The Emergence of a Digital Cinema

Author(s): Roger B. Wyatt

Source: Computers and the Humanities, Vol. 33, No. 4, Digital Images (Dec., 1999), pp. 365-381
Published by: Springer
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 Computersand the Humanities 33: 365-381, 1999. 365
C 1999 KluwerAcademicPublishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

The Emergenceof a DigitalCinema

ROGERB. WYATT
EmporiaState University,1200 CommercialStreet,Emporia,KS 66801, USA

Abstract. Paradigmaticchange is drivingaestheticchange in cinema. This restructuringis not only

transformingwhat is on the screen, but the means of productionthat put it there. The interplayof
technology and culture,along with their dynamicshas made this so. MarshallMcLuhan'sLaws of
Media provide an effective lens with which to examine this change. Some preliminaryobservations
on the shape of digital cinema are offered. Howeverto paraphraseAl Jolson, you ain't seen nothin'
yet.

Key words: aesthetic,cinema,DesktopVideo, digital,DTV,film, information,McLuhan,paradigms,

production

Cinemais truthtwenty four framesa second.

Jean-LucGodard'

1. Introduction
Planetarysociety is experiencing fundamentalchange at rates unprecedentedin
humanhistory.It is generally agreed that global society is evolving from an age
of industryinto an age of information.At a primarylevel this change is concerned
with deep alterationsof worldview.Worldviewsarementalconstructsthatstructure
our understandingof reality. Twin revolutions in the disciplines of information
and communicationhave both propelled and reflected these paradigmaticshifts.
NorbertWeinerhas observedthat "societycan only be understoodthrougha study
of the messages and communicationfacilities which belong to it."2Thus shifts in
a culture'smessage makingmodalities,in both theircontent and structure,reflect
and times lead shifts in a culture'sworldview.
The visualizationof information,the centralresourceof the emergentera, by
means of moving image messages is increasing.This is so because of an urgent
need for informationcompressionbroughton by an informationproductionexplo-
sion throughoutpost-industrialsocieties. Moving images achieve this requirement
by portrayingboth patternsand dynamics of informationas it evolves through
space and time. As these are moving images, they are cinematic. As they are
computergeneratedthey are digital.Digital Cinemais the result.
Like naturallanguageand mathematics,moving images are symbolic manifes-
tationsof thought."Thesymbol is the basic instrumentof thought;those who create
366 ROGER
B.WYATT

new symbols - artists,scientists, poets, philosophers- are those who, by giving

us new instrumentsto think with, give us new areas to explore in our thinking."3
Each symbol systemhas been dominantin a specific domainof knowledge.Natural
languagedominatesin the social sciences andhumanities,mathematicsin science,
and images in the arts.Under conditionsof informationoverload,these symbolic
systems interactwith each other,crossingdisciplineboundariesin new and unique
ways. Scientificvisualizationis a case in point. By manifestingmathematicaldata,
the lingua francaof science, in the context of pictorialrepresentation,the patois
of the arts, an innovativeand highly effective means of communicatinginforma-
tion emerges. The new symbolic systems of the informationage, and their means
of creation, are being inventedin the zone of interactionwhere art, science, and
philosophymerge.
This paperis a probeinto the aestheticsof information.

2. WhatIs DigitalCinema?
Digital Cinema is a term with several meanings. Here, two are examined. They
describedifferentaspectsof the taskof generatingcomputerbased moving images.
The first meaning refers to the hardwareand software elements that make up
the materialstructuresof an moving image productionsystem. The process. The
second refersto the ideas thatinformthe system. The theory.
The implicationsand resonancesof the two words, digital and cinema, provide
insight into the meaning of the term. The use of digital places Digital Cinema
withinthe contextof the technologyof computerimagingsystems.At the symbolic
level, computershold a uniquepositionin contemporarysociety.Computersare the
dominanttechnologicalicon of the informationage,just as the steel mill or the iron
horse were for the industrialage. Digital machinesarethemselvesan image for the
new. In fact computinghas come to symbolize a dynamoof change, alteringand
transformingall aspectsof cultureincludingimage making.
Light moving in time is how the film theoristWilliam Wees defines cinema.4
The word cinema refers to the aesthetic systems of film and video technology.It
is used to representthe theoreticalframeworkof values and rules that form the
context within which moving images are constructed.In the context of Digital
Cinema, the term is expanded in scope to include computer technology. Thus
Digital Cinemabecomes the emergingaestheticfor the creationof computergener-
ated moving images as well as the process to undertakethis task. It is a not an
applicationprogramor a particulartype of software. It is a way of expressing
thoughtthroughmoving computerimages. The concept supportsa cinemaof ideas
in motion, across time and space. As with all innovationit is a blendingof the old
and the new.
THE EMERGENCEOF A DIGITALCINEMA 367

