A Cultural History of Computer Graphics

Carolin Scheler

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Computer Science
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040604687
• Subtopic: Art General
• Index: Computer Science

A Cultural History of Computer Graphics presents a fundamentally new approach to analyzing digital images aesthetically through the example of 3D computer graphics (CG). While numerous methods for creating digital imagery have long existed, the advent of AI-generated content is causing a rise in debates and conflict. It is becoming increasingly difficult to aesthetically differentiate digital photographs, CG and AI images, and yet, because these types of images carry different cultural or even political implications, it is becoming increasingly important to do so. In response to the need of new methods to culturally decode digital imagery, this book starts from the production process and describes computer graphics as an independent method of expression, containing a specific ideological concept of realism. Through this study, it becomes clear that a particular understanding of the world is inscribed in computer graphics software and, consequently, the image creation process. As the image surface does not reveal much about these cultural artifacts, it becomes necessary to focuson the historical development of this imaging practice and analyze it production-aesthetically. In its own unique way, this is true for every digital imaging method. Each embodies its own sense of the world that is only accessible through their production aesthetics. This book will be of great interest to researchers of computer graphics, 3D image generation and the cultural history of computer-generated imagery.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Endorsements Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Part I Introduction
• Part II The Computer as a Creative Partner: The Early Developments of Computer Graphics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Part III University of Utah: The Cradle of Contemporary 3D Computer Graphics
• Part IV Realism in US Visual Culture
• Part V Retrieving 3D Computer Graphics’ Lost “Context of Meaning”
• Figures: Selected References
• List of Films
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index
• Organizational Chart of the Historiography