Foundation
of Computational Visualistics
by Jörg
R. J. Schirra
Publisher DUV.
Wiesbaden, 2005
294
pp., illus.
128 b/w. $65
ISBN: 3-8350-6015-12.
Reviewed by Martha Patricia Niño
Mojica
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá
Facultad de Artes Visuales
Colombia
ninom@javeriana.edu.co
Some years ago, the department of computer
science at the University of Magdeburg
developed a completely new diploma called
"Computational Visualistics"
as an alternative for studies in digital
media. Visualistics is a blend of visual
and linguistic studies that include how
humans express what they perceive, feel,
experience, and create with their computational
mediations. It has points of intersection
also with a myriad of fields, such as
computer vision, cognitive science, communication,
mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy,
psychology, history of art, aesthetics
and semiotics. This book is conceived
as a map of questions, such as what images
are for computer science and their uses.
Other topics treated in the book include
image processing, object models, interactivity,
image database, virtual architecture and
mental images.
Inside you can find an introduction to
the old concerns regarding the relationship
between symbol and icon, word and image,
chains of signs and field of signs, time
and space that has caused different degrees
of unrest and also academic, cultural
and religious quarrels throughout the
years. Our symbols will continue to question
our concepts of the universal and the
particular, material and spiritual and
our current scientific paradigms.
Schirra also explains how images have
become a central part in our culture that
not only transform information but also
connect and simultaneously separate people.
There are discussions about various aspects
of the image such as resemblance, mimicry,
perception, reflection, and deception.
Computational Visualistics has practical
information for computational graphics
and interactive installations. The main
interest is not just data but the process
of acquiring knowledge and its scientific
application in a communicational context.
It is common to have discussions about
whether the text is more adequate to represent
reality and acquire knowledge or if it
has an unfair prevalence over the image
both in the text based computer code and
the academic discourse. The text in the
book uses word signs in order to understand
picture signs. The book does not favor
word over image or vice versa but deals
with the formalization of what can be
called an image data type that
deals with pictures represented by algorithmic
artifacts borrowing some linguistic terms
such as syntax: the order of words, semantics:
the meaning of words, and pragmatics:
the use of language for communication
on a social context. Thus, the data type
"image" is defined using picture
syntax that deals with image processing
and the order of pixels, picture semantics
that deal with geometric models, visual
gestalts, and computer vision assimilated
as "image understanding" and
finally picture pragmatics that
deal with authenticity (whether the apparent
sender of a message is the real sender
or not) and interactivity.
The general approach is hybrid, but it
is more focused towards graphic engineers.
It also concisely analyses some interactive
artworks in chapter four entitled The
Generic Data Type "image": general
aspects, under the section pragmatic
aspects and in chapter 5 entitled Case
Studies: Using the data type "image",
in particular A Border Line Case: Immersion.
The artworks displayed are from Picasso,
Escher, and later on from Char Davis and
Harold Cohen, Fieder Nake Jane Prophet,
Manfred Mohr, Perry Hoberman, Tom Banks,
and Melinda Rackman. It would be up to
artists to find the relationship between
the concepts of computational visualistics
and other art works not included in the
text such as Christa Sommerers Verbarium,
David Rokebys The Giver of Names,
Jeffery Shaws The Legible City,
Camille Utterbacks Text Rain,
The Apartment by Marek Walzac and Martin
Wattenberg, Mark Hansen and Ben Rubins
Listening Post, Jenny Holzer, Young Hae-Chang,
and many other artists that work at the
crossroads between language and image.
The book has a good deal of both new and
specialized terminology so is suitable
for a class curriculum in the topic that
can expand the ideas described with more
examples. Although you can find algorithms
for image processing and information visualization,
it is not required to have a deep mathematical
background to read it.