3. On Aesthetics,Paradigms,And TechnologicalDevelopment

MarshallMcLuhanhas observed,"thatwhen informationbrushesagainstinforma-

tion, the results are startlingand effective."5Magritte,Dali, and other surrealists
were masters of this. The startling and surprisingjuxtapositions of their work
reflectdeep structuralshifts in humanity'sviews of interiorandexteriorreality.On
one level the melted clocks of Dali's The Persistenceof Memory(1931) proclaim
the decline of the industrialVictorianera and the ascent of the quantuminforma-
tion era.New paradigmshave always been accompaniedby new aesthetics.Digital
Cinemarepresentsan emergingaspect of the aestheticsof an informationage. As
with earlier aesthetics, digital cinema brushes visual informationagainst visual
informationto achieve its effects.
This aesthetic however, is being born into the context of the developmentof
computing,a powerfulelectronictechnology.The developmentof the aestheticsof
machineimages is deeply intertwinedwith the developmentof the technologythat
creates and displays them. The aestheticsof photography,film, or video also have
this same relationshipwith theirrespectivetechnologies.However,it is not merely
a linear, sequentialrelationshipof new developmentsin technology creatingnew
imaging aesthetics.The relationshipis far more complex and subtle.
Technologicaldevelopmentoccurs in a resonatinginternalcreatedby the inter-
actions of multiple contexts, dynamics, and actions. The relationshipbetween
technology and culture provides the conceptual surroundwithin which, devel-
opment occurs. Technology is a part of culture not apart from culture. The
implicationsof this observationare often obscuredby the overwhelmingpresence
of the machineitself.
When examining technology, it is not uncommonto focus primarilyupon its
materialaspects, hardwareand software,its scientific origins, and the operational
aspects of the technology,but ignore the culturecontext. As a result the observer
misses much. It is rarer,but far more profitable,to focus upon the body of thought
that providesthe conceptualcontext of the technology.It is ideas and visions that
drivetechnology development.Culturegeneratestechnology.
The developmentof photographyprovides an example. In a study that exam-
ines the developmentof photographyfrom an aestheticcontext, Peter Galassi has
observed "that photographywas not a bastardleft by science on the doorstep
of art, but a legitimate child of the Westernpictorial tradition."6Images create
technology.In a later passage he continues, "Theultimateorigins of photography
- both technical and aesthetic - lie in the fifteenth- centuryinvention of linear
perspective." Often the yearnings,visions, and desires of a cultureare out ahead,
drivingtechnologicaldevelopment.
Aesthetics are the thoughtwareof image technology.
Technological systems are composed of three elements: hardware,software,
and thoughtware.The first two are self-evident. It is within thoughtwarethat
complexity lies. Thoughtwarecomprisesnot only technology skills, but the tech-
368 ROGER
B.WYATT

niques of technology as well. At yet a deeper level, thoughtwareincludes the

strategic and conceptual underpinningsof the system as well. Aesthetics play
the role of thoughtwarefor moving images. It is thoughtwarethat determinesthe
utilizationof hardwareand software.Yet it is also true that the dynamicsof hard-
ware and softwaredevelopmentcreate opportunitiesfor innovationand change in
thoughtware.Thus new ideas and visions are created which in turn create new
hardwareand software.This relationshipis interactive,feeding forwardas well as
feeding back.
Aesthetics are also frameworksthat reflect the values of larger gestalts and
paradigms.Aesthetics are the deep structurerules that order the purpose, tech-
niques, and actions that one undertakeswhen makingimages. Thus aestheticsare
the interfacebetween paradigmson one level, andthe operationallevel of imaging
tools and activitieson the other.
As paradigmsshift, so do the aestheticsthatreflectthem. SurelyBrunnolessci's
new aesthetics of perspectiveproclaimeda vision of the world based upon direct
observation, where things are what they are, not metaphoricalrepresentations
of theological constructs. With the revolutionarybrush strokes of perspective,
the medieval world view was painted over and an empirical, scientific, and ulti-
mately industrial,one took its place. The new aestheticsproclaimeda new world
view. Aesthetics then are located within a complex interrelationshipbetween the
representationsof a paradigmon one hand,andthe call of technologicalpossibility
on the other.
To fully understandthe emergenceof a digitalcinemait is necessaryto examine
the multiple levels of meaning that surroundthe term. The techniques of tech-
nology, embeddedin the hard and software are as necessary to understandingas
are the conceptualunderpinningsand frameworksthat reflect the values of larger
gestalts and paradigms.First,the machineperspectivewill be examined.Consider
the following vignettes.
Paris,28 December 1895.
In the darknessinside the Salon Indien of the GrandCaf6, at Boulevarddes
Capucines14, a projectorclattersaway,placing flickeringscenes upon a silver
screen.This is the firstpublic screeningof a motionpicture.8On screen,a train
pull into a railroadstation.As the locomotiveapproaches,a thrillof excitement
courses throughthe crowd. A powerful way of examining the world and all
its realitiesis being born.9The images move. Motion, in both time and space,
is being fused to representation.It is innovationemergingin a world aboutto
blow itself up.

London, 18 Sept 1928.

The televisor apparatussat in a room in the Engineers' Club. The spectators
took their places. Six hundredyards away, in anotherbuilding, John Baird,
inventorand television pioneer, powers up his machinery.Tubes glow. Fans
hum. The Nipkow scanning disc starts to spin. A building away, upon the
THE EMERGENCEOF A DIGITALCINEMA 369

three and a half by two inch televisor screen, throughflicker and distortion,
a human face appears.This is an image from an early television broadcast
experimentby the BBC. The image appearsto be singing. Someone in the
audience muttersthat the face is "curiouslyape-like, decapitatedat the chin,
and swaying up and down in a streakystreamof yellow light."10Mercifully,
from his position in the otherbuilding,Bairdcould not hearthe comment.

Kansas, 18 Sept 1990.

He hit the returnkey. Upon the RGB monitor,amongthe pixels, the young man
juggled the balls with the assuranceof an athlete.By means of digital illusion,
the juggler himself, is juggled aroundthe screen. This is an image from an
early digital cinema work. It is aftermidnight,the computeristis asleep at the
keyboard.Throughthe night the jugglerjuggles. No one watches."1
These vignettes illustrate the progression of the three great revolutions in
moving image technology systems duringthe last hundredyears. They are film,
video, and computer.
Embeddedin these imaging revolutionsare twin technical conversions.First,
from optical-chemical to optical-magnetic imaging systems. Film is realized
throughthe interactionsof a complex chain of optical and chemical events. Video
on the otherhand,createsimages throughthe recordingof opticalevents in electric
form, upon magneticmedia. Computingtoo, storesimageryin magneticform.
The second conversionis from analogto digitalrecordingmodes. Both film and
video renderanalog representationsof reality.In contrastcomputerscreatedigital
views of reality.Analog representationsare physical copies of waveformsof light
while digital ones are composed of binarydescriptionsof waveforms.With a high
pitched transmittedsqueal of 0, 1, 0, 1, on off, on off, digital pulses reshapethe
world of images.
Developmentsin hardwarefeed into developmentsin thoughtware.These tech-
nical conversationsimpactupon cinematicthinking.Imagingpossibilities are to an
extent enhancedor limited by technicaldevelopments.Hardwareand softwareact
as filtersor limits allowing certainpossibilitiesor aspectsof realityto be observed,
rendered,andviewed. Forexamplefilm andvideo handlethe renderingof the color
red in very different manners.NTSC video, for reasons of bandwidthcapacity
cannot rendera true red.12Not only is the color smearedover the outline of the
image to begin with, but mostly what the viewer sees is some sort of orange.Film
on the otherhand,can renderan accuratered. Trivial?Perhaps.Howeverwhen one
is attemptingto realize a video productionof TheScarletLetter,perhapsnot.
In the early stages of their development, the three imaging systems shared
certaincommonalities.They were crude.Early film, video, and computersystems
were large, heavy, and endowed with modest capabilities.The various technical
limitationsincluded productionlength or duration,restrictedcolor palettes,13and
low resolution imagery.With the rapidprogressionof technical innovationthese
limitationswere overcome.
370 ROGERB. WYATT

