technologies, 244 Dillinger, John, 49 dioptrics, 26–27, 28, 298n20; Goethe on, 32, 34 Direct Video Zero (DVZ), 76 dirt style, 18, 175, 176, 177, 178; as critique, 204–6, 308n65; digital color coding and, 143; emergent cultural values and, 211; layering in, 263; of Paper Rad, 201; poststructuralist and postmodern sensibilities of, 267 See also Paper Rad dirty colors: of analog Scanimate, 96; cheap, 289, 298n33; Müller’s psychophysics and, 35; of today’s new media art, 293; Western cultural symbolism and, 29, 31 See also chromophobia disciplinary model, 212–13, 214 disegno, 29, 303n8; Adobe Illustrator and, 271; aesthetics of continuity and, 267; Blake’s allusions to, 245; controlled by algorithm, 195; early computer art and, 121; narrative saturation and, 251, 254; Sharits’s films and, 256 DLP (digital light processing) systems, 67, 301n32 Dolce, Lodovico, 29 dot-com bubble, 1, 288 dot-com crash, 197 drawing programs See color paint systems Drive (Crandall), 234–35, 235, 236, 237 Duchamp, Marcel, 47, 304n46 Dunn, Linwood, 181 dyes: coal tar, 37, 46, 48, 299n88; indigo, 43; industrial revolution in, 46–48 Eames, Charles and Ray, 126 Earth, Wind & Fire, 93, 94 Easy Rider (Hopper), 249, 251 ecological art, 154 edge theory of color, 158, 158 Edison, Thomas, 180 Eggeling, Viking, 38 Eggleston, William, 57 Einstine (Siegel), 72–73, 73, 301n49 Eisenstein, Sergei, 179 Elder, Bruce, 256 Electronic Opera #1 (Paik), 83, 84 Electronic Video Synthesizer (EVS), 74, 74–75 Eliasson, Olafur, 71 Empedocles’ emission theory, 25, 26 Emshwiller, Ed, 82 enframing (Gestell), 12–13, 14, 106–7; dirt style and, 204; infrared visualization and, 230; optic and algorithmic models subject to, 215; today’s digital color and, 172 Engelbart, Douglas, 179–80 ENIAC, 2, Enigma (Schwartz and Knowlton), 154–55, 157–59 Enlightenment, 10, 12, 27, 28, 197, 214, 215 epigenetic evolution, and technogenesis, 14–15 Epileptic Seizure Comparison (Sharits), 256, 259, 273 episteme, 12, 91 epistemology: algorithms engendering, 216; Heidegger’s philosophy of technology and, 91; of optic and algorithmic models, 238, 239t; Photoshop cinema and, 271 Etra, Bill, 70 Euclid’s Optics, 26 exhibitionism, 18–19, 211, 235–38, 239t existential condition, of failure, 289 existentialism, and phenomenology, 10, 14 existential transcendence, Heidegger’s notion of, 16 expanded cinema, 108, 154, 155, 156 experimental aesthetics, 109–10, 304n28 Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), 18, 53, 145, 147, 149–50, 153, 230 Expressionism, German, 39, 262 expressionism, in early U.S computer art, 103 Eye Drawings (Hendricks), 225, 231 Eyewriter, 231, 231 Facebook, 5, 170, 172, 175, 197, 216, 224, 307n7 failure, human, 289, 293 Fateman, Johanna, 199 Faust, M., 306n69 fear: of all war-related pursuits, 232; of automation and hypertechnologies, 272; in sublime moment, 271; television content based on, 61; of visualization technologies, 18, 220–24, 225, 229, 231 Fechner, Gustav Theodor, 34–35, 78–79; experimental aesthetics and, 110; Goethe and, 158, 299n42; Helmholtz and, 36; today’s commercial software and, 171 See also Weber-Fechner law feedback: algorithmic model and, 214; between culture and computation, 9; cybernetic concept of, 6–7, 190; hyperdividuation and, 193, 236; Maxwell’s research on, 36; predictive scanning and, 224, 225; of television experience, 63, 69; in video creation, 188, 189, 190–91 feedback images, with Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer, 89 Feliciano, Richard, 76 feminine view of color, 30, 31 Fère, Charles, 25 Field, Simon, 255 Figgis, Mike, 183 film See cinematic avant-garde; color film Fischinger, Oskar, 38, 254 Fisher, Fritz, 163 Flash aesthetic, 269, 271 Flegal, Bob, 161 fluorescent colors: basic characteristics of, 44, 44–45; in bio art, 285–86, 286, 287, 292; in body art circa 1969, 287; of Jones’s New Dark Age, 279, 280; of new dark age, 287; nineteenth-century developments leading to, 45–48; Paper Rad’s use of, 203, 279; postwar uses of, 51–57; of Sedgley’s Video Disque ROB, 279; Switzer brothers’ development of, 48–49, 51; in twenty-first century, 19; World War II uses of, 50–51 See also Day-Glo fluorescent colors; synthetic color fluorescent proteins, 283–86 Flurry screen saver, 96, 96–97 Flusser, Vilém, iv, 4, 5, 15, 193–94, 227–29, 240, 262 folksonomies, 192 Forti, Simone, 230 Foucault, Michel: on disciplinary society, 212, 214, 239t; media archaeology and, frame buffer: advantages of, 97, 121, 160; alpha channel and, 178, 194, 195; Beck’s Video Weaver, 76; early examples of, 160–62, 163–66, 306n66, 306n68; in early personal computers, 196; Joan Miller’s, 154, 160; operating principles of, 160; Spiegel’s use of, 167; SuperPaint developed with, 154, 161 Frampton, Hollis, 254 Franke, Herbert, 17, 103, 105, 114, 119, 122, 138, 303n28 Frankfurt school, 231 Franks, David, 255 Friedberg, Anne, 180, 188, 214 Friedman, Martin, 189 Fuller, Buckminster, 15, 42–43, 108, 125 Fuller, Loïe, 38, 38 333 CuuDuongThanCong.com Galileo Galilei, 28 Galloway, Alex, 26, 214 Galvani, Luigi, 32 Gaussian Quadratic (Noll), 152 genealogy: Deleuze on, 297n2; Nietzsche’s concept of, generation flash, 269 generative art, 111, 120, 283 Genesis (Kac), 285, 286 genetic engineering, 283–86, 289, 292 genius, artistic, 112, 113, 145, 225, 243 Gerhardt, Charlie, 52 German approach in early computer art, 103, 108, 111–12, 114, 119, 125, 