Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
connotations it builds when he created a logo for
an Apple Company (Issacson, 2011). Apple has
been painted by masters representing almost all
styles in painting - such as Classical art, Impres-
sionism, Mannerism, and Cubism, presented in
many ways: as a still life with apples on a plate,
in a basket, as a scene with a woman eating an
apple, landscape with an orchard of apple trees,
as an abstract, a cross section showing geometry
of the seeds' placement, and in many other ways.
An apple surely evokes connotations related to the
old scripts (such as the biblical accounts), scien-
tific research and experiments (Newton's apple),
art works (Claes Oldenburg), legends (Wilhelm
Tell), symbols (an apple for a teacher), fairy tales
(Snow White), artistic exaggeration (Giuseppe
Arcimboldo), companies (Apple computers),
places (Big Apple), many literary and cinematic
works, and colloquial expressions (an apple of
my eye, an apple a day keeps the doctors away).
Figure 5 presents, as a computer graphics art,
an image of an apple as a powerful icon. The co-
existence of strong colors, dynamic composition,
and the use of sharp shapes support the message
of the artwork.
Apple is somehow related to Alan Turing, a
British mathematical genius and a code breaker
born 100 years ago. Turing died at the age of 41,
allegedly because he committed suicide by biting
an apple suffused with cyanide. However, at a
conference held in Oxford in June 2012, Turing
expert Prof. Jack Copeland questioned the evi-
dence that was presented at the 1954 inquest;
possibly, it was an accident related to chemical
experiments, which Turing conducted in his house
(Pease, 2012). Until recently, Turing and his
legacy were virtually unknown to the public be-
cause of active persecution caused by his homo-
sexuality. Turing's Pilot Ace - the Automatic
Computing Engine was faster than other contem-
porary British computers by about a factor of five;
it contained more technical detail than the Amer-
ican Edvac Report in dealing with software issues
and in predicting future non-numeric applications
of computers (Lavington, 2012). Turing broke the
German wartime code Enigma that was used by
the U-boats preying on the North Atlantic convoys.
Germany's encrypted messages were intercepted
within an hour, sometimes less than 15 minutes
after the Germans had transmitted them (total of
84,000 Enigma messages each month - two mes-
sages every minute). Massive code breaking
operation, especially breaking the U-boat Enigma
code shortened the war in Europe by two to four
Figure 5. Matthew Rodriguez, “The Mighty Apple” (© 2012, M. Rodriguez. Used with permission)