Anothercommonalityemerges. In the early stages of each medium,the act of

creatingan image within the mediumwas significantin and of itself. The catalogs
of early film are full of what would be consideredhome movies by contemporary
criteria.14As the firstparticipantsin early stages of any technology are scientists,
technicians,and engineersthis shouldnot be surprising.JamesLindnercomments
regardingthe early developmentof computergraphics,"Inthe first stage, we had
computer science people who had access to the equipment,knew how to write
the software and thereforecould do it.""15 Their focus is upon the titanic issues
of machine developmentand the initial range of software applications.Issues of
message and aesthetics are not theirs. They focus upon the means to make and
perceive messages, not their content, style or meaning. The pioneeringcomputer
graphicsefforts of Evans and Southerland,Englebart,and the rest, were graphic
primitivescomposed of circles, cones, and squaresderivedform geometry.Their
meaningas images was not considered.Coaxingthem out of surly andrigid main-
frameswas enough of a task. Fromthese modest beginningsgreatartformsof vast
complexityand rangegrew.
This observationis at a deeper level, at the level of thoughtware,indicative
of another commonality of these machine imaging systems. It is the common
struggle to find a voice, an aesthetic frameworkfor the emergentmedium. Each
imaging medium began with undevelopedexpressive languages.Each technolog-
ical advancecreatednew aestheticpossibilities.
As we have seen hardwareand software interactwith thoughtware.However
equally valid is the observationthat each new aesthetic vision created a new
technology in orderto realize that vision. For example, sound recordingsystems
gave the filmed image a voice. However it was the desire for sound, a vision of
moving images thatspoke, which drovedevelopmentof the new audiotechnology.
Development of any technology cannot happenoutside of a humancontext. It is
a context that includes emotion, desire, imagination,and whimsy, as well as logic
and electricalengineeringskills.
Technology isn't autonomouseven though to some is appearsthat way. The
currents of cultural dynamics shape technology just as much as they do, for
example,language.To fully understandthe emergenceof a digitalcinemait is also
necessaryto examinethe aestheticperspective.It is a perspectivedeeply embedded
in a culturalcontext.
Currentlythe aesthetics of the moving image are confronted with radical
shifts and change broughton by the interactionwith computing.This interaction
brings about a convergence of aesthetic elements drawn from diverse sources,
both what has been as well as what is to be. In addition to the extension of
the aesthetic concepts of western art that have found there way into animation,
film, and video, as well as computing,the new sources include developmentsin
computertomography,remote sensing, algorithmiccomputerimage processing,
fractalgeometry,syntheticenvironments,scientificvisualization,and digitalvideo
THE EMERGENCEOF A DIGITALCINEMA 371

effects.16These new interactionswill bringchangeto not only how moving images

are made but why they are made and what kinds of images are made.
The breeze fluttersas informationbrushesagainstinformation.

4. Contoursof The DigitalCinema

Considerthe following vignettes.

Virtual worlds. The analyst ran the scientific visualization. On screen the
computergeneratedtornadogouged its way acrossa digital landscape.Around
its violent movements,dataclouds of meterologicalinformationswirled.They
are accurateprecisiondisplays of weatherforces at work.The analystregarded
the display. She searchedthe screen, looking for the truthto be found in the
realityof images. Digital Cinema.

Hollywood on a chip. The artist set aside the light pen. With a rapid tap on
the keyboard,the sequence startedto run. On screen, as the barbarianchief
sheathedhis sword,the image began to metamorphosize,melting into fantastic
shapes and colors. Eventuallya new image, a new reality startedto emerge.
Across a cubist sky, a bird flew. A smile crossed the artists face. Digital
Cinema.17

The vignettes illustratethe wide range of applicationswhere traces of Digital

Cinemacan be found.Issues of Digital Cinemaconcernnot only the truthof fiction,
but also the truthof fact. The mannerin which the digital moving image commu-
nicates factual informationinvolves considerationof digital cinema aesthetics.In
this contextthey become the aestheticsof information.
Digital Cinema is not video or film by other means. The term Desktop Video
(DTV) applies in that case. Though they may share the same hardwareand soft-
ware, at the level of thoughtwarethey are different.Desktop Video is a term, like
horselesscarriage,thatcapturesthe futurein termsof the past. Digital Cinema,like
automobile,is a termthatdefinesthe futurein termsof the future.Thereis too much
thatis new in Digital Cinemato allow it to be definedby earlierimaging systems.
Morphing,18for example,cannotbe accomplishedby video technology alone. It is
a form of image linkage that goes far beyond what the traditionalfilm and video
concept of transitionaldevice, like cut or wipe, can communicate.The qualitiesof
morphingpush the concept of transitioninto the new territoryof transformation.
In Digital Cinemaimages are takenfrom life and reworkedinto anotherimage
of reality that is often surrealisticallyinterdisciplinaryin nature. These images
occupy a conceptual zone somewhere between videography and animation. A
watermelonwith a gold hole drilled in it would be an example of this kind of
image. Reality becomes extendedby abstractioninto visions of reality.The use of
softwaretools has much to do with why these images are as they are.
372 ROGERB. WYATT

