[SIGCIS-Members] NEW BOOK, Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics (MIT Press, 2021)

[James A Hodges]

Congratulations, Jacob! Nabeel has already written a review for *Information
& Culture, *which we will be printing sometime in 2022.

On Wed, Nov 3, 2021 at 4:54 PM Bernard Geoghegan <
bernardgeoghegan2010 at u.northwestern.edu> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> Congrats, Jacob, on your fabulous book on computer graphics! I wrote a
> review of it, that I might dwell on its work a little longer.  It’s been
> published today, here, and I thought I’d share it with the list:
>
>
>
>
> https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/bernard_dionysius_geoghegan_reviews_image_objects/
>
>
>
> It’s been harder keeping up on reading during the pandemic, I hope I’ll
> get a chance to read a few more reviews from colleagues in the coming
> months, to catch up with what I’ve missed.
>
>
>
> I hope you’re all safe and well,
>
> Bernard
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Jacob
> Gaboury <gaboury at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Friday, 8 October 2021 at 21:26
> *To: *sigcis <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject: *[SIGCIS-Members] NEW BOOK, Image Objects: An Archaeology of
> Computer Graphics (MIT Press, 2021)
>
> Some of you have very generously mentioned the book on the SIGCIS list
> already, but I thought it would be a good idea to officially announce the
> release of my book on the history of computer graphics from MIT Press. *Image
> Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics*
> <https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/image-objects> examines the history of
> computer graphics from roughly 1950-1980, with a focus on the
> groundbreaking research program at the University of Utah. The book is
> based largely on archival holdings at Utah and elsewhere, and follows an
> "object-oriented" structure, with each chapter unpacking a particular
> technology that shaped the formation of the field of computer graphics, and
> which continues to shape the ways we use and interact with computational
> technologies today. SIGCIS has been a critical community for this project
> since the very beginning, and I am very excited to share this work with all
> of you.
>
>
>
> The book is also available with a 20% discount
> <https://go.mitpress.mit.edu/en-us/4s2021?utm_campaign=FY22_Exhibits_4S&utm_content=181406244>
> for the month of October using the code 4S2021!
>
>
>
> *Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics*
>
> *Jacob Gaboury*
>
>
>
> 312 pages | 6 x 9 | 133 b&w photos, 20 color plates
>
> Hardcover Aug 2021 | ISBN: 9780262045032 | $35.00
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> Introduction
> Chapter 1:  Culling Vision: Hidden Surface Algorithms and the Problem of
> Visibility
>
> Chapter 2:  Random-Access Images: Interfacing Memory and the History of
> the Computer Screen
> Chapter 3:  Model Objects: The Utah Teapot as Standard and Icon
> Chapter 4:  Object Paradigms: On the Origins of Object Orientation
> Chapter 5:  Procedure Crystallized: The Graphics Processing Unit and the
> Rise of Computer Graphics
>
> Coda:  After Objects
>
>
>
> *“With Image Objects, Gaboury has established himself as the leading voice
> among a new generation of visual culture theorists. This is a landmark
> contribution to the fields of digital culture, media theory, and science
> and technology studies."* - Bernard Geoghegan, Senior Lecturer in the
> History and Theory of Digital Media, King's College London
>
>
>
> *How computer graphics transformed the computer from a calculating machine
> into an interactive medium, as seen through the histories of five technical
> objects.*
>
> Most of us think of computer graphics as a relatively recent invention,
> enabling the spectacular visual effects and lifelike simulations we see in
> current films, television shows, and digital games. In fact, computer
> graphics have been around as long as the modern computer itself, and played
> a fundamental role in the development of our contemporary culture of
> computing. In *Image Objects*, Jacob Gaboury offers a prehistory of
> computer graphics through an examination of five technical objects—an
> algorithm, an interface, an object standard, a programming paradigm, and a
> hardware platform—arguing that computer graphics transformed the computer
> from a calculating machine into an interactive medium.
>
> Gaboury explores early efforts to produce an algorithmic solution for the
> calculation of object visibility; considers the history of the computer
> screen and the random-access memory that first made interactive images
> possible; examines the standardization of graphical objects through the
> Utah teapot, the most famous graphical model in the history of the field;
> reviews the graphical origins of the object-oriented programming paradigm;
> and, finally, considers the development of the graphics processing unit as
> the catalyst that enabled an explosion in graphical computing at the end of
> the twentieth century.
>
> The development of computer graphics, Gaboury argues, signals a change not
> only in the way we make images but also in the way we mediate our world
> through the computer—and how we have come to reimagine that world as
> computational.
>
> --
>
> Jacob Gaboury (he/him)
> Associate Professor of New Media History and Theory
> Dept. of Film & Media, University of California at Berkeley
>
> jacobgaboury.com/ <http://www.jacobgaboury.com/>
>
>
>
> *Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics* (MIT Press, 2021)
>
> https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/image-objects
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-- 

*JAMES A. HODGES, Ph.D.*
Bullard Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Texas at Austin
School of Information
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