137–38 German Expressionism, 39, 262 German media theory, 3, 297n4 Gestell See enframing (Gestell) GFP Bunny (Kac), 285, 286, 292 GFP (green fluorescent protein), 283, 284, 285 Ghent, Emmanuel, 155 Gille, Bertrand, 4, 15, 297n7 Gillespie, Tarleton, 216 Giorgione, 29 Girard, Alexander, 54 Gitlin, Todd, 53 glitch aesthetics, 77, 176, 198, 267, 297n18, 308n65 Glitterbest (Blake), 268 globalization, 197–98 Godard, Jean-Luc, 53, 185, 268 Godfrey, John, 88 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: on chromophobia, 23; color theory of, 32–34, 33, 158, 158; Fechner’s discovery of subjective perception and, 299n42; legacy of color theories of, 36–41, 158, 299n48; Müller’s psychophysics and, 35; Turner’s visual reference to, 276 golden mean, 110 Goldmark, Peter, 64 Goodman, Nelson, 109 Google, 175, 216 Googolplex (Schwartz and Knowlton), 157 Gorshkov, Sergei, 220–21 Got Milk, 93, 95, 95 Götz, Karl Otto, 70 Graffiti Research Lab (G.R.L.), 19, 231 grammars of action, 220 Grant, Colesworthy, 43 graphical user interface (GUI), 1, 18, 121, 141, 173, 178, 273 Graphomat, 116, 116 Greenberg, Clement, 297n11 Griffiths, Helga, 286, 293 334 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Gropius, Walter, 39 Grusin, Richard, 267 Guattari, Felix, 205–6, 257 Gunning, Tom, 249, 309n34 Gunzenhäuser, Rul, 114 Habermas, Jürgen, 231 Hallock, Don, 77 Hanhardt, John, 189–90 Hansen, Mark, Haraway, Donna, 232 Harman, Graham, 16, 62, 80, 81, 91 Harmon, Leon, 17, 142, 145–47, 148, 153 Harrison, Lee, III, 93 Harvey, David, 287 Hay, Alex, 230 Hay, Deborah, 150 Hayles, Katherine: algorithmic lifeworld and, 15; cybernetics and, 8, 9, 191; on hyper attention, 191– 92; on information narratives, 260, 262, 269; on information theory, 7, 297n18; media determinism and, 4; on Stiegler’s technogenesis, 14–15 Hays, Ron, 60, 69, 79, 88–89, 89, 90, 92, 93 HDTV, 273 Hearn, Bill, 71 Heartfield, John, 263 Heatseeking (Crandall), 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238 Hegel, G W F., 41, 104 Heidegger, Martin: on color, 41, 102, 104, 105, 114, 218; cybernetics and, 10, 11, 105–7, 297n32; on existential transcendence, 16; Harman’s reading of, 62, 80, 81; Kant and, 10, 12, 28, 297n34; negative perception of hypertechnologies, 231; nineteenth-century science and, 34; overview of phenomenology of, 10–11; Stiegler on, 14; on subject grounded in material fact, 192; on transparent truth, 28; on Van Gogh’s Pair of Boots, 272; on widespread consumability of art, 98; on the world picture, 214–15 See also enframing (Gestell); phenomenology Heidegger’s philosophy of technology, 5, 11–13, 80–81, 302nn75–76; critique of mathematics and science in, 12, 104, 105–6; episteme and, 12, 91; VanDerBeek’s ideals and, 137 Heilos, Larry, 230 Helmholtz, Hermann von, 34, 36, 37, 79, 110, 158 Hendricks, Joachim, 225 Henry, Charles, 37, 38, 110 Heraclitus, 297n40, 298n10 Hering, Ewald, 299n55 hermeneutics: aesthetic theories rooted in, 2; Benjamin on breaking the veil of, 98, 105, 303n9; Blake’s resistance to, 267; humanist subject and, 190; infrared images and, 229; postmodern art and, 272; vs rational aesthetics, 112, 113, 155–56; technical or algorithmic images and, 228, 244 Hertlein, Grace C., 305n104 Higgins, Scott, 249 high definition, McLuhan on, 273 hiphop, satirized by Paper Rad, 202 historical a priori, Hitchcock, Alfred: Rear Window, 212, 213, 214, 229, 238; Spellbound, 253 holdout matte, 180, 195 Holocaust, and synthetic color, 43–44, 51 Honey, Francis J., 93 Hopper, Dennis, 249, 251 Horn, Eva, 14 Houdebine, Louis-Marie, 285 HTML color, 117, 143, 143 Huhtamo, Erkki, 15 Hultén, Pontus, 145 humanism: hyperdividuation and, 191; philosophy of technology and, 14, 190; vs posthumanism, 8–9 Husserl, Edmund, 10–11, 34, 81, 104, 194 See also phenomenology Huston, Johnny Ray, 199 hyperdividuation, 190–94; algorithmic exhibitionism and, 237; Blake’s images as reflections of, 263; human-machine feedback loop and, 190–91, 236; information society and, 211; Paper Rad and, 201, 202, 205; perception and, 157, 191, 192; social and political complacency associated with, 276 hypersaturated computer colors, 1, 19, 290 See also saturated color IBM: Whitney at, 129, 165; window manager developed for, 180 Ice Cube, 220 iconic image, 227, 229, 309n34 Identity Analysis (Griffiths), 286 I.G Farbenindustrie, 43, 51 Illustrator, 267, 269, 271 Image West, 93, 97 Imagine (Lennon), 185 Impressionism: Blake’s references to, 262; paints for, 47; research on perception and, 156; subjective color theories and, 37 incandescence, 45 indexical image, 227, 229, 309n34 indigo: electronic, 60, 62, 79, 98; plant-based, 43 informatic data reduction, 14, 18, 217, 219–24 See also compression in twentieth-century media information aesthetics, 16, 108, 109, 111, 120, 289 information theory, 6–8, 36, 42; algorithmic image and, 228; information aesthetics and, 108; meaning and, 7, 111, 224 infrared eye-tracking software, 231, 231 infrared radiation, 217, 217–18 infrared visualization, 18–19, 218–19; allegorical dimension of, 229; Crandall’s artwork using, 18, 231–36, 292, 293; fears involving predictive scanning in, 225, 229; fears surrounding data reduction in, 220–24, 229; military uses of, 18, 211, 218–19, 220–22, 223, 224, 225, 226–27, 230, 238; as postoptic technology, 18, 238; Rauschenberg’s piece using, 230; systems of control using, 211, 219, 232, 234, 235, 236 Innis, Harold, 