5. Implications of Softmachines For Making Digital Cinema

5.1. SOFTWAREIS A CONCEPTUALMACHINE

Softwareis a newformof tool,onethatis shaped byanageof information. George

Gilderwritesof thefundamental shifts
in theglobaleconomybrought on by the
quantum revolution in physics."Thecentraleventof thetwentieth century is the
overthrow of matter.
Intechnology, economics, and the of
politics nations, wealth
intheformofphysical resourcesis steadily
declining invalueandsignificance. The
powers of the mindare everywhere ascendant over thebrute forceof things."19The
quantum revolution hassetin motiona processwherematerial elements of things
arebeingreplaced by information. DigitalCinemaconforms to thisobservation.
DigitalCinema substitutes in
intelligence, the form of software andtechnique, for
hardware. Consider thefollowing exchange.
WYATT: the
Tim,regarding interface; it's a strikingrepresentation of what
wouldnormally be hardware. Yetherewe see it as a graphicrepresented in
software. Canyoucomment?
JENISON: Wellthat'swherethecomputer comesin handy. Youcaninsteadof
havingamechanical switch,youcanhaveapicture of a switchandif theypress,
itdoesthesamefunction asa switch.Andof courseit'sessentially information.
a
It'snot "real" objectthatneedsto be manufactured. So of coursethat'sone
reasonthisthingis so muchcheaper.20
TimJenisonis thefounderof NewtekInc.andtheprimary developer of the
VideoToaster.

5.2. SOFTWARE IS A MACHINE WITHOUT MATERIAL STRUCTURE

As we have seen the softwareelements of the Video Toaster21display images of

switches. Icons are provided ratherthan supplying material switches. Yet they
work. Click on one of tem and an action of some sort will occur. Something
switches. The Toasteris a softmachine,with importantdifferencesfrom the usual
attributes
of machines.

5.3. HARDWARE IS A VERY ACCURATE TERM

Hardwareis fixed and relativelyunchangingin its capacities. Hard.Fixed. Hard-

ware is not changeablein the ways thatsoftwareis. Having a fixed purposebrings
with it the inevitabilityof being surpassedby ongoing refinementsto be found in
new hardwarecapacity.22Once again, with the quiet whirringof a hard drive, a
system based on informationreplacesa system based material.
 OFA DIGITAL
THEEMERGENCE CINEMA 373

5.4. SOFTWARE IS DIFFERENT

It is flexible, multi-purpose,and adaptable,almost organic.It is dynamic through

upgrades which are either free or available at a modest price. Code writing,
which is information,createsnew structuresand new capabilities.A new machine
is described in lines of code and then implemented.As hardwareand software
conceptually merge into a softmachine, their relationship to thoughtwarewill
change as well.
The overwhelming importanceof software packages and routines in Digital
Cinemaproductionare reflectionsof this observation.Hardwarewhile important,
is secondaryto software at the creativelevel. Thus creationhappens at the level
of pure abstraction.Ideas have little in the way of materialelements to marktheir
passage from the inceptionof a concept to its realizationupon a screen.There are
no reams of papercontainingendless draftsof a project.Only binarycode traced
magneticallyupon a disk marksthe developmentaltrailof a project.
As the tools change so does the message.

6. Outcomesof The DigitalCinema

In a posthumouswork, TheLaws of Media23MarshallMcLuhanlaid out a percep-
tual frameworkto discoveraspects of the natureof any new media. The laws are in
fact four powerfulquestions.They are:
1. Whatdoes the new media enhance?
2. Whatdoes the new media obsolesce?
3. Whatdoes the new media retrievethatwas previouslyobsolesced?
4. What does the new media become, or flip back into, when pushed to an
extreme?
These powerful questions can be utilized to uncover contours of the new
aesthetic.McLuhan'sFour Laws focus inquiryinto the areas of process, context,
implication, and change. It is in precisely these areas where the relationship
between technology and cultureis to be found. It is at this level, not at the level of
questioningwhich processingchip to utilize, that the significantimplicationsof a
new system, aestheticor technologic, are to be found.24
Digital Cinema ENHANCES individual and loosely coupled productionand
disseminationsystems. As software substitutesfor hardwarein Digital Cinema,
considerablesavings are realized. With some exceptions, it is generally true that
software is cheaper than the hardwareit replaces. In this new context Digital
Cinema technology becomes a studio in a box ratherthan a complex of build-
ings on a lot. Accordingly,Digital Cinematechnology is affordableby individuals
ratherthan solely by organizations.This has implicationsfor the entire economic
structureof moving image making.For one it facilitatesthe existence of cinema as
a non-commercialprocess. The resultis technology diffusionon a wide basis.
Enhanceddiffusionis a generalcharacteristicof computing.Takenas a whole,
computersare the only information/communication/media technology where the
374 ROGERB. WYATT

