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Featured Essay Herbert W Franke

The New Visual Age: The Influence of Computer Graphics on Art and Society
Only a few years ago it would have seemed ridiculous to discuss the influence of computer graphics on art and society. Although computer-generated graphics had already been applied in important areas of science and technology, its influence was not yet felt in the arts or in society at large. Those few who used the computer as an artistic instrument were regarded as outsiders: with their freelance experiments they deviated from the solid ground of strictly defined tasks, but on the other hand found no approval in artistic circles. One of the causes for this lack of approval may have been that they did not submit to the frequently changing fashions which are prevalent in today's visual arts. Rather, they were, at least in the beginning when searching for motifs, guided by mathematical and geometrical aspects. The fact that they succeeded in opening up a largely unknown realm of graphically attractive forms went unheeded by the critics.

At the beginning of its development it was to be expected that the artistic forms of computer graphics would be integrated into the fine arts, but the latest situation leads one to conclude that computer art will develop into a new

field of aesthetically-oriented activity which can neither be classified as part of the existing classical branches of art, nor must it be recognized as art at all. Thus a new profession could emerge as was the case with photography and cinematography. Some parallel developments may result: the latter are, like computers, technical media which permit the realization of artistic goals with unprecedented perfection, using, however, realistic pictures as objects. Such questions which are now being posed in reference to computer art are concerned with more formal aspects: they decide which channels of communication will be accessible to this new field of creativity, which section of the public it will appeal to, how quickly it will spread, and what institutions will be responsible for educating students in this field...