15 innocent eye, 79, 125 innovation: enframing and, 13; stagnation of creativity and, 173; statistical measurement of, 114; technological determinism and, 4, 5, International Commission on Illumination (CIE) system, 36 Internet: commercialization and standardization of, 288; Manovich’s Flash aesthetic of, 269; new paradigm of art associated with, 1–2 See also social media; Web 2.0 look Itten, Johannes, 39 Ives, David O., 91, 92 jaggies, 194, 195, 199, 204 Jameson, Fredric, 272, 273, 288 Javits, Jacob, 230 Jay, Martin, 214 Jobse, Jonneke, 122, 125 JODI, 176 Johnson, Betsey, 54 Jonas, Joan, 186 Jones, Ben, 19, 199, 287, 293; The New Dark Age, 278, 279–80, 280, 282 Joshua Light Show, 53, 53, 292 Julesz, Béla, 17, 142, 150 Kac, Eduardo, 285–86, 287, 292, 293 Kajiya, Jim, 161–62 Kaminski, Bill, 230 Kanarek, Mimi, 230 Kandinsky, Wassily, 122, 130 Kant, Immanuel: aesthetic theory of, 29–30, 271; on Baumgarten’s aesthetics, 103–4; cybernetic challenge to autonomous subject of, 8; Goethe and Hegel compared to color theory of, 41; Heidegger and, 10, 12, 28, 297n34; Kittler’s technological a priori and, 3; subjective perception and, 32 335 CuuDuongThanCong.com Kaprow, Allan, 83 Kelly, Ellsworth, 254, 262 Kelly, Mervin, 148 Kepler, Johannes, 28 Kesey, Ken, 52 Ketcham, Howard, 63, 66 Kinz, Lance, 249 Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig, 39 Kitsch Digital, 175 Kittler, Friedrich: on aesthetic of interference, 18, 176, 262; Bense and, 113, 303n12; on broad meaning of technology, 91; on Hegel’s systematic color theory, 104; on Heidegger’s writings on technology, 106; on life divested of its humanity, 36; media archaeology and, 3, 15, 297n4; technological a priori and, 3–4, 14 Klein, Adrian Bernard, 38 Klein, Yves, 53, 254 Klüver, Billy, 149–50, 230 Knowlton, Kenneth, 17, 142; aesthetic of early blackand-white computer art by, 120; collaboration with VanDerBeek, 132–33, 135, 305n100; color system developed by, 154, 161, 164–66, 290; contributions to Spiegel’s system, 167–68; leaves Bell Labs, 149, 169; on open environment at Bell Labs, 149; as pioneer and visionary, 162–63, 290; Schwartz’s work with, 154–59; Studies in Perception No 1, 145–47, 147, 148, 153 KQED, 76, 163 Krauss, Rosalind, 189, 191, 227, 229, 297n11 Kubrick, Stanley, 150, 292 Lalo, Charles, 110 Land, Edwin H., 157, 158 Laposky, Ben, 17, 103, 125, 130, 132, 135; oscillons, 130, 131, 305n31 Laric, Oliver, 199 Laruelle, Franỗois, 32 Laugel, Auguste, 37 Lavin, Sylvia, 29 layering: aesthetics associated with, 263, 267; in Blake’s works, 263–64, 265, 267, 271, 273; in Photoshop, 263; in Photoshop cinema, 269 LCD (liquid crystal display) systems, 67–69, 68; cold character of, 69, 274; flat and clean aesthetic of, 69, 96, 97 Lebedev, Artemi, 175 LED systems, 67, 274, 301n32 Lehmann, Bob, 156, 157 Lennon, John, 185 Leroi-Gourhan, André, 4, 15 Levinson, Barry, 185 336 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Lialina, Olia, 175, 176, 177, 199 liberal humanist subject See humanism; subjectivity Lichtman, Jeff, 283 lifeworld: of Heidegger’s tool analysis, 80, 98, 104; Husserl’s concept of, 10–11; informationintensive, 193; inscrutable and opaque, 14; of phenomenology, 10; rationalization of color and, 79; Schopenhauer’s subjective eye and, 41; synthetic color as integral to, 43 See also algorithmic lifeworld Linklater, Richard, 271 Lippman, Andrew, 306n69 Liquid Villa (Blake), 261, 263 Liu, Alan, 197–98, 274 Livet, Jean, 283 Lohse, Richard Paul, 122 Longinus, 271 lookup tables See color lookup tables (LUTs) loose determinism, 297n7 Lo-Vid, 199 low resolution: of cool video and algorithmic images, 234; of Crandall’s Heatseeking, 232, 234; exhibitionism and, 18, 236; of television, 165; of Web graphics, 290 LSD: in cinematic narrative using color, 249, 250; counterculture experiences with, 52–53, 57 Lueg, Konrad, 287 lumen, 26–27 luminance, 300n15 luminescence, 45 Lüsebrink, Dirk, 224 LUTs See color lookup tables (LUTs) lux, 26–27 Lye, Len, 38, 254 Lynch, David, 185 MacClean, Jack, 306n68 The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age (New York MoMA), 145–48, 146 Mackenzie, Adrian, 198 Macpherson, C B., MACRO-FAP, 145–46 Mac’s Flurry screen saver, 96, 96–97 Macy Conferences, Malevich, Kazimir, 262 Malina, Frank, 279 “Man and His World” (VanDerBeek), 132, 305n100 Manovich, Lev, 62, 186, 188, 196, 220, 267, 269 Marling, Karal Ann, 66 Marx, Karl, 48 Mary Poppins (1964 film), 181 mashup, 176, 267, 276 mathematics: aesthetic theories and, 103–4, 110–11, 114; phenomenology and, 10–11, 14; Programming of the Beautiful and, 114; in Struycken’s use of shape and color, 121, 122, 124, 125; technics and, 15, 229 Mathews, Max, 17, 142, 149, 150, 153–54, 167, 292 Matrix Multiplication (Nake), 114, 116–17, 117, 118 matte, 180–81, 195 mauve, 46–47 Max, Peter, 56, 57 Maxwell, James Clerk, 6, 34, 36, 79, 158, 297n14 McCulloch, Warren, McEvilley, Thomas, 222 McGee, Jim, 230 McLaren, Malcolm, 268 McLaren, Norman, 38, 254, 256 McLuhan, Marshal: American computer artists and, 125; broad influence of, 108; on cool media, 63, 65, 155, 232, 234, 273–74; cool of Paper Rad and, 205; on hot media, 65; Kittler compared to, 14; on meaning, 63, 242; media determinism and, 4; on medium as message, 63; updating the claims of, 15 McTiernan, John, 221 meaning: algorithmic images and, 224; Blake’s aesthetic and, 257, 260, 263, 269, 271; color in