Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1985

Thesis Director

Carl Wilen

Abstract

Computer graphics is a new tool for the visual artist. Historic and educational theories and facts outline the rapid growth of the medium and how it has become an essential tool for educators, researchers and businesses. Business applications remain at the periphery of computer graphic applications, but are included in the general trend of the new medium's development.

Visual art generated through computer graphic imaging is exemplified in the work of artists: Barbara Nessim, computer graphic student, Jim Squires, and the team of computer graphic artists, Richard Chuang and Glenn Entis. Nessim is a career graphic designer and artist, who only recently chose to explore the computer graphic medium. Jim Squires is a student of computer graphic art who generates images by writing programs for that purpose. The team of Chuang and Entis generates animated computer graphics in its own studio, Pacific Data Images, for commercial purposes. An overview of how each artist works, and what considerations must be made in generating these images, gives an understanding of the general trends prevalent in the computer graphic field.

A type of shape called a “fractal” is discussed to illustrate the importance these shapes have in computer imaging. Fractals had little importance for any discipline until they could be generated on the computer screen. Their relevance to the analysis of chaotic shapes in nature has opened a whole new realm of study for disciplines such as mathematics, ecology and meteorology, among others.

The computer graphic field is a new and essential by-product of the computer revolution. The discipline is important for visual artists because it is a virtually unexplored medium that has great potential.

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