When are Art & Images…

A screen capture doesn’t. We take the electronic binary ones and zeros that tell the graphics card what to render and move them into a file. Light is not part of the process. The monitor that sends light to our eyes is just a representation of the binary data. If we could remember what keys to press and where to click with the screen turned off the capture process would work just as well. There are no Latin words for Digital or screen, as far as I know. The Greek for Digital Screen Capture is Ψηφιακή οθόνη συλλαμβάνει which transliterated is Psi̱fiakí̱ othóni̱ syllamvánei… that is a mouth full. Screen drawing is not as bad, Schédio othóni̱, but I won’t be using any of those words. I’ll stay with photography.

The loopy side of life!!

The loopy side of life!! – iRL Photo

As virtual reality becomes more common place we will likely need terms to differentiate whether we captured a visual image in the real world or a virtual world. Imagine being in virtual reality and seeing a sculpture. We can walk around it and can capture images as we do now in Second Life. But, technically we are capturing modifications of electronic data created inside a computer, ones and zeros. Light is only used and needed as a transfer agent to our eyes. There is no light coming from the virtual sculpture or being recorded in our virtual camera, which in reality is just our computer.

The two dimensional images we have now will eventually be replaced by the three dimensional images we see in VR headsets. In a paper photograph a picture of a sculpture is extremely limited. In VR we could move the sculpture or move our viewpoint around it. Just as we Alt-Left-Click things in SL and swing our camera around them… often laughingly or with disgust referred to as perv cam’ing.

Tranquility Dreams

Tranquility Dreams

Zuckerberg is building a VR means to allow us to share experiences using these 3D VR images. I suspect that is going to change our impression of what photography is. Will we extend the definition of photo to include a 3D VR capture? I doubt it. But, people may. We are developing means to print circuitry and build devices into the surface of paper and plastics. We also have developed reflective technology that allow flat paper things to appear three-dimensional. (Reference) It is only a little stretch of imagination to envision ‘printed’ images like those seen in the Harry Potter movies appearing on paper.

More pages… links below…

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