critical theory and, 41; color in filmmaking and, 249; disegno and, 29; information theory and, 7, 111, 224; McLuhan on, 63, 242; opaque, in Photoshop cinema, 243; rational aesthetics and, 111 media archaeology, 2, 3–5, 15; Kittler’s association with, 3, 15, 297n4; Paper Rad’s instantiation of, 205 media determinism, 4–5 media ecology, 9, 15, 91, 92, 297n32 media specificity: attention forms and, 192; remediation and, 267; technological determinism and, 297n11 Mekas, Jonas, 126 Melville, Stephen, 42 Menkman, Rosa, 199 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 10–11, 34, 192 See also phenomenology Michelangelo, 29 military technologies: Crandall’s references to, 232; using infrared, 18, 211, 218–19, 220–22, 223, 224, 225, 226–27, 230, 238; Whitney’s reconfiguration of, 126, 135–36 See also war Miller, Joan E., 17, 142, 154, 160, 163 mirror shot, 180 Misek, Richard, 58 modernism, 121, 145, 267, 272, 289, 310n39 Moebius strip, 191 Mohr, Manfred, 119, 120 Moles, Abraham, 108 Molnar, Vera, 119, 120 Mondrian, Piet, 262 Monet, Claude, 262, 276 Monk, Philip, 265 montage: dirt style and, 177; increased cuts in, regaining popularity, 250; layering aesthetics and, 177, 263; not applicable to video, 184; overview of, 179; vs spatial compositing, 179, 186, 187 moon landing of 1969, 63, 97 Moore, John, 22627 Morellet, Franỗois, 262 Morris, Charles, 111 Morton, Philip Lee, 61, 70 Mosoco, Victor, 156 Movie-Drome, 132 Mulholland Drive (Lynch), 185, 185 Müller, Johannes, 34, 35–36, 79 Mulvin, Dylan, 65, 66, 301n21 Mumford, Lewis, 15 Munari, Bruno, 119 Munsell, Albert, 299n55 music: color and, 25, 298n22, 299n54; color-music systems, 167–69; electronic, 153–54 mysticism: art of 1960s and 1970s and, 19, 154; Blake’s early digital work and, 260; early television and, 61, 62; in German style of early computer art, 103; Goethe on color and, 32; Jones’s allusion to, 279; of new dark age, 287; Sedgley’s Video Disque ROB and, 279; transfiguration by color technologies and, 276; in U.S style of early computer art, 135, 137; VanDerBeek’s works and, 133, 135; video synthesis and, 71, 75, 78, 79–80, 98, 194; Whitney’s experimental films and, 127, 129, 130; in world conditioned by science and technology, 81 Nagle, Matthew, 283, 285 Nake, Frieder, 102, 109, 111, 112–13, 114–19, 115; Matrix Multiplication, 114, 116–17, 117, 118; U.S style compared to, 17, 103, 125, 135, 138 narcissism: McLuhan on television and, 65, 155; video and, 188–91 narrative: aesthetics of continuity and, 267; approaches to color in films and, 249–54; Blake’s use of color and, 245, 249, 251–53, 254, 255, 256, 257, 260–63, 276; Bordwell on cinematic style and, 250–51; in disegno, 245; pattern and, 262–63, 269; Sharits’s use of color and, 256 narrative intensification, 250–51, 254 narrative saturation, 251–54, 269 Nash, John, 107 337 CuuDuongThanCong.com National Center for Experiments in Television (NCET), 76, 77 Natural Born Killers, 254 Nauman, Bruce, 186, 189 Nees, George, 111–12 Nelson, Ted, 175 new dark age, 19, 287, 292 The New Dark Age (Jones), 278, 279–80, 280, 282 Newman, William, 141 new media art: Bell Laboratories and, 149; dirt style of, 176; technological context of, 18; two cultures and, 104; Whitney’s approach to color and, 127 Newsreel of Dreams (VanDerBeek), 133, 136 New Television Workshop, 16, 82, 97, 186, 288 New Tendencies movement, 119, 304n54 Newton, Isaac: Goethe and, 32, 33–34; shift away from worldview of, 107; theory of light and color, 26, 28, 29, 30, 67, 298n22 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 3, 155, 230 night vision See infrared visualization 1906 (Blake), 264, 265 Nine Evenings, 147, 150, 230 Nissen, Olaf, 51 Noland, Kenneth, 254 Noll, A Michael, 17, 142; on artists and computer expertise, 140, 173; color systems developed by, 154, 164, 306n66, 306n68; computer art created by, 120, 150, 152; interactive stereoscopic joystick made by, 165, 165–66; picture phone engineered by, 150, 151; as visionary and pioneer, 149, 290 N:O:T:H:I:N:G (Sharits), 256, 258 Nowa Ksiazka (Rybczyński), 182, 182–84 Noyce, Phillip, 223 “The Nude” (Harmon and Knowlton), 145, 147, 148, 153 Obadike, Keith and Mendi, 176 Olvey, Frank, 133 ontology: algorithms engendering, 216; cybernetic, 106, 107; of electronic image, 70; of exhibitionism, 18–19; of Heidegger’s philosophy, 91, 106; human, 8–9; Photoshop cinema and, 271 opacity: alpha channel and, 195, 198; of Blake’s colors, 245, 252–53, 262–63, 264, 265, 271, 274; color saturation and, 254; color systems and, 27; of computing interface, 298n20; of digital colors, 293; as inaccessibility to color-computational processes, 170; of Photoshop cinema, 19, 243; of Photoshop colors, 243; of user-friendly GUIs, 173 See also subtractive color systems op art, 156–57; inspired by Goethe, 158; New York MoMA exhibit of 1965, 53, 54; of Sedgley, 279, 280 Open Score (Rauschenberg), 230 338 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Oppenheim, Dennis, 18, 222 optical image: vs algorithmic image, 2, 18, 227, 238, 239t, 240 See also post-optics; vision optimization, algorithmic, 8, 14, 108, 215, 216 O’Reilly, Tim, 197 originality, 103, 113, 119 oscillons, 130, 131, 305n31 oscilloscope: Bute’s custom-built version of, 132; Laposky’s use of, 130; video synthesizers using principle of, 71 Ostwald, Wilhelm, 39 Paik, Nam June: artwork addressing mass media, 300n6; Bute’s influence