Final Paper & Final Bibliography

Kenneth DeRivera

Media Theory and Design 2

12-20-2010

Anime Influences U.S. cartoons

I am a fan of anime, also known as Japanimation, which is from Japan. Anime is the term used for the Japanese style of animation that is based on the “Manga” (comic book) style. Many popular anime shows come from manga. Over the years as anime has become more popular, I have noticed that it seems to have had an Influence on some of the cartoons that we see in the U.S. The difference between anime and cartoons is that anime has always been, in recent history, better drawn, had better presentation, and has gradually developed to capture an audience of all ages. Cartoons have always been, about 90%, simple, one directional, light hearted presentation's geared to children and preteen audiences.

First of all, anime usually has a very wide variety of colors in it whereas cartoons often only have bright colors in it. Second, while cartoons have characters that look somewhat human but often only have three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot. Anime is drawn differently, the characters look more human. Third, is the story or plot of anime and cartoons. Anime usually have well written sometimes seemingly completely unique plots that are usually executed very well. Cartoons on the other hand, often have a main goal for the characters, but they have the characters doing something different in order to reach that goal in every episode. Fourth, anime has music that helps convey the mood of a scene. Cartoons often have background music that is kind of just some sound effect repeated and altered in a way that gives it rhythm. These are just a few of the differences between anime and cartoons. I will go further into the ways that anime has influenced cartoons in the U.S. Anime has gradually seeped into American cartoons influencing them in a number of ways. To Point this out I have reviewed below three examples of that influence.

This series features the adventures of the Dark Knight of Gotham City as he battles the evil that inhabits the city with occasional help of Robin and Batgirl in stories that are faithful to the comics in spirit and tone. According to "batmantas.com" the story of batman goes like this. As a boy, Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents' gruesome murder by an unknown gunman and vowed revenge against all who broke the law. As a young adult, he worked to fulfill this vow by traveling the world to learn from masters of various defense disciplines. Eventually he became an exceptional escape artist, master of martial arts, acrobatics, science, technology, boxing, disguises, and criminology and detective skills. Having perfected his skills, Bruce Wayne is prepared to embark on his mission. But one thing eludes him -- the ability to strike fear in the hearts of the criminals he will confront while protecting his true identity.

One night, in his father's study, Bruce Wayne relives the horror of his parents' death. Suddenly, in a terrifying flash of blackness, the window is shattered by the striking image of a black bat. In that moment, Bruce Wayne's destiny is determined. He would become the night... he would become the Batman. Bound by his personal code of justice, Batman resolves to never kill an enemy. Instead, he relies on his physical prowess and mental superiority to bring his enemies to justice.

During the day, Bruce Wayne is CEO of Wayne Enterprises and maintains the public image of a millionaire playboy. In fact, Bruce goes to great lengths convincing others that the self-centered socialite is his true self. Bruce Wayne is the disguise, Batman is the true personality.

The Animated Series finds Gotham City in urban chaos, dark and gloomy as the criminals who inhabit it. The city cries out for justice -- not the kind that comes from the police, but from a man who wears a mask. Batman is Gotham City's "Dark Knight" and will stop at nothing to restore order to the city and protect its citizens.

Another of the differences between anime and cartoons is the animation. In cartoons when a character reacts to something like surprise, the character will move in an almost freakish way. The hair on their head will stick up, their body will get taller and thin and their eyes will get really big. So basically, their body becomes much distorted. In anime, when a character is surprised, or does any kind of facial expression, they usually have a reaction that looks more realistic and human then in cartoons. For example, a character’s eyes will quickly widen when surprised and then go back to normal, just like how a real person might react to being surprised. Well in the case of Batman: The Animated Series, the animation was done very well. Characters moved life like. Their faces followed rules when expressing emotions. Rather than distorting their faces in some freakish way, they actually react in such a way that looks almost completely human.

The most successful of the "Dark Deco" animated series in the U.S. of the 1990's was Warner Bros. "Batman: The Animated Series”. The dynamic series spawned a new technique in animation using black backgrounds that would eventually be dubbed "Dark Deco." Dark Deco gave every scene within Gotham an extraordinary look, redefining the image of the city. Batman: The Animated Series was one cartoon in particular that definitely broke away from using a majority of bright colors.

