The image captured
August 17th 2010 11:13
Original Creative Writing:
David Jobling
What follows is a brief and broad timeline on the development of photography including some points of fact concerning the invention of animation, film and video.
My primary intention is to provide no less than five facts about the development of photography and animation.
As an Arts Practitioner, to look at the creative thinking that led the human being first from Cave Paintings to the Camera Obscura and then Beyond is very eye opening.
At this moment in history and human invention it is possible to actively participate in the activity of photography without knowing any of these facts I have found them so inspiring, I hope to present them to hopefully inspire some creative thinking on your part.
It is possible to actively participate in the activity of photography without using the instruments that early inventors and creative thinkers invented. Some of the inventions presented here are nothing more than ideas. Original ideas, and questions that were asked centuries ago.
The answers to these questions, and the human drive to discover the answers to them, have forged a journey to where we find ourselves now.
We see the world now with the same desire to interpret it as we always have as a species, but because we are determined to truly develop our basic needs we have invented extraordinarily sophisticated ways to bear witness of what we've seen.
Inventions we use in 2008 such as the computer and computer software in the crafts of photography, animation, film and video making, employ the same discoveries, use the same principals, and build on original ideas that have been on the mind of the human being since prehistoric times.
One only has to look at the onion skin function in an animation software program (such as Adobe Flash) to appreciate the associations between the pragmatic human behavior of a prehistoric cave painter and the technologically evolved functions utilized by a digital animator.
The cave painter and the digital animator have the same objective, they're just two people who need to tell a story.
So, why start so far back as Cave Paintings?
What I find so compelling is this human determination to create an accurate depiction of an event, and the extraordinary creativity that has ensued in the pursuit of doing so. I'm not alone when I suggest that the drive to create photographs is connected to the compulsive urge human beings have to tell a story.
People have always been compelled in some way to say: This is what... who... when... where... how; this is what happened.
Researchers have delved back into the past as far as 30.000 years and found examples of this behavior - to create an image in order to leave an impression, or as they say, leave a mark.
If I pose the question which came first Photography or Animation you may think photographs had to be invented before animation however that is not the case. If we were to answer the question correctly we'd have to say Animation.
In fact you could argue that from the moment a person was able to consciously cast a shadow and make shadow plays with their hands between a surface and a light source Animation was invented; it wasn't terribly sophisticated but it was an optical illusion created with light and human endeavor.
Evidently prehistoric cave dwellers did their best to introduce movement into the marks they left, what we now construe as their works of art.
Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion into a still drawing can be found in Paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.
In its account of the History of Animation, Wikipedia
So Animation came first, then drawing, painting, capturing a picture, taking a photograph and all to tell a story because people are story tellers. I think that passion and determination to create an accurate depiction of an event forced humans to invent everything from cave paintings to the most sophisticated cameras pointed towards our infinite universe. I'm quite aware that this is a very sweeping statement but the connection between these old ideas, discoveries and inventions continues to really stand out to me.
Now, if I saw this amazing image of outer space, I'd want to know more about what it was, so in order to quench that thirst for knowledge here is the official description of the image of The Eagle Nebula
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula.
This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust.
The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars.
At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed.
The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.
My primary intention is to provide no less than five facts about the development of photography and animation.
As an Arts Practitioner, to look at the creative thinking that led the human being first from Cave Paintings to the Camera Obscura and then Beyond is very eye opening.
At this moment in history and human invention it is possible to actively participate in the activity of photography without knowing any of these facts I have found them so inspiring, I hope to present them to hopefully inspire some creative thinking on your part.
The Eagle Nebula Credit: J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU), HST, NASA
The answers to these questions, and the human drive to discover the answers to them, have forged a journey to where we find ourselves now.
We see the world now with the same desire to interpret it as we always have as a species, but because we are determined to truly develop our basic needs we have invented extraordinarily sophisticated ways to bear witness of what we've seen.
Inventions we use in 2008 such as the computer and computer software in the crafts of photography, animation, film and video making, employ the same discoveries, use the same principals, and build on original ideas that have been on the mind of the human being since prehistoric times.
One only has to look at the onion skin function in an animation software program (such as Adobe Flash) to appreciate the associations between the pragmatic human behavior of a prehistoric cave painter and the technologically evolved functions utilized by a digital animator.
The cave painter and the digital animator have the same objective, they're just two people who need to tell a story.
So, why start so far back as Cave Paintings?
What I find so compelling is this human determination to create an accurate depiction of an event, and the extraordinary creativity that has ensued in the pursuit of doing so. I'm not alone when I suggest that the drive to create photographs is connected to the compulsive urge human beings have to tell a story.
People have always been compelled in some way to say: This is what... who... when... where... how; this is what happened.
Researchers have delved back into the past as far as 30.000 years and found examples of this behavior - to create an image in order to leave an impression, or as they say, leave a mark.
If I pose the question which came first Photography or Animation you may think photographs had to be invented before animation however that is not the case. If we were to answer the question correctly we'd have to say Animation.
In fact you could argue that from the moment a person was able to consciously cast a shadow and make shadow plays with their hands between a surface and a light source Animation was invented; it wasn't terribly sophisticated but it was an optical illusion created with light and human endeavor.
Evidently prehistoric cave dwellers did their best to introduce movement into the marks they left, what we now construe as their works of art.
Early examples of attempts to capture the phenomenon of motion into a still drawing can be found in Paleolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.
In its account of the History of Animation, Wikipedia
So Animation came first, then drawing, painting, capturing a picture, taking a photograph and all to tell a story because people are story tellers. I think that passion and determination to create an accurate depiction of an event forced humans to invent everything from cave paintings to the most sophisticated cameras pointed towards our infinite universe. I'm quite aware that this is a very sweeping statement but the connection between these old ideas, discoveries and inventions continues to really stand out to me.
The Eagle Nebula Credit: J. Hester, P. Scowen (ASU), HST, NASA
Now, if I saw this amazing image of outer space, I'd want to know more about what it was, so in order to quench that thirst for knowledge here is the official description of the image of The Eagle Nebula
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula.
This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust.
The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars.
At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed.
The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.
| 67 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
David Jobling