on, 132; dirt style and, 176; Electronic Opera #1, 83, 84; on future of color cameras, 300n12; invited to Bell Labs, 154; Magnet TV, 53, 71; mystical qualities in work of, 78; relationship with WGBH, 16, 82, 83–84, 84; Scanimate and, 92; transcendence in work of, 97, 98, 290; Video Commune, 85, 87, 88, 91; on video standards, 63–64; wild composites of, 186; Zen TV, 155 Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer (PAVS), 16, 61, 70, 84, 84–90, 86, 89, 90, 302n93, 302n99 paint programs, 160, 163–69 See also SuperPaint Panopticon, 214, 229, 234, 239t Paper Rad, 17–18, 177, 199–206, 200, 203, 279; Blake’s work compared to, 269, 310n42; layering used by, 263; new dark age and, 287, 292; possibilities in work of, 293 See also dirt style; Jones, Ben Parikka, Jussi, 15, 297n2 Passow, Cord, 305n31 patch-programmable computer, 70, 301n38 Patriot Games (Noyce), 223, 223, 229 Paxton, Steve, 150 Peirce, Charles, 111, 227, 229, 309n34 perception: algorithm as prior to, 217; of color in today’s digital media, 171–72; Impressionists and, 156; managed and disciplined by color, 211; in media archaeology, 3; militarized, 218; op art and, 156; optical vs algorithmic, 212, 215; shaped by informatics, 238; subjective, 158, 159 See also infrared visualization; vision Perkin, William Henry, 37, 46 personal computing: mass-marketing of, 288; standardization of digital color in, 18, 142, 196; utopian potential of, Peters, John Durham, 4, 5, pharmakon, 30–31 phase-shift, Stiegler on, 193 phenomenology, 2, 9–11; Goethe’s approach to color and, 34, 41; hyperdividuation and, 192–93; nineteenth-century science and, 34; in response to metaphysics, 12; Stiegler and, 14; technologically infused, 15 See also Heidegger, Martin; Husserl, Edmund; Merleau-Ponty, Maurice phosphorescent colors, 45, 287 photography: Benjamin on liberating possibilities of, 105; as hot medium, 273; indexicality of image in, 227; of Maxwell, 36; ontology of, 70; for recording oscilloscope images, 132; synthetic color appears in art of, 57, 58 Photoshop: Blake’s use of, 243, 268, 272, 274, 276; first version of, 196; layering features of, 263; perceptual problems with colors in, 171, 171, 172; software complementary to, 267 Photoshop cinema, 19, 143; basic features of, 243, 244, 276; Flusser’s post-historical condition and, 228; heaviness of, 269–71; layering in, 269; narrative saturation in, 269; the sublime and, 271 See also Blake, Jeremy phusis, 11, 13, 297n40 physis, 11–13, 82, 297n40 Piene, Otto, 83 Pierce, John, 150 Pino, Paolo, 29 pixels: alpha channel and, 195; frame buffer and, 160, 161, 164, 194, 305n3; Photoshop and, 270 Plato: on color, 25–26, 30, 104, 298n14, 298nn10–11; Heidegger on knowing and, 91; metaphysics of, 10, 11, 12; on the pharmakon, 30–31; Renaissance aesthetics and, 29; on subordinate status of art, 104 Pleasantville (Ross), 243, 254 PLONS or Splash (Struycken), 122, 124, 124 Plotter, Ralph, 132 Poemfields (VanDerBeek), 132–33, 133, 134, 136, 137, 305n100 poiesis: Heidegger on, 11–12; in U.S style of early computer art, 135; Whitney’s concern with, 127, 129, 130 Pointillism, 38 Polan, Dana, 66 political and social consciousness: German approach to color and, 138; of 1960s and 1970s, 310n49; U.S school of computer art and, 135–37, 138, 290 Pontormo, 29 Porter, Edwin, 180 post-hermeneutics, 113, 228, 272 post-historical condition, 228 the posthuman, 8–9, 211, 240 Post-Impressionism, 37–38 postindustrial culture: algorithmic lifeworld and, 229; cybernetics and, 107; dirt style and, 201; Photoshop cinema and, 243, 272–73, 276; Web 2.0 and, 197 Postman, Neil, postmodernism: Blake’s aesthetic and, 252, 267; color television and, 67; dirt style and, 176, 267; Jameson on, 272, 288; vs modernism, 272 post-optics: algorithmic lifeworld and, 18–19, 67; color in, 70, 244; digital infrared and, 211, 240; media encompassed by, 70; new visual style associated with, 244; self-image and, 191; of video synthesis circa 1969, 70, 75, 98 See also algorithmic image poststructuralism, 41, 214, 267 Prasher, Douglas, 283 Predator (McTiernan), 221, 221–22, 224, 229, 238 predictive scanning, 18, 217, 219, 224–25 Price, Brian, 252 Process Chrominance Synthesizer (PCS), 72, 72–74, 75 programmed painting, 119 Programming of the Beautiful, 17, 103–4, 108, 112–14, 138 progress narratives: spirits and ghosts symbolizing failure of, 265; technogenesis and, 14–15; undermined by Paper Rad, 204–5 Proxima Centauri (Schwartz), 147–48 Prunet, Patrick, 285 pseudo-narratives, 263, 276 Psychedelevision (Siegel), 72, 78, 79 psychedelic aesthetic: of Paper Rad, 201, 202, 279; of Schwartz’s UFOs, 155, 156; of Sedgley’s Video Disque ROB, 279 psychedelic colors: of Day-Glo fluorescents, 51, 52–53, 55–57; of early computer art, 1; vs Steinkamp’s cool colors, 292 psychedelic colors of video synthesis, 69, 290; of Eric Siegel, 72, 73, 78, 79, 290, 301n49; of Scanimate, 92 psychedelic drugs See LSD psychologies of color, 25 psychophysics, 34–36, 78–79; Albers’ opposition to, 39; experimental aesthetics and, 110 Ptolemy, 299n42 Pucci, Emilio, 54, 302n66 Punch Drunk Love (Anderson), 245, 249, 250, 251–52, 253, 262 Purkynĕ, Jan Evangelista, 32 Pythagoras, 25, 125 Rainer, Yvonne, 230 Rancière, Jacques, 217 Raphael, 29 Rapunzel (Steinkamp), 290, 291, 292 Rarey, Damon, 163, 306n76 raster-based applications See bitmap images 339 CuuDuongThanCong.com rational aesthetics, 103, 