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

Thu Nov 4 12:23:41 PDT 2021

Thank you so much for this wonderful review Bernie! And I’m excited to read
Nabeel’s review in I&C next year.

_Jacob

_Jacob

On Wed, Nov 3, 2021 at 3:55 PM James A Hodges <james.hodges at rutgers.edu>
wrote:

> 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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