means of production,at a professional level, is widely available to the general

public. This is markedlydifferentfrom video, for example, where 35mm motion
picturecamerasor one inch VTRs, professionalequipment,are utilized to record
the programs that find their way on to VHS cassettes for home viewing. In
computing,the machinethatis used to play a computergame is the same machine
that can be used to write a computer game. Mainframesare not necessary to
generatethe code for programsthatrun on micros. The notion of cottage industry
is restored.Thoughnow it is electronicand digital in its nature.The digital atelier
of the artistbecomes a reality.
Digital CinemaOBSOLESCESthe industrialorganizationof the image making
industry. Entrepreneurialtechnical development has eliminated the powers of
the broadcastand laboratorypriesthood.Hierarchiesare flattenedand gateways
reduced. Individual rather than corporate self-expression is enhanced. Digital
Cinemaobsolesces the priesthoodof "experts"in moving image production.Many
technological art forms, such as film and broadcasttelevision, contain gates and
gate keepers.This characteristicis determinedby theirindustrialparadigmderived
process and structure.Electronictechnologyis informedby an emergentparadigm
thatfavorsheterarchyand non-linearityover hierarchyand linearity.
Digital Cinema RETRIEVES the world view of the animator.Animation,
contains a wealth of possibilities for surrealism,abstraction,and hyper-reality.
Digital Cinemafuses the illusion of film and video photorealismwith the abstrac-
tion of animation.Digital Cinemaretrievesthe animator'stechniqueof rotoscoping
where the artisttracesthe contoursof the filmed image in the process of creatinga
new animatedimage. In the context of Digital Cinema,OskarFischinger'snotion
of the motionpaintingattainsits most completerealization.25Earlyfilm was popu-
lated by pioneers,who are those who dreamedwith open eyes. Todaythey return.
Digital Cinema when PUSHED TO AN EXTREME flips back into reality.
Virtualreality.Computingtechnology offers the possibility to develop the means
to easily create and view a 3D stereo image. Thus the viewer sees Digital Cinema
from within the image space. ExtremeDigital Cinemabecomes the realizationof
BusterKeaton'sbrilliantmeditationon cinematicform, "SherlockJr.",26 wherethe
hero (played by Keaton) venturesinto the projectedfilm image. By enteringthe
screen image, he experiencesthe realityof visions thatare in the projectedimages
of cinema.
Not only does Digital Cinema, when pushed to an extreme, facilitate the
creationof new and personalimages of reality,it affects other informationtech-
nology systems as well. As Internetevolves, by means of fiber optic potential
and researcherinspiration,ever increasingin capacity,the Net becomes a pulsing
web of images composed of numerous individual realities coupled with the ability
to easily share those realities. The outcome becomes the realization of Gibson's
notion of cyberspace.27 Thus when coupled with telecommunications, Digital
Cinema creates a visual bazaar populated with new voices. A chorus sings in
cyberspace.
THE EMERGENCEOF A DIGITALCINEMA 375

The implicationsof these observationslead one to the conclusion that Digital

Cinema,as a process, facilitatesincreasedexpressivepotentialfor the independent
artist and small group, ratherthan for the large commercial organization.The
individual emerges as the primarycreator of cinematic works. Francis Coppola
comments:
To me the greathope is that now these little eight millimetervideo recorders,
and stuff, have come out, some, just people, who normally wouldn't make
movies are gonna be making them. Suddenly,one day, some little fat girl in
Ohio is gonna be the new Mozart and make a beautiful film with her little
father's(sic) camcorder.And for once the so-called become an artprofession-
alism aboutmovies will be destroyed.Forever.And it will reallybecome an art
form. That'smy opinion.28
Massive leaps in technologicaldevelopmentlend to massive rearrangementsof
the humancontext.
Digital Cinemadeindustrializescinema. These observationscan be seen in the
context of a deep divergencein thinkingthat accompaniestechnologicaldevelop-
ment and its applications.One school of thoughtholds that innovationallows us to
do what we arecurrentlydoing only "better","faster",and "easier".This is change
viewed from the establishedcenter,the statusquo. It is a view of change defined
only by the context of the present.
The other school of thought maintains that the new allows us to undertake
completely different activities. This is change when viewed from the fringe, far
from the center.It's a view of the futurethat contains a futurenot just a past. The
pace of the rate of change can be monitoredby examiningthe rateof passage that
an idea takes in its journeyfrom the fringe to the center.
The notion that Digital Cinemadeindustrializescinema is a observationbased
in the futureratherthanthe present.It assumesthatchange altersthe presentrather
thanmerely extendingit indefinitelyinto the future.

7. Probes Into The Image Of Digital Cinema

These observationsserve not to definethe look of Digital Cinema,but to providea
palette of possibilities as to what it might be like. The concept of Digital Cinema
resonates with haiku, abstraction,and magical reality. The possibilities of non-
realistas well as enhancedrealistmovingimages has onlyjust begunto be explored
in the digitalrealm.The conceptsof collage, andjuxtapositiondominateratherthan
the illusion of realismthat informsmost film and video. The world of oil paint on
canvas merges with the world of electron upon screen. The new image resonates
with metaphoricalinspirationdrawnfrommedievalpainting,icons, andideograms.
This observationis anotherform of McLuhanesqueretrieval.The numerousspin-
ning, flipping,and tumblinglogos on contemporarytelevision are one example of
this observation.Conceptuallythey arenot far removedfrom the medievalicons of
376 ROGERB. WYATT

the EasternOrthodoxChurch.Both are likeness and symbolic representationsof

largerconcepts. One though,is a representationof faith,the otherof commerce.
Fantasticmovementwith the viewer'sperspectivehurtlingacrossvast distances
accompaniedby perpendicular,high speed turnsthat defy the laws of gravity are
characteristicsof Digital Cinemamovement.
Scenes often don't change by cuts or othertransitions.Insteadthey transform.
Metamorphosis,whetherby morphingor by othermeans,drivesthe imageryacross
time to the next progressionor sequence.
Digital Cinemaprovidesthe ability to decouple backgroundsfrom foreground
objects and figures. Everythingcan float forming a softreality.Images and back-
groundsfade on and off. They can shift forwardsand backwardsin time. Digital
Cinemafavorsthe abstract.It enhancesellipticalnarrativewith multipleand inter-
weaving time progressions.Digital Cinemacalls into questionthe deep structural
patternof shot-transition-shotthat is the bedrock of American classical cinema.
These techniquesmove Digital Cinemainto the realmof non-linearity.While non-
linear, Digital Cinema can be narrative.Perhapsa chaos theory of images lies in
wait.
A comment regardingtext and its special place in communicationis in order.
Digital Cinema is a value added componentwhen attachedto text. In the context
of Digital Cinema, the graphic attributesof text are enhanced.Text is a graphic
element as well as a literary symbol system. Text becomes sculpturalupon the
digital screen. The trend is towardsletteringthat is metallic, embossed, carved,
and moves. It is letteringthatcalls attentionto its shape and its physical attributes.
It is similarto text upon monuments.This type of text resonateswith text in comic
strips as well. As with the funnies and monuments,Digital Cinema, emphasizes
the graphic qualities of text. However as opposed to any printedtext, including
comics, Digital Cinematext leaves the staticqualitiesof pedestalandpage behind.
It becomes animated,moving upon an electric screen.Digital cinema text is most
fully exploited, conveying meaning, with the minimumamount of words on the
digital screen. It is hardto read a paragraphof tumblingtext. Thus haiku, with its
extreme compressionof meaning, is a more appropriateliterarystyle for text in
motion.