106, 110–11, 112–14, 303n28; neurologic effects of media and, 156; vs poiesis of Whitney’s work, 130 Rauschenberg, Robert, 150, 153, 230 Reading Ossie Clark (Blake), 245, 246–47, 264, 268–69 the ready-to-hand, 80–81, 302n76; video pioneers and, 90, 98 Reagan, Ronald, 287 real time, 306n72 real-time animation, 163 Rear Window (Hitchcock), 212, 213, 214, 229, 238 reflected light, 26–27 refracted light, 26–27, 28 remediation, 265, 267 remix: Blake’s work and, 265, 267; digital colors and, 289; digital compositing and, 178, 199; fluorescent brain imaging and, 283; with mass-produced personal computers, 1–2; of Paper Rad, 200, 201, 202, 205, 292 The Responsive Eye, 53 Rice, Michael, 88 Richter, Gerhard, 254, 290, 304n46 Riley, Bridget, 55, 156, 304n46 Riley, Charles, 56, 243 Ritter, Johann Wilhelm, 32 romanticism: Benjamin on machine-made art and, 105, 107; industrialization and, 105; vs rational aesthetics, 112, 113, 114; of Siegel’s video mind expansion, 78; in U.S style of early computer art, 135, 138 romantic view of color: Bense’s assault on, 104; Heidegger’s adherence to, 104; of nineteenthcentury artists and writers, 79; Struycken’s departure from, 122; in Western critical and philosophical tradition, 41–42; Whitney’s techniques and, 127 Rood, Ogden, 37 Rosen, Margit, 119, 305n31 Rosenquist, James, 268 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 32, 299n58 Runge, Friedlieb Ferdinand, 46, 49 Runge, Phillip Otto, 299n48 Ruskin, John, 79, 124 Russell, David O., 220 Rutt, Steve, 70 Ruttmann, Walter, 38 Ryan, Paul, 190–91 Rybczyński, Zbigniew, 181–84, 182, 183, 185, 187–88 sacred colors, 44, 159 Sandin, Dan, 61, 70, 176, 186 340 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com Sanes, Joshua, 283 saturated color: Blake’s use of, 245, 251, 264, 276; hypersaturated computer colors, 1, 19, 290; narrative and, 251 Sauter, Joachim, 224 Scanimate, 61, 92–96, 163 A Scanner Darkly (Linklater), 269, 270, 271 Schattenwand (Lueg), 287 Schelling, F W J., 41 Schier, Jeff, 77 Schindler’s List (Spielberg), 253 Schneemann, Carolee, 256 Schneider, Herb, 230 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 41 Schroeder, Manfred, 150 Schwartz, Lillian, 17, 142; on advances in technology, 173; films made with Knowlton, 154–59; interlude with Salvador Dalí, 144–45; Knowlton’s color interface used by, 164–66, 167–68; Leon Harmon and, 145, 147, 148; on perceptual issues with today’s programs, 171; Proxima Centauri, 147–48 Scorsese, Martin, 244 Scott, Felicity, 288 Sea Change (Beck), 245 Seawright, James, 83 Sedgley, Peter, 279, 280, 290, 292 semiotics, 111, 228, 229 Serra, M M., 256 Serra, Richard, 189 Seurat, Paul, 38 Shannon, Claude, 6, 7, 36, 107, 111 Sharits, Paul, 53, 244, 254–56; Epileptic Seizure Comparison, 256, 259, 273; N:O:T:H:I:N:G, 256, 258; T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G, 255, 255 Shimomura, Osamu, 283 short-form color, 205 Shoup, Richard, 17, 142, 154, 160, 161, 162–63, 194, 306n76 Siedler, Jeffrey, 69, 71, 76 Sieg, Dave, 93 Siegel, Eric: Einstine, 72–73, 73, 301n49; Psychedelevision, 72, 78, 79; romantic and utopian visions of, 61, 78, 79, 186; Scanimate and, 92; on stroboscopic effects, 301n45; systematic methods of, 85; transcendence in work of, 16, 97, 290; video synthesizers of, 61, 70, 71–75, 72, 75 Signac, Paul, 37–38 silent film, 179, 249, 262 Silver, David, 82 Simondon, Gilbert, 4, 15, 193 simulation: by digital image, 62, 204, 218, 239t; by infrared image, 218, 229 simultaneous contrast, 171, 171, 172 Sitney, P Adams, 255 Sketchpad, 141, 163 slavery, and synthetic color, 43, 44 Small, James, 62 Smalley, Phillips, 180 Smith, Alvy Ray, 17, 161, 194, 195 Snow, C P., 104 social consciousness See political and social consciousness social media: digital colors and, 289; dirt style and, 176; exhibitionism and, 237–38; vs social movements of 1960s and 1970s, 310n49; transparency and, 170; utopian potential of, 1; Web 2.0 look and, 175, 197 society of control, 213, 238, 239t, 287–88 Sodium Fox (Blake), 245, 264, 265, 268 sodium vapor techniques, 181 Sonnier, Keith, 186 spatial compositing, 179–84, 186, 187–88 Speed Racer (Wachowski), 269, 270, 271 Spellbound (Hitchcock), 253 Spiegel, Laurie, 17, 142, 149, 154, 164, 166–67, 167, 168 Spielberg, Stephen, 253 split-screen techniques, 180, 182, 182–83 Stafford, Barbara, 205 Stehura, John, 137 Steinkamp, Jennifer, 290–92, 293 Stella, Frank, 230 Sterling, Bruce, 176, 204, 238 Sterne, Jonathan, 65, 66, 301nn20–21 Stiegler, Bernard, 4, 5; algorithmic lifeworld and, 15, 229, 297n38; on attention forms, 157, 192; on Heidegger’s Dasein, 297n33; hyperdividuation and, 192, 193, 194; pharmakon and, 30; on phusis, 297n40; resistance to ideas of, 113; on Simondon’s transductive relation, 193, 308n43; on technics, 13–15, 30, 222; on technogenesis, 9, 106; on technoscience, 12; on transformation of the human, 240 Stocks, Elliot Jay, 175 Stokes, Gabriel, 45 Stokes shift, 45 stroboscopic effects: in computer art, 155, 156, 159, 306n52; in Sharits’s experimental film, 255; Siegel’s interest in, 301n45 structuralist film: of midcentury avant-garde, 254; of Paul Sharits, 244 Struycken, Peter, 17, 103, 120, 121–25; CLUSTER 16, 122, 123; PLONS or Splash, 122, 124, 124; U.S style compared to, 135, 138 Studies in Perception No (Harmon and Knowlton), 145–47, 147, 148, 153 subjectivity: cybernetics and, 8–9; Hayles on pattern and, 262, 