Batman: The Animated Series is a cartoon that used music to set the mood, convey emotions and had an opening theme song that was so cinematic that it made you feel like you were watching the cartoon from inside of a movie theater. For the people that watched Batman the animated series, if someone were to bring up the subject of the music in it, most people will think of the opening. It is very captivating.

In keeping with anime influence, character development rang true throughout the series as we see in the review that follows. This is an excellent example of anime style drawing in U.S. cartoons. The series had all the usual characters and even created some new ones. The most obvious change was that of the Dick Grayson/Robin character in the "new" 90's costume, becoming a hipper more adult representation which the character has never seen. This is the Robin that I grew up watching on Batman: The Animated Series.

While a great deal of Dick's past remained the same, his Robin costume was updated to a more modern look of the 1990s (with short sleeves and long pants), exactly like Tim Drake's original Robin outfit. In addition, Dick was given a more mature personality to match the darkness of the series. The episode Batgirl Returns establishes that Dick and Barbara Gordon attend the same college and that they have a fairly mutual romantic attraction to each other, but neither one knows that the other is secretly Robin and/or Batgirl, respectively (despite having collaborated in Shadow of the Bat, albeit without getting along), and their relationship is one of the plot elements of Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.

Another significant change was the transformation of the many villains. From the ever-popular Joker to the more obscure Clock King, the series displayed each villain's unique personality to perfection and introduced new characters, including the popular Ms. Harley Quinn. Although she wasn't born into the Batman universe until the seventh episode of the series, Harley quickly overshadowed such long time favorites as Catwoman and Poison Ivy.

New villains such as Red Claw, Kyodai Ken, Tygrus, and the Sewer King were invented for the series, but too little acclaim. On the other hand, Joker's accomplice Harley Quinn, Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya, and the sociopathic vigilante Lock-Up achieved such popularity that they became characters in the comics. Older villains that were lesser known from the comics, such as Count Vertigo, the Mirror Man, and the Clock King, were adapted for the series in both the way they looked and acted.

Aside from creating characters that crossed over into the main line of DC Comics, several of the series' reinterpretations were carried over as well. Mr. Freeze was redone to emulate the series' tragic story, the success of which actually compelled DC to bring the character back after "killing" him off some years earlier; Clayface was revised to be much more similar in appearance to his animated counterpart; Poison Ivy took on the slightly inhuman, green skin color she received in later episodes of the series; and Two-Face's double sided, black and white suit has become a common appearance for the character.

All characters received an update in The New Batman Adventures, having costumes, voices, mannerisms, and overall looks modified. The artwork and colors became sharper and somewhat more cartoonish.

In nearly all other media, including the comics, TV shows, and films, Bruce deliberately plays up his image as a vacuous, self-absorbed, and not-too-bright billionaire playboy. In the animated series, his character is instead treated more seriously. With attributes such as being assertive, intelligent, and actively involved in the management of Wayne Enterprises, without jeopardizing his secret identity, Bruce's personality builds upon the show's overall darker edge. For an example, in the episode "Eternal Youth", Bruce is shown angrily ordering one of his directors to cancel a secret deal with a timber company in the Amazon rainforest ("Shut it down, or you're gone!"). In addition, during the episode "Night of the Ninja", he revealed to reporter Summer Gleeson that he has some martial arts training, as the reporter previously researched that he once lived in Japan, though he later throws a fight with the ninja Kyodai Ken in front of Gleeson to disguise his prowess.

In the series, Batman used a variety of scientific items to pursue, subdue, and strike fear in the criminal element of Gotham City. I liked how all of Batman's gear doesn't seem too far into the realm of science-fiction. Instead it feels as though it were possible to obtain or create one of His gadgets if you had the right resources and money like he does.

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits, and is the next cartoon that I am going to talk about. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Furthermore, people known as Benders have the power and ability to control and manipulate the eponymous element of their nation using the physical motions of martial arts. The show’s creators based each Bending style on a style of real-world martial art, leading to visual differences in the techniques used by Waterbenders (tai chi chuan), Earthbenders (Hung Ga kung fu, for the most part), Firebenders (Northern Shaolin kung fu) and Airbenders (baguazhang). Each country is also associated with a season: autumn for the Air Nomads, winter for the Water Tribe, spring for the Earth Kingdom and summer for the Fire Nation.

