AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
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<strong>AIC</strong><br />
second method for the proportioning of<br />
angles. Here it is only possible to refer<br />
briefly to Alberti's orthogonal<br />
principles, as applied to the<br />
intersecting plane in relation to the<br />
horizontal, and how they were<br />
eventually developed. Piero <strong>della</strong><br />
Francesca already began to develop<br />
them in some of his later theories, and<br />
they finally acquired a real and proper<br />
form in the "inclined plane" as applied<br />
to the paintings of Tintoretto and<br />
Paolo Veronese. Federico Comandino<br />
was the theorist responsible for the<br />
latter developments, which occurred at<br />
the height of the 15th Century,<br />
followed by Guidubaldo Del Monte<br />
who progressed them even further.<br />
From then, up until the time of<br />
Monge, perspective as applied to a flat<br />
surface rapidly developed into<br />
descriptive geometry: while the camera<br />
obscura, which first made its<br />
appearance in the 11 th Century, very<br />
slowly had lenses and mirrors<br />
incorporated in the period between the<br />
16th and 18th Centuries, was first<br />
used as an "aid" by painters (Vermeer,<br />
Canaletto, Van Loo etc.) and then<br />
finally as a base for the creation of<br />
photography and its development.<br />
So far, we haven't mentioned when<br />
light and colour first came to be used<br />
in images. First of all, we have to go<br />
back to Pliny's charming little story<br />
and ask ourselves if, in fact,<br />
chiaroscuro and colour were<br />
compatible with "outline"? If it is a<br />
question of an "artificial" image, the<br />
answer is obviously no. Neveretheless,<br />
as far as the "natural" image is<br />
concerned, that is the one perceived by<br />
the eye/brain, the answer is not a<br />
definite no, but neither a definite yes.<br />
In fact, the "natural" image is not<br />
merely a retinal image, but the<br />
combined perception of tactile, kinetic,<br />
light and colour data which has been<br />
coordinated by the brain, therefore,<br />
drawing an outline on a flat surface<br />
can, so to speak, delineate a form<br />
geometrically, but when it is a question<br />
of drawing that does not require the<br />
application of mathematical principles,<br />
a compromise can be reached in which<br />
shadow can also be indicated and, in<br />
some cases, even a different light and<br />
colour tone. All things considered,<br />
however, an artificial image composed<br />
entirely of colour and light, cannot be<br />
compatible with a true and proper<br />
outline, as it can only be suggested at<br />
the points of maximum gradient. In<br />
short, a painter who wishes to create<br />
natural -looking images, can sketch in<br />
the outlines but then has to make<br />
them disappear as he works the paint<br />
to achieve the colour and light effects.<br />
All this certainly posed a great<br />
problem for the ancient Greeks. And it<br />
was only very late in the history of<br />
their magnificent vase painting that<br />
they were able to use their outline<br />
tecnique also to create light; and it was<br />
only in the latter part of the ancient<br />
Naturalistic period that they were able<br />
to combine colour, light and form, as is<br />
evident in the extraordinary frescoes<br />
and mosaics in Stabia, Herculaneum<br />
and Pompeii, as well as the mosaics in<br />
Amerina Square and the<br />
Constantinople Hippodrome.<br />
It took Leonardo da Vinci to both<br />
theorize and experiment the complete<br />
fusion between the representation of<br />
volume, colour and light, also<br />
developing, in addition to "linear<br />
perspective" (the guidelines of which<br />
are obliterated after use), the<br />
perspective of "colour" and the<br />
"perspective of expedition";<br />
respectively, the attenuation of colour<br />
and gradual blurring of outline, in<br />
relation to distance.<br />
However, Leonardo also researched<br />
(and experimented, to a degree) the<br />
laws governing photometry, and the<br />
formation of shadows and half-light,<br />
distinguishing for the first time<br />
between individual light sources and a<br />
general source. At the same time, he<br />
evolved a method of analysing the light<br />
emitted by different colour sources,<br />
thus being able to establish the various<br />
"additive" mixes. The painter who<br />
understood and utilized the teachings<br />
of Leonardo most ably and most<br />
frequently was not Michelangelo, as<br />
many people think, but Raphael, and<br />
Leonardo's influence is most evident in<br />
the "school of Athens". There is no<br />
point in going into details here, as to<br />
how the later painters developed and<br />
updated the "artifical" images created<br />
by their predecessors in the 15th<br />
Century.<br />
From the point of view of optics, first<br />
black and white photography, and<br />
then colour, has to be considered as<br />
having inherited all the technologies<br />
used in the creation of the images, to<br />
which the cinema added movement. It<br />
must be acknowledged that, as far as<br />
the quality of light and colour is<br />
concerned, the paintings of the great<br />
maestros can hold their own with the<br />
best cinema photography created<br />
today.<br />
The photochemical image, espcially as<br />
used in the cinema, had only just<br />
begun to be propagated ana perfected,<br />
when it found itself having to combete<br />
with "rivals". The main one was the<br />
electronic image, which we also only<br />
have space to examine briefly here.<br />
Entrepreneurs and technologists went<br />
to work immediately, when they<br />
realized there was a possibility of<br />
transmitting images virtually anywhere<br />
electronically, which would enable<br />
them to avoid the lengthy developing<br />
and printing processes. However, it<br />
took seventy long hard years of<br />
research, before they succeeded in<br />
doing it.<br />
Just before 1873, the first devices<br />
capable of converting light signals into<br />
electric signals became operative. And<br />
in addition to the photoelectric cell, the<br />
photoconductive and photovoltaic cells<br />
were developed and, finally, the Kerr<br />
cell, which brought about the<br />
possibility of combining the actual<br />