269; Heidegger’s Dasein and, 10; hyperdividuation and, 190–92 the sublime, 271–72, 274, 276 subtractive color systems, 27, 27; artists’ introduction to, 36; film as, 67; fluorescent colors and, 44 See also opacity Suger, Abbé, 27 SuperPaint, 17, 142, 154, 161, 161–63, 162 Sutherland, Ivan, 141, 161–62, 163 Switzer brothers (Joseph and Robert), 48–52, 55 synthetic color: as cheapness, death, and artifice, 44; as commodity fetish, 48; critical theorists on, 42; Fuller on false notion of, 42–43; industrial revolution in, 46–48, 299n88; infrared and ultraviolet as, 218; in new media art circa 1969 and 2009, 281; from Paleolithic through Second World War, 43–44; patented, 53; in postwar media technologies, 57–58; sacred colors and, 44, 159; three narrow senses of, 44 See also artificial and synthetic; color; fluorescent colors systems theories, 107–8 Tadlock, Thomas, 73, 83 Tambellini, Aldo, 83 Tango (Rybczyński), 183, 183–84 Tappan, Olivia, 85 TARPS, 132 Taussig, Michael, 23, 43 techné, 11–12, 13, 82, 91, 104 technical images, Flusser on, 227–29, 262 Technicolor, 57, 133, 244, 249 technics: aesthetics and, 229–30, 271; color as a matter of, 2, 31; determinism in theory of, 4, 297n9; as essential dimension of the human, 9, 13–15, 190, 222; Heidegger on poiesis and, 12; hyperdividuation and, 194; pharmakon and, 30; phenomenology and, 11, 14; as suitably broad term, 91, 92 technogenesis, 2, 9, 13–15, 106 technological a priori, 3–4, 14 technological determinism, 2; Heidegger’s theory of, 106, 231, 298n45; media specificity and, 297n11; social change and, 4–5 technology: Benjamin on, 90–91; broad meaning of, 91; hyperdividuation as philosophy of, 193; Stiegler’s attention forms and, 192 See also Heidegger’s philosophy of technology television: alpha consciousness induced by, 155; as cool medium, 65, 155, 273–74; global significance of moon landing and, 63, 97; McLuhan on, 63; utopian visions about, 61, 78, 288–89 See also color television 341 CuuDuongThanCong.com Tempelaars, Stan, 122 Tenney, James, 154 Thatcher, Margaret, 287 Theremin, Léon, 130 Thief of Bagdad (1940 film), 181 Three Kings (Russell), 220 Three Transitions (Campus), 186–90, 187, 204 Tiedemann, Rolf, 264 time-based paintings See Blake, Jeremy Timecode (Figgis), 183 Titian, 29 T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (Sharits), 255, 255 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 56 trace points, 67, 96 transcendence: Heidegger’s existential notion of, 16; Heidegger’s tool analysis and, 80, 81; human inability to achieve, 289; new media and, 81–82, 293; technics-as-environment and, 92; VanDerBeek’s works and, 133; video synthesis and, 61, 62, 79–80, 81–82, 92, 97–98, 289–90; Whitney’s experimental films and, 127, 129 transcoding, 62, 239t, 306n72; for infrared visualization, 218 transdividuation, 193 transgenic art, 285–86, 287 transparency: additive color systems and, 27; alpha channel and, 195, 198; computer screen and, 298n20; new media and appearance of, 142, 143, 172; obfuscation by reference to, 170; of old media, 81; pervasive myth of, 204–5; in Photoshop cinema, 244; Photoshop manipulation of, 263; of Web 2.0 look, 2; white light and, 27, 28 See also additive color systems Trash Talking/Taking out the Trash (Paper Rad), 202–3 traveling matte, 180–81, 181, 183 truth: color as threat to, 30, 31; Goethe’s subjective color theory and, 32; psychophysics and, 34, 35; vision and, 27, 28–29, 34, 35 Tudor, David, 230 Turing, Alan, 107 Turkle, Sherry, 170 Turner, Chris, 49 Turner, Fred, 150, 229–30 Turner, J M W., 262, 276, 299n48 Twitter, 175, 216, 310n49 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick), 150, 151, 292 two cultures, 104 UFOs (Schwartz and Knowlton), 154–57 uniqueness, 103 U.S style of early computer art, 17, 103, 125–38 342 Index CuuDuongThanCong.com user-friendly digital color, 121, 172 See also democratic color user-friendly interface, 170, 173, 176 utopia: Adorno on disappointed dreams of, 288–89; color’s continuing relation to, 288; critical theory and, 41; of cyberspace at end of 1990s, 1; early German computer art and, 103; early U.S computer art and, 17, 125, 135, 136, 137, 293; early video synthesis and, 98, 186, 289–90; failure of 1960s imaginary, 276, 288; human imperfection as precondition for, 289; machine automation and, 105; new color technologies and, 71, 78–80, 289; new media and, 92; Photoshop cinema and, 244; present indifference to, 293; television seen as resembling, 61, 78, 288–89; Van Gogh’s colors and, 272 VAMPIRE, 166–69 VanDerBeek, Stan, 17, 82, 103, 125, 132–37, 154; cinematic avant-garde and, 132, 256; with Knowlton at Bell Labs, 135; Newsreel of Dreams, 133, 136; optical printing and, 183–84; as pioneer and visionary, 290; Poemfields, 132–33, 133, 134, 136, 137, 305n100; psychedelic colors of, 292; video synthesis by, 133 van der Wal, G., 122 van Doesberg, Theo, 122 Van Gogh, Vincent, 272 Vasarely, Victor, 56, 156 Vasari, Giorgio, 29 Vasulka, Steina, 70–71, 77, 132, 301n41 Vasulka, Woody, 70–71, 72, 73, 75, 77, 132, 301n41 vector-based oscilloscope, 130, 305n94 vector-based programs: Photoshop compared to, 26970, 271; Sketchpad, 141 Verguin, Franỗois Emmanuel, 47 Verostko, Roman, 119, 120, 137 video: analog vs digital, 184; color information stored in, 184; compared to film, 184, 186; as cybernetic system, 190, 191; narcissism and, 188–91 video art, 69; of Steinkamp, 