At any given time, there is only one person alive in the world of Avatar who is capable of bending all four elements: the show's eponymous Avatar, the spiritual entity of the planet manifested in human form. When an Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into the next nation in the Avatar Cycle, in the order of the seasons. Legend holds the Avatar must master each bending art in seasonal order as well, starting with their native element. For the Avatar, learning to bend their opposite element can be extremely difficult; the example shown in the series is Aang's inability to stand his ground head-on while Earthbending, his Airbender training having placed emphasis on circling, approaching from new angles and adapting on the fly.

The Avatar possesses a unique power and ability called the Avatar State, which endows the Avatar with all the knowledge and abilities of all past Avatars and acts as a self-triggering defense mechanism, although it can be made subject to the will of the user through various methods, such as extensive trial and training. If an Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist. Through the ages, countless incarnations of Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony, and maintain world order. The Avatar serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, allowing him or her to solve problems that normal benders cannot.

It is closer to the realistic then cartoonish. Often times, people would mistake Avatar: The Last Airbender for anime, when in reality it is in fact U.S. made cartoon. When my sister first saw Avatar: the Last Airbender she also thought it was an anime, most people have to be told that to figure that out. The color usage here is very expansive. The shades range from very dark to very bright and utilize a range of shades in between. Like Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender was very cinematic, with music that drew you ever closer to the excitement. Here we have an interesting blend of anime type detail and the almost cartoonish.

Aang is the 12 year old fun-loving protagonist of the series who had been frozen in ice with his flying bison, Appa, for about 100 years. He is freed by a young Waterbender named Katara who later becomes his love interest. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. Aang is a reluctant hero trying to return balance to the world. Aang also has arrow tattoos on his forehead and limbs, something that was part of Airbender culture before they were wiped out. According to the show's creators in DVD extras the tattoos mark Aang as an airbending master and he is the youngest airbender in history to earn them. As the Avatar, Aang controls the elements and is tasked with keeping the Four Nations at peace. The show follows Aang's journeys to complete this task.

Just as there are anime that are inspired by manga, so too are there cartoons that are inspired by comic books, enter the animated series, "Teen Titans." The series in turn was influenced by anime in its presentation. Teen Titans was one of the first really popular cartoons in the U.S. that had many styles in it that were from taken from anime.

Another cartoon that has been influenced by anime is “Teen Titans.” Like anime, Teen Titans had an opening theme, although it is usually played in English. Teen Titans had another version of the opening song that was sung in Japanese that they would occasionally play instead of the English version. Also, occasionally during the series, there would be some kind of silly case sequence during which J-pop (Japanese pop music) or music very similar sounding would be played in the background. On different episodes, the series' theme song's lyrics alternate between English and Japanese, sung by the J-pop duo Puffy (called "Puffy AmiYumi" in the United States).

Teen Titan's animation style was greatly influenced by anime. Although more realistic then cartoons, many anime use somewhat cartoonish facial expressions for some characters when they are for example; shocked by something or get kind of mad. Often times when this happens, a certain amount of the detail to the character's face will be removed and then the character will make a face, like an exaggerated pout, or if they are mad, their head may swell up a little and turn red. This is what Teen Titans did.

Some fans of the comic book actually criticized the series for having a "childish nature". The Teen Titans were based on their DC Comic iterations, but the animation was primarily of a Japanese style.

The Teen Titans animated series had become very popular and even had several characters created specifically for the show. Some heroes like Mas Y Menos are a pair of hyper-active high-speed twins. When connected by holding hands, the Spanish-speaking heroes can reach super-sonic speeds! But knock them apart, and they are just normal teenage boys. "Mas Y Menos" - which translates as "more and less" - is an apt description for the super-speedy siblings. Next, the group of Timmy Tantrum, Teether and Melvin along with their mysterious 'imaginary' friend named Bobby. Bad guys such as XL Terrestrial an extra-terrestrial with an extra-large appetite for villainy! The size-changing XL Terrestrial studied at the sinister Hive Academy under the tutelage of Brother Blood - where he met other students who shared his taste for treachery. Then there is Billy Numerous who is able to create numerous copies of himself. There were several allies for the Titans that they created only for the show as well, like Red-X: Red X was actually Robin in disguise; He assumed the identity of Red X in an attempt to learn more about his arch-foe, Slade. But the plan backfired, and Robin almost lost the trust of his friends. Later, Red X mysteriously resurfaced. Someone had stolen the super-suit from Robin's safekeeping. Red X sought Xenothium - the rare dangerous chemical that powers the suit. The series got a few allies for the Titans created for it such as; The True Master: When Robin was defeated by the malicious martial artist Katarou, he embarked on a difficult quest to seek a mysterious, legendary teacher known only as ... The True Master. Traveling to Asia, Robin began his spiritual journey to the top of a mountain with a kindly old woman as a mysterious guide. Unknown to Robin, he was being followed by the sneaky Katarou as well. "There is an easy way up the mountain... and the right way." Whereas Robin chose the right way - besting the bear, snake and monkey - Katarou chose the easy way by following the boy wonder. Once atop the mountain, Robin defeated Katarou with the lessons he learned in his journey. Upon learning this, Robin deduced the kindly old woman as the True Master. And his training began in earnest. There were even a few characters they based on character that were in the comic books, but not the comic book characters themselves such as Hotspot. He's a human flame-thrower with a fiery temper to match! Hot Spot is based on the Teen Titan known as Joto in the comic book series.