8. Implications of Digital Cinema For Narrative Fiction

On the whole, animationhas tended to be dominatedby painting,while film and
video have tendedto be dominatedby drama.Digital Cinemamergesthe two influ-
ences. As the sum is invariablygreaterthanits parts,the results are extraordinary.
The sum of these two influencesis the visualizationof a magicalreality.The Digital
Cinemaistpaints upon the electroniccanvaswith brushescontainingnot paint but
charactersand places. How this is accomplishedis explainedbelow.
Digital Cinemafacilitatesportrayingthe extraordinarywithin the ordinary.As
well the fantasticbecomes ordinary.Forexample,by meansof cutting,duplicating,
THE EMERGENCEOF A DIGITALCINEMA 377

andpastingaspectsof an image of a few people walking, an entirecrowd,clogging

a rush hour street can be created from original images of just a few people. By
means of utilizing the computerprincipleof, do once-use many, a common street
scene can be createdwherenone was before. Cut andpaste,cut andpaste. Creating
an illusion of a prosaicrealityis much more fantasticthancreatinga space station
in a far off galaxy.Thus, Digital Cinemafavorsmagical reality.

9. Implicationsof DigitalCinemaFor Documentary

As we have seen, Digital Cinemacan representthe world of fact. Scientificvisual-
ization is an example of this. However the implicationsof Digital Cinema are to
be found at a deeper level. The arrivalof Digital Cinemamarksthe end of an era
when the televised moving image was equatedautomaticallywith objectivetruth.It
also marksthe retrievalof the medievalsensibilitywhere images were only loosely
coupled with reality.Insteadimages of the Middle Ages told metaphoricaltruths.
Digital Cinema returnsus to that time. It moves moving imagery away from the
notion of cinema verite (film truth)towardsa notion of the overt presence of the
handof the artistwho interpretsandshapesmeaningat the level of image elements.
This does not melt fact into fantasy. Digital Cinema facilitates commentary
upon non-visual,abstractsubjects.A problemwith the cinematicimage in its film
and video contextshas been its lack of introspection.Cinema,in its film and video
manifestations,likes the surfaces of action. This is true of both fiction and non-
fiction. It is a truism of screen writing to portraycharacterdevelopmentthrough
action.This sensibilitycarriesover into the film of fact.
Broadcastnews likes movement.Drama and ratings are to be found in action
news images. Howeverpolitics and economics are more thanphysical movement.
Concepts,ideas, theories,and perspectivesplay crucialroles. These abstractideas
are hardto portraythroughaction alone. The photo-op with accompanyingnarra-
tion has been one standardresponse.They providevideo images, howeverbanalto
representa tradeagreementor a diplomaticinitiative.The photo opportunitywith
its generic images of men in suits shakinghands is a far greaterrepresentational
fantasy and abstractionthan the Digital Cinemarenderingof a moving pert chart.
These hand shaking sequences are so interchangeablethat their narrationscan be
exchanged without any majorloss of meaning. In this context the moving image
adds little of value to the meaningof the sequence.The narrationcontainsmost of
the informationcontent.However,Digital Cinemawith moving images composed
of symbols and images will effectively convey the sequence, relationships,and
outcome of any public affairsevent in a mannerthat adds value to any narration.

10. GettingOn-lineWithThe New Paradigm:ImplicationsFor Theory

The currentsituationis one wherethe potentialfor digitalmoving image practiceis
in advanceof conventionalcinematictheory.The theoreticalbasis of filmmaking
378 B.WYATT
ROGER

has been developed over a seventy year period from the late nineteenthcentury
until the mid sixties with a few extensions since. This body of theoryis losing its
abilities to describe cinema, let alone predictwhat good cinema will look like.29
It is time for a new aesthetic. Digital Cinema requires a new theory base that
allows and accounts for the new fluidity of mutual causality, non-linearity,and
metamorphosis.One that is based upon the values found in the paradigmof the
Age of Information.The Eisensteiniantheoryof the collision of images, a Hegelian
derived process of arrivingat meaning within moving images though dialectic,
has reached its limits.30The rigid notions of Hitchcockiancinema with its rigid
hierarchialplanningand controlof the design and productionprocess is at an end.
These methodscannotaccountfor, let alone describe,the complexityof the digital
image. It is time to move forward.
In periodsof transitionthe new is definedin the contextof the old. Currentlyour
cultureis in such a period.MarshallMcLuhanobserves,"Whenfaced with a totally
new situation,we tend always to attachourselvesto the objects,to the flavorof the
most recent past. We look at the present througha rear-viewmirror.We march
backwardsinto the future."31However as innovationprogresses, the dissonance
between the old theoreticalframeworkand the currentsituationbecomes increas-
ingly apparent(Kuhn, 1970; Burke, 1985). This is just as trueof aestheticsystems
as it is of scientifictheories.In times of rapidsymbolic changethe languageof the
old aestheticcannotadequatelyconvey the concepts of the emergentaesthetic.As
a cinematicexample, of what use is to referto an image as a special effect, when
the entireprojectis a special effect? In the new context the termcannotadequately
describe.Morphingis not merely a special effect in Terminator2: JudgementDay
(1991), it is a centralexpressiveelement of film. Thereisn't enoughdifferentiation
in the term special effect.
The characteristicsof the emergentInformationParadigmhave been described
by Schwartz andOgilvy.32They identifiedseven majorcharacteristicsthatformthe
structureof the new paradigm.They are: indeterminate,mutual causal, morpho-
genic, heterarchic,holographic,complex, and engaged perspective.A full discus-
sion of these concepts, which is beyond the scope of this paper,can be found in
the sourcesidentifiedin this endnoteas well the previousone.33Giventhe position
thatthereis a directrelationshipbetweenparadigmsand aesthetics,which this text
argues, it follows that the characteristicsof the InformationParadigmshould be
reflectedin the aestheticsof information,of which Digital Cinemais a part.
The characteristicsthat Schwartzand Ogilvy describecan be found within the
discourseon moving images as well:
Scott Bartlett,a videographerprominentin the sixties and seventies observed,
"Metamorphosisis the main thing you can do with video that you can't with
film, but video plus computerscould do it even better."34
Nam June Paik, a preeminentvideo artistsaid, "Indeterminismand variability
are the underdevelopedparametersin the optical arts, though they have been
the centralproblemsin music for the last two decades."35
THEEMERGENCE
OFA DIGITAL
CINEMA 379