290–92, 293; subcategories of, 301n36 See also video synthesis Video Commune (Paik), 85, 87, 88, 91 Video Disque ROB (Sedgley), 279, 281, 290 video synthesis, 16, 69–78; Scanimate used for, 61, 92–96; transcendence and, 61, 62, 79–80, 81–82, 92, 97–98, 289–90; VanDerBeek’s use of, 133 See also Beck, Stephen; Paik, Nam June; Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer (PAVS); Siegel, Eric Video Weaver, 76–77, 77, 78 Villaseñor, Maria Christina, 189–90 Virilio, Paul, 182, 210, 238 virtual reality, tactile, 164 vision: color in relation to, 211–12; crisis in, 212–15; link between agency and, 225 See also optical image; perception visual music: of Bute, 132; defined, 126; of Laposky, 130; of Whitney Sr., 126, 127 Vlahos, Petro, 181, 187, 195 Vogel, Amos, 156 voiceover narration, Blake’s use of, 267–69 Volta, Alessandro, 32 von Bertalanffy, Ludwig, 107 Von Neumann, John, 107 Von Trier, Lars, 245; Dancer in the Dark, 245, 249, 251–52, 252, 257 voyeur, 212, 235, 236 VT (videotape and video art), 69, 70 See also video art; video synthesis Wachowski, Andy and Lana, 271 Wag the Dog (Levinson), 185 Wahlberg, Mark, 220 Waldhauer, Fred, 149–50 war: extreme reactions to, 232; synthetic color and, 43–44, 50–51 See also military technologies Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, Warhol, Andy: darker side of postwar culture signified by, 57; Day-Glo color used by, 16; Diamond Dust Shoes, 272; Exploding Plastic Inevitable, 53; Nine Evenings and, 150 Weaver, Warren, 107, 111 Weber, Ernst Heinrich, 34, 79 Weber, Lois, 180 Weber-Fechner law, 34–35, 36, 138, 220; color television standard and, 65 Web 2.0 look, 2, 18, 143, 175, 175, 178, 196–99, 206 Wegman, William, 82 Weibel, Peter, 71, 234 Weskott, Friedrich, 47 Westworld (Crichton), 222, 229 WGBH, 16, 17, 61, 82–84, 85, 88, 91–92, 186 white light, 27, 28, 28, 28–29, 33, 35 Whitman, Robert, 150 Whitney, James, 127, 304n90 Whitney, John, Jr., 161, 303n3 Whitney, John, Sr., 17, 103, 125–30, 129, 135–36, 292; Arabesque, 129, 130; Catalog, 127, 128, 129 Wiener, Norbert, 5–6, 6, 7, 15, 106, 107 Wilfred, Thomas, 130 Williams, Raymond, 215, 263 Winchester (Blake), 262, 264, 265, 266 Winchester Trilogy (Blake), 245, 265, 266 windows, 179–80 Wise, Howard, 72–73 Wiseman, Jim, 61 Wissenburgh, C., 122 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 24, 42 Wobbulator, 85, 302n93 See also Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer (PAVS) Wolfe, Tom, 52 Wölfflin, Heinrich, 29 Wyatt, Sally, Xerox PARC: democratic user-friendly color and, 172; SuperPaint and, 17, 142, 154, 161, 163; window manager developed at, 180 yellow screen techniques, 181 Young, Neil, 268 Young, Thomas, 34 Youngblood, Gene: cinematic avant-garde and, 256; on cybernetic art, 108; on early computer art, 132, 154; Expanded Cinema, 108, 154; on Paik’s Electronic Opera #1, 83; on Siegel’s Psychedelevision, 79; on television, 61, 63; on videotape and video art, 69; on Whitney Sr.’s work, 126, 127, 135–36 YouTube exhibitionism, 211, 238 Zajac, Edward, 137 Zappa, Frank, 53 Zeising, Adolph, 110 Zen TV (Paik), 155 Zerseher (Sauter and Lüsebrink), 224–25, 231 Zielinski, Siegfried, 4, 15, 26, 181–82 Zöttl, Anton, 137 Zuckerberg, Mark, 172 Zuse, Konrad, 111, 117 Zworkyn, Vladimir, 64 343 CuuDuongThanCong.com Carolyn L Kane writes about the history, philosophy, and aesthetics of electronic media She earned her PhD from New York University and can be reached at syntheticcolor@gmail.com The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2014 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved Published 2014 Printed in the United States of America Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Neil Harris Endowment Fund, which honors the innovative scholarship of Neil Harris, the Preston and Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago The Fund is supported by contributions from the students, colleagues, and friends of Neil Harris 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-00273-6 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-00287-3 (e-book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226002873.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kane, Carolyn L., author Chromatic algorithms : synthetic color, computer art, and aesthetics after code / Carolyn L Kane pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-226-00273-6 (cloth : alk paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-00287-3 (e-book) Color Computer art Art and technology Aesthetics, Modern—20th century Aesthetics, Modern—21st century I Title ND1489.K36 2014 776—dc23 2013033872 ∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI / NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) CuuDuongThanCong.com ... “Diagram 1,” hand-colored engraving from Zür Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) (Tübingen: Cota, 1810) Courtesy of the Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf/ Anton-und-Katharina-Kippenberg-Stiftung, Düsseldorf,... life always anticipates death (finitude), and thus factical being — the precondition for being-in-the-world in Heidegger’s existential analytic — is at root a form of calculation (mathesis) In... Code CuuDuongThanCong.com Arriving in off-the-shelf commercial software in the early 1990s, the appearance of digital color as flexible, intuitive, and user-friendly is actually quite puzzling There