Anna Ursyn

Describe your field. Why are you interested in Computer Art/ Computer Graphics and what (event, need, idea, hope, obstacle) caused your involvement? Summarize your line of development (the essence of your input to the field) in relation to concurrent technology.

In my work I am focused on creating and teaching computer graphics. I am interested in combining the disorderly quality of painting with the precision of a computer, going from traditional media to a code, then back to tradition. It gives me the best means to combine repetition and transformation of images with a more open way of action.

Does the computer allow you to think visually about some topic or process in new ways? How has this influenced your work? Describe your ultimate accomplishment.

I use a process / product concept derived from science as inspiration for my own and my students’ artistic production. I am working on developing new aesthetic qualities by merging scanned, programmed, photosilkscreened, photolithographed, or otherwise transformed images.

Has the field of computer art and graphics progressed in the ways that you expected? What has surprised you? What do you like about its progress and what do you wish had happened differently? What do you think the future holds for visual computing in science/art? Please make some predictions or wish lists for the near- and long-term future.

For me, the important feature of the developments in the field is the way how brands and sections intertwine with one another. Every area can fit into another one, for example, 3D graphics and the web.

Describe your dream environment for enhancing your project ideas. What are your preferred tools for creating and how do they work? What tools (hardware/software) you have used initially had the strongest impact on your work?

One could dream about a camera in one’s eye that is triggered by blinking so it captures the scene and the moment exactly as the eye sees it.  Also, pictures that are named automatically when one speaks a title. In a dream environment, my work in progress would be projected on a huge wall. And, most of all a free wireless Internet access all over the world: beside every rock and behind every bush.

Describe how you think specific advancements in technology, (such as wireframe, hidden line removal, scanner, laser, HTML, Java applets, or any other advancement), determined the way the approaches to creating art/graphics evolved?

The ongoing interaction between specific areas of action, for example, writing and visual arts, are decisive for the way the computer graphics evolve, including web advancements and virtual reality environments.

How would you characterize the milestones (every ten years) in the development of computer technology? Which ones were most influential in art/graphics?

I believe introduction of hidden line removal caused profound progress in creating art works. LOGO and HyperCard changed a lot in education. Scanners, the Internet and Flash were all influential in art and computer graphics.

Which persons would you indicate as the pioneers in the particular areas/stages in which decade?

Atkinson’s work on introducing MacPaint should be stressed here. Charles Csuri brought about a new artistic approach to computer graphics in the sixties and seventies. Chris Wedge’s impressive animations created in the nineties inspired many artists.