BrianEno producer,musician,andvideo artistcomments,"Whatit [hypertext]

suggests is the possibility of a text not begin a single sequenceof thoughts,but
a community of thoughts.It is one of the things that are really changing the
way people are thinking about culture.Remixing is another.The populararts
are so far aheadof the fine artsin this respect.There'sno fine artequivalentto
remixing as far as I know,no equivalentto the concept of the diffuse artist."36
As the aesthetics of Digital Cinema emerge, the possibility is quite high
that the other characteristicsreflective of Schwartz and Ogilvie's new paradigm
elements,will revealthemselves.Equallypossible is the intriguingnotionthataddi-
tional characteristics,in additionto the original seven, will manifest themselves.
Aesthetics can announcenew paradigmsas well as reflectthem.
The new aestheticof Digital Cinemawill reflect the movementfrom the clock
of Newton to the clock of Dali.

The screenflickers,
Images pulse,
And Pixels dance.

Notes
1
Godard,Jean-Luc(Director).(1960). Le Petit Soldat [Film]. Paris:Societe Nouvelle de Cinema.
2 Weiner,Norbert.(1967). TheHuman Use of HumanBeings. NY: Avon Books, 25.
p.
3 Youngblood,Gene ExpandedCinema.NY: E. P. Duttonand Co., Inc. 1970. p. 67.
4 Wees, William C. (1992). LightMoving in Time.Berkley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, pp. 11-
13.
5 McLuhan,Marshalland QuentinFiore. (1967). TheMediumIs TheMassage. New York:Bantam,
p. 76.
6 Galassi, Peter.Before Photography.New York:The Museumof Modem Art, 1981. p. 12.
7 Ibid. Galassi, p. 12.
8 C. W. Ceramplaces the firstpublic screeningof a motion pictureat this location on this date. C.
W. CeramTheArchaeologyof the CinemaNY: Harcourt,Brace, and World.1965, p. 150.
9 "Mon frere, en une nuit, avaitinvente el cinematorgraphe." Auguste Lumieretells us of how one
night in a dream, the idea of motion pictures came completely to his brotherLouis, in a flash of
inspirationwithin a dream.Ceramp. 149. In footnote 17 on that page, Ceramcomments upon the
powerfulsymbolism in the birthof cinema, a dreammachineborn in a dream.
10
Briggs, Asa, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Vol.II: The Golden Age Of
Wireless.London:OxfordUniversityPress 1965, p. 535.
11 The scene is taken from: Wyatt, Roger B. (Digital Cinemist). (1990). The Juggler Juggles, a
Digital Cinemaetude [Digital Cinema].Emporia,KS: The Studio of Roger B. Wyatt.
12 Perhapsthis is why television engineersjokingly say thatNTSC (NationalTelevision Standards
Committee)standsfor Not The Same Color.
13 It is useful to note thatTolouseLautrecneverused more thaneight colors in any of his posters.He
turnedtechnicallimitationsinto artisticopportunities.This approachcan be utilized with all imaging
technologies includingcomputing.
14 Earlytitles include L'Arriveed'un trainen gare (The trainarrivesin the station),Lumieres1896,
TheSea Wavesat Dover, Birt Acres 1896, GolfingExtraordinary-5Gentlemen,Birt Acres 1896, and
Trafficin the Alexanderplatz,Max Skladanowsky1896.
380 ROGERB. WYATT