sound track and film.<br />
Meanwhile, technologists were<br />
studying a way of breaking down and<br />
re-composing a colour and light system<br />
that was apparently continuous (real<br />
image) into different points of light of<br />
sufficient strengtlf. This was first<br />
attempted with mechanical devices<br />
(Nipkov disc), then electronic devices.<br />
The possibility of manipulating<br />
electronic images, breaking them down,<br />
freezing them, reducing them, enlarging<br />
them, superimposing them, altering<br />
their light and colour balance etc. not<br />
only resulted in considerable "creative<br />
achievements" (first communicated to<br />
the public in a systematic way at the<br />
"Documenta" in 1973 at Kassel), but<br />
also proved to be applicable in a<br />
completely new technobgical area.<br />
It was the area of outer space or, to be<br />
more precise, the race to conquer space<br />
(not merely for scientific reasons),<br />
which from the very beginning, made it<br />
necessary to "capture" images and<br />
transmit them back across cosmic<br />
distances to Earth. Very soon, the<br />
technologists found themselves having<br />
to resolve the problem of "background<br />
noise" which was greatly increased by<br />
the electromagnetic waves having to<br />
travel across such vast distances, and<br />
which resulted in all the images<br />
transmitted by the telecameras being<br />
"delayed".<br />
The breakthrough came in the early<br />
Sixties, when it was discovered that<br />
each image could be broken down into<br />
separate points, which could each be<br />
assigned a mathematical "name"<br />
(coordinate and value), and the<br />
transmission of the relative data for<br />
each "point" could be "delayed" for as<br />
much as was necessary to ensure its<br />
exact reconstruction and reinsertion<br />
into the matrix upon the data's being<br />
received on Earth.<br />
The combined forces of rocketry,<br />
astronomy, astrophysics, astronautics,<br />
optics, electronics, computer science<br />
etc. also began to be applied in this<br />
area, resulting in the creation of anew<br />
type of image, known as the<br />
"numerical" or "digital" image.<br />
However, this soon resulted in<br />
"elaboratore" having to be developed:<br />
not only did receiving, processing and<br />
transmitting equipment for domestic<br />
use have to be invented (telecameras<br />
and scanners with AD converters, and<br />
the appropriate calculators, tapes and<br />
discs, pbtters and video tubes), but<br />
also codes and "languages" had to be<br />
elaborated which would be capable of<br />
breaking down and recomposing all the<br />
data for each image, and transforming<br />
it as desired, so that it could be<br />
reversed with the appropriate<br />
algorithms.<br />
During these same years, the<br />
possibilities of analysing and<br />
transforming digital images, were also<br />
studied by various scholars and art<br />
historians, in order to explore the<br />
essential structure used in the<br />
representations of objects on a flat<br />
surface, which were also considered as<br />
different phases in the transformation<br />
of the real image.<br />
It is evident from what has been said<br />
that, if one leaves aside the images<br />
used in video games (which are all the<br />
rage, but which are only capable of<br />
transmitting "information" according<br />
to the rules of the game that the player<br />
has chosen) that the digital image was<br />
primarily invented to function, and<br />
remains — at the level of video graphics<br />
— mainly a scientific and technolgical<br />
instrument, however, it can also be<br />
used to create art (with its synthesized<br />
images, which can be applied to at<br />
least ten minutes of a sci-fi film, or the<br />
creation of a television station signal).<br />
What will be the future of the various<br />
technologies applied to the creation of<br />
the image? First of all, we have to put<br />
aside the idea that when new<br />
technologies are created, they<br />
immediately supplant the preceding<br />
ones. For example, painting has not<br />
been supplanted by photography<br />
which, if anything, has caused it to<br />
re-define itself; neither was<br />
photography supplanted by cinema,<br />
nor cinema by television — and it won't<br />
be as long as its photochemical images<br />
maintain their superior definition.<br />
It is, instead, likely that all these<br />
various technobgies will continue to<br />
co-exist for some time, each to a<br />
certain extent supporting the other.<br />
As far as the digital image is<br />
concerned, it has the particular<br />
advantage of being able to unify, and<br />
also absorb, to a certain extent, the<br />
preceding technolgies. It can take the<br />
form of static configurations identical<br />
to compositions of objects (even though<br />
they are not physically the same), and<br />
also moving configurations (even if<br />
these are still not comparable to the<br />
moving cinematographic image); it is<br />
based on anabgical references, but<br />
undergoes the conventional and<br />
symbolic digitization process and,<br />
general, bgical and mathematical<br />
representation; it adds a new<br />
dimension to the creation of art, and at<br />
the same time is a subject for scientific<br />
verification, research and evaluation;<br />
finally it combines with the traditional<br />
photochemical image, when one needs<br />
to fix the forms created and print<br />
them.<br />
In fact, the digital image is linked to<br />
all the other aspects of the world of<br />
calculators and, therefore, to all the<br />
other worlds of technical and scientific<br />
knowledge. Thus, the digital image is<br />
presently creating an "adult" and "in"<br />
alternative to the video game, which<br />
requires far more intelligence, is very<br />
popular with the young, practised<br />
extensively, and goes under the name<br />
of "hobbistics". It is radically<br />
transforming the world of<br />
enimatography and the crossword<br />
puzzle and introducing a<br />
comprehensive knowledge of the rules<br />
governing bgic and communication<br />
into our culture which, up until a<br />
generation ago, had been ousted by<br />
cheap intuiticmism and creationism<br />
and the indifference shown to<br />
technobgical and scientific knowledge<br />
(when it was not actually look ed down<br />
upon).