Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of real-time computing which led to the first uses of the computer
as a visual medium. Projects such as SAGE necessitated the devel-
opment of graphical interfaces, and by the late
s the possibilities
of the computer as a visual medium was beginning to be exploited
in disparate areas. In
1950
the first image-processed photo was
produced at the National Bureau of Standards, and in
1957
John
Whitney Sr started to use an analog computer to make anima-
tions. In the late
1958
s at Bell Labs Edward Zajac
was experimenting with computer-generated film to visualize data
and A. Michael Noll was starting to produce computer-generated
Mondrians (see illus.
1950
s and early '
60
) and his
Gaussian Quadratic
series of
artworks, which used algorithmic methods to produce images.
Meanwhile elsewhere, Charles Csuri was making his first computer-
generated artworks, using similar techniques.
Over the next few years computer art flourished. At the end of
the
27
1960
William Fetter of Boeing invented the term 'computer graphics' for
his human factors cockpit drawings. In the early '
1950
s Ivan Sutherland produced his Sketchpad software. In
s,
Spacewar
, the
first video game, was being developed by Steve Russell and others,
at MIT. The aeronautics and car industries quickly saw the potential
of computers as design tools. In
60
1963
DAC-
1
the first commercial
27
Composition with Lines
, 1917 (Piet Mondrian), and
Computer Composition with
Lines
, 1965 (A. Michael Noll, in association with an IBM 7094 digital computer and
General Dynamics SC-4020 microfilm plotter).