15
Lindner,James in Computers,New Technologyand Aniamtion moderatedby James Lindner,
with John Lasseter,Tina Price, and Carl Rosendahl.In Storytellingin Animation.John Canemaker
ed., Los Angeles: The AmericanFilm Institute,1988, p. 60.
16 Friedhoff,RichardMarkand WilliamBenzon. Visualization:TheSecond ComputerRevolution.
NY: Abrams, 1989.
17 The descriptionis taken from: Wyatt, Roger B. (Digital Cinemist). (1993). The Songs of Steel
[Digital Cinema].Emporia,KS: The Studio of Roger B. Wyatt.
18 Morphingis the digital effect where one image metamorphosizesinto another.Examplescan be
found in Terminator2: JudgementDay (1991) andBlackand White(1992), a music video by Michael
Jackson.The motion pictureindustrytermfor these effects is CGI (ComputerGraphicImage).
19 Gilder, George F. (1989) Microcosm:The QuantumRevolutionin Economics and Technology.
New York:Simon and Schuster,p. 17.
12 Wyatt,Roger B. (Producer-Director).(1991). InformationTechnology,Class Three: Video:it's
Not Just TelevisionAnymore[Video]. Emporia,KS: EmporiaState University.
21 The Video Toasteris a productmanufacturedby Newtek, Inc. formerlyof Topeka,KS. It is a
hardware/softwarecombinationthat replicatesthe functions of a video switcher and facilitates the
creationof digital video effects. The Toasterreplaces$50 000 worthof hardwarewith $2 000 worth
of hardwareand software.It is an excellent example of Gilder'sobservation.
22 Computerhardwareis an exception to this observation.Computersare known as the universal
machines.They are multi-purposein theirfunction.Computermemorysupportsevery kind of appli-
cation thatruns on the machines.It enhances all endeavors,notjust one specializedtask.
23 McLuhan,MarshallandEric McLuhan.TheLaws ofMedia: TheNew Science. Toronto:Univer-
sity of TorontoPress. 1988, p. 45.
24 The question of which processor to use is an importantone but in its proper order. It is a
tertiaryquestion that will be easily answered once the questions of context, implication, and goal
are answered.All too often the questionof what to get is substitutedfor the tougherthinkingthatis
requiredto answer the other questions.All too often superficialresults are derivedfrom this sort of
superficialthinking.
25 OskarFischinger'sMotion PaintingNo. 1 (1947) is a cinematic masterpieceof abstraction.In
order to achieve a ten minute film where a paintingcomposed itself in time and space, Fischinger
paintedon glass for months.He would apply a brushstroke,then expose a frameof film. At twenty
four frames per second a ten minute work contains 14 400 separateframes. Though beautiful,the
complexity of the technique becomes a barrierto creation. This film defines the limits of human
capacityregardingthis technique.Furtheraestheticadvancesfor this techniquerequiredigital inter-
vention. Digital Cinema.
26 Keaton,Buster (Director).(1924). SherlockJr [Film]. Hollywood, CA: MetroPictures.
27 "The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade
games," said the voice-over, "in early graphics
programs and militaryexperimentation with cranialjacks." On the Sony, a two-dimensionalspace
war faded behind a forest of mathematicallygeneratedferns, demonstratingthe spacialpossibilities
of logarithmicspirals;cold blue militaryfootage burnedthrough,lab animalswiredinto test systems,
helmets feeding into fire controlcircuitsof tanksand war planes. "Cyberspace.A consensualhallu-
cination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operatorsin every nation, by children being
toughtmathematicalconcepts ... A graphicrepresentationof dataabstractedfrom the banksof every
computerin the humansystem. Unthinkablecomplexity.Lines of light rangedin the nonspaceof the
mind, clustersand constellationsof data.Like city lights receding ..."
"What'sthat?"Molly asked, as he flippedthe channel selector.
"Kid'sshow."A discontinuousflood of images as the selector cycled. "Off,"he said to the Hosaka.
Gibson, William,Neuromancer,NY: The BerkleyPublishingGroup 1984, p. 51.
28 Bahr,Fax (Director).(1992). Hearts Of Darkness:A FilmmakersApocalypse [Film].Hollywood,
CA: Paramount.
 OFA DIGITAL
THEEMERGENCE CINEMA 381
29 The
developmentof cinematic theory can be seen as the progressionof a four stage develop-
mentalmodel:

Stage One: PrimativePeriod (1895-1910). A period in which the cinema struggles to find a
voice. The basic elements of cinematiclanguageare developed;ie the close-up, dissolve, etc.
Stage Two:Classic Period (1914-1960). In which the new cinematic language is developed,
extended, and refined. Hitchcock, Eisenstein, Ford, Griffith, and Lang are a few directors,
among many, who representthis period. A linear Hegelian, dialectic approachto narrativity
characterizesthe period.
Stage Three:Modem Period(1960-present). Characterizedby the growthof multipleaesthetic
schools, includingthe FrenchNew Wave,the CinemaVeritemovement,andthe New American
Cinema.These schools questionedthe aestheticconventionsof the classic period and revital-
ized cinematic language by extendingthe range of aesthetic possibility.The redefinitionand
utilizationof the jump cut is an example of aestheticinnovationof the period.

The movementto non-linearityis characterizedby the following exchange:

Georges Franju(French filmakerof the Classic Period): "Movies should have a beginning, a
middle, and an end."
Jean-LucGodard(leadingFrenchfilmakerof The FrenchNew Wave):"Certainly,but not neces-
sarily in thatorder."
The exchangeis to be found in The OxfordDictionaryof ModernQuotations,OxfordUniversity
Press, 1991, p. 91.

Stage Four:Digital Cinema(emergentat present).The periodwhich this paperexamines.

30 The Eisentiniannotion is thatthe meaningof one shot
plus the meaningof anothershot equals a
new meaning based upon the collision or synthesis of the two. Two of his works Film Form(1949)
and Film Sense (1942) explainhis theories.
31 MarshallMcLuhanand Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the Message. NY: Bantam Books, Inc.
1967, p. 74.
32 Schwartz, Peter and James Ogilvy (1979). The Emergent Paradigm: Changing Patterns of
Thoughtand Belief. Menlo Park,CA: SRI, Values and Lifestyles Program.
33 Achleitner, Herbert, and Hale, Martha (1988). Information Transfer:Educating Information
Professionals in the Emergent Paradigm. In Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice,
(pp. 1-12). Proceedings of the First Joint Meeting between the Association Internationale des
Ecoles de Sciences de I'Information(AIESE) and the Association for Library and Information
Science Education(ALISE),Montreal(Quebec), Canada,May 25-27, 1988.
Achleitner,Herbert,and Wyatt,Roger (1992). Visualization:A New ConceptualLensfor Research.
In Jack D. Glazier and Ronald J. Powell (eds.), QualitativeResearch in InformationManagement
(pp. 21-36). Englewood, CO: LibrariesUnlimited.
34 Youngblood,Gene ExpandedCinema.NY: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc. 1970, p. 317.
35 Youngblood,Gene ExpandedCinema.NY: E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc. 1970, p. 303.
36 Prendergast,Mark Time to pick and Mix. New Statesman & Society 4 Sept 1992 Vol 5, #218,
p. 32.