In conclusion, anime has influenced cartoons made in the U.S. quite a bit. As anime has become more popular in the U.S. so has its style. In these many pages I have done my best to explain how anime or Japanimation has influenced U.S. cartoons and therefore cause some cartoons to become similar to anime and sometimes even be mistaken for anime. A prime example of these cartoons I have discussed here, they are; Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Teen Titans.

Final Bibliography

Books:

Napier, Susan Jolliffe. Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.

Ledoux, Trish. Anime Interviews: the First Five Years of Animerica, Anime & Manga Monthly (1992-97). San Francisco, CA: Cadence, 1997. Print.

Ledoux, Trish, Doug Ranney, and Fred Patten. The Complete Anime Guide: Japanese Animation Film Directory & Resource Guide. Issaquah, WA: Tiger Mountain, 1997. Print.

Websites:

"Art and Culture Japanese Animation and Its Influences on American Culture - Amazines.com Article Search Engine." Free Articles at Amazines.Com - Author Publishing and Free Article Database. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .

"Anime-influenced Animation." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

"Anime@Everything2.com." Welcome to Everything@Everything2.com. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

Batman The Animated Series. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

"Batman: The Animated Series." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

"The Difference between Japanese Animation and American Cartoon_百度知道." 百度知道――全球最大中文互动问答平台. Web. 15 Dec. 2010. .

"Avatar: The Last Airbender | Cartoon | Nicktoons.com." Nickelodeon Cartoons | Cartoon Games & Cartoon Videos | Nicktoons. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Avatar: The Last Airbender." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Batman: The Animated Series on TV.com." TV.com - Free Full Episodes & Clips, Show Info and TV Listings Guide. Web. 19 Dec. 2010. .

Batman The Animated Series. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Batman: The Animated Series." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Teen Titans (TV Series)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Titanstower.com: Teen Titans Animated Home." Titanstower.com. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. .

"Batman (TV Series 1992–1995) - IMDb." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 19 Dec. 2010. .

Article:

Redmond, Dennis. "Anime and East Asian Culture: Neon Genesis Evangelion." Quarterly Review of Film and Video 24.2 (2007): 183-88. Print.

Napier, Susan J. "The wonderful world of anime; Susan J. Napier comments on the American experience of contemporary Japanese animation." Look Japan Oct. 2003: 31. General OneFile. Web. 15 Dec. 2010.

New Media Art Final Paper

New Media Art

“New Media Arts is devoted to producing the highest possible quality scans, and photographs of paintings, drawings and other flat artwork.” Lynn, Lown. New Media Arts. http://www.nmarts.com/. I had always been interested in digital art, but I never knew there could be a career in it. In high school, I had a life changing decision to make: what would I major in, in college? As I began weighing my options and going through in my mind what I liked and what I didn’t like, I came up with a few questions for myself. A few careers that I could easily rule out were the average like doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, and careers of that nature. I’m not saying that anything is wrong with any one of those careers, but they were just not for me. I knew that I wanted to have a career that was fun, entertaining, and could someway be involved in any aspect of the entertainment industry. Knowing this, I knew that what ever I wanted to do had to be something that would be relevant down the road. I also took into account that we are in a time of economic hardships, and a solid paycheck is important. With this all in mind, I did research and came across different aspects of media.

