The interactive and versimilitude of visual cyberspaces is usually measured
in number of polygons generated per second--but do they have to keep looking
like polygons? I question if extending the realm of real-time 3D solids
is the best or only field of computer graphics to continue to generate virtual
worlds.
A wide variety of art historical and visual studies research can inform
and inspire cyberspatial algorithms, not just those of Renaissance perspective
and space. Some artists of the 1890s (Aubrey Beardsley, Eugene Carriere,
Odilon Redon) created arresting, sensual black & white artworks in their
own evocative and mysterious spaces while respecting the limitations of
prevalent low-resolution publishing and printmaking technology. If these
works inspire cyberspace designers, watch for virtual "BeardsleySpaces",
worlds of demented and decorated wiry curiosities clad in flat blacks and
starched whites that meld beautifully into their solid backgrounds.
As I was extremely impressed with the conception and design of the Macintosh
desktop hypermedia construction kit HyperCard, I see the same visionary
elegance in its outgrowth HyperScan. HyperScan, intended for rapidly slapping
imagery into HyperCard, was designed by Bill Atkinson (apocryphally, over
a weekend) to ship with the Apple Scanner. It offered sixteen different
imaging dithers for a variety of different graphic looks to the scanned
image, all in the 72 dots per inch resolution of the Mac screen. Plenty
of visual variety, I suspect, for a cyberspace.
Has anyone experimented with a real-time virtual world with no more resolution
than an early Macintosh? Bit-mapped screen images generally have memory
requirements greater than those of shaded polygons--but what about in lower
screen resolutions, and in black & white? What are now perceived as
limitations in sensual quality might convey "only" as much information
as a very grainy black-and-white film? Some adult film artists have discovered
the Fisher-Price Pixelvision 2000, a camcorder for children available from
1987 to 1989. I believe that black & white, and lower resolutions, are
insufficiently pursued as avenues to convincing virtual worlds. Avenues
that might be a comfortable tradeoff that boost processing speed and power.
Software engineers might create a " dark and dirty" black-and-white
real-time virtual world replacing the cool flat poster-color arenas of current
systems. Rather than one made of color surfaces I'd like to try entering
a somewhat ambiguous space generated in ever-changing random monochromatic
dithers. Not how much processing is possible, but how little resolution
and color is required for convincing depiction of spaces within which we
can move? The murkiness of the peppery dither might simulate the shifting
haziness that the human eye experiences in low-light conditions. The result--like
all cyberspaces--would be highly stylized, but not necessarily "unreal"
or unpleasant.
© Mike Mosher 1991
