Saturday , August 31 , 2002

Today I had some time to put together a preliminary layout study. The trick here is getting Photoshop to roll over. I probably should be using a less complicated image-wrangling program, but you know us computer jocks, half the fun is being stumped. At the end, we compromise, or we feel very good with ourselves for whipping these outlaw chunks of software into shape. But mostly we compromise.

I'm very intregued by the whole virtual artwork concept. My medium does not actually exist; it's an abstraction of electron flow deep in my computer and through the Internet. Unlike sculpture or paints, I can make infinite, quality copies of the same piece of work.

Which is interesting. Because our perception of any medium is ultimately converted into a similarly subtle flow of electrons in our own brains. Could virtual media create an image that could move directly from the computer to the brain?

This question belongs in a scientific category called cybernetics. The concept of interfacing with machines has become unavoidable in today's society of computers. Any computer programmer will tell you that creating the interface is the most difficult of challenges when writing a program (which is exactly why us computer jocks have so much trouble getting our stuff to work - but we're not complaining).

Half of the equation is computer representation in our human world. What used to be a series of punch-cards or a row of lights quickly evolved into simple teletype output, and eventually the graphic-rich operating systems of today. Thanks to the advent of three-dimensional imagery and voice-synthesis technology, we will soon have animated characters giving hardware reports from behind our computer screens. The distant future most likely will be more exciting than any Star Trek episode could possibly be. Fact is stranger than fiction.

On the other hand, we must deal with the human-machine interface, as well. The first computers demanded the user to speak in no other language than the computer's proprietary language (punch-cards, machine code, etc.). Object oriented programming languages have given us the ability to make a single interface work on many different kinds of computers -- standardization is still far from complete, but there is at least a common knowledge that exists for using computers. Speech analysis and perhaps even direct brain-computer interfaces are tomorrow's Windows.

And things will still be impossible to use.

Subterrainea is an online-comic experiment for the technophile generation. The comic is currently in its early [experimental] stages, so please check back often for updates.

You're invited to a forum discussion.

Feedback is always welcome ewokker@yahoo.com.