From here, I was introduced to web and graphic design through a teacher at my high school. I found that part of designing sites was similar to playing around with sites like MySpace, and other sites that used HTML. I knew this was for me because I enjoyed Photoshop and creating digital images. I did more research on this field and found that one of the biggest aspects of it was relevancy. “But Trendsresearch.com reports that the profession is still in its adolescent phase, and for 2010 it's going to be a new era of web design. Monster.com charts a 26 percent growth rate in this field for the past year, which will continue to blossom for the coming year.” Tuggle, Kathryn. Fast Company. 1. Dec. 2010. http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2007/01/top_jobs_2007.html. Also, the Internet and its content are only going to continue to evolve, and become more complex as more technology is created. This may seem like a huge job for one to take on but someone has to do it. From here, I chose to accept the challenge and go in to interactive arts. A fairly new field in art and technology beacuse media art has expanded in so many different directions. So what exactly is New Media art? My definition of it is a category that involves art being created with new technology such as digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, computer robotics, and many others. With this whirlwind of new media come new programs to develop it. Origins of new media art go all the way back to moving photographic inventions like the zoetrope, praxinoscope, and the zoopraxiscope. This all came about in the nineteenth century. During the 60’s video art showed experiments of Name June, Paik, and also performances of Fluxus. In the late 80’s computer graphics and design, changed the way of interactivity through the World Wide Web.

The book “New Media Art” is broken up into themes that I found to be interesting. A few of the themes consist of computer art, collaboration, identity, and appropriation. This was interesting to me because all of these themes are things that are discussed in my art classes. They all relate to each other under the umbrella of how art affects media.

In 1982 a major software company, Adobe was created. Adobe focused on creative multimedia software products to aid the development of the new movement known as “new media art”. Adobe’s first products were called digital fonts. Shortly after this, Apple responded with a competing product, TrueType. Adobe and Apple continued to be competition for each other. Over the years Adobe has become what some would call the Mecca of creative software, creating software such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator and many others. Professional designers at well as companies use these programs. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”. Jobs, Steve. “Steve Jobs quotes” thinkexist.com. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/steve_jobs/. I applaud this statement by Steve Jobs because there can be so many misconceptions about what a digital designer exactly does. Although ones initial thought of a “designer” could be someone that adds color, text, style, and a certain look to something, this is not all that a designer does. Designers can also be programmers. Today, so many designers are forced to learn programming as well to be able to as Jobs puts it “make it work”. Adobe has become a multi-million dollar industry, and they are only going to continue to grow from here. Although Adobe will continue to compete with companies such as Apple, and Google, they have a pretty good chance at competing.

One of the other well-known companies when speaking about design is Apple. Apple was first established in 1976 in Cupertino, California. Over the last 30 years, Apple has grown into a multi billion-dollar industry. Just like Adobe Systems, Apple is hugely favored because of its graphic designs. Compared to most of the other computer companies like, Dell, Toshiba, and even Sony, Apple and their Mac computers have no competition when it comes to this. Apple also has its own line of products, a lot of them are free, like itunes, iLife, Logic Studio, iworks, and many others. This company is huge for new media artist. Depending on ones style and fit, Apple products may or may not be for them. Most designers do prefer Mac operating systems than any others though. Apple products are extremely user friendly, and usually tend to last a lot longer than other systems. For instance, Mac users find themselves spending less time troubleshooting their computers, and more time enjoying the great features they have to offer, as well as being productive with them. These things are imperative for not only designers, but also the everyday user. Everything from the engineering design, to the design of the program is nothing but amazing. I was more than impressed when I used my first macbook. I would never go back to a PC . For me as a designer, I need a machine that works well with me and can handle my heavy workload that I put on to it. Also I need a machine that responds well with the programs that I run on it. The new media designers that work at Apple really did their homework when it came to the users needs. One thing that I found interesting was that Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said that he realized where the “hot new careers and jobs” were going to be in the next decade. He pointed his finger right to the digital artist. The engineers that work on products that sell millions like the macbook, iphone, ipad, and the ipod. He knew exactly what the consumers wanted, and he delivered.

Interestingly, about ten years ago, if someone were to mention that a phone would operate off of only a touch screen, and have thousands of applications that ran on them, no one would believe it. Or that you could do just about anything on including check and respond to emails, no one would have believed it. That’s where new media artist come in. It would take a team of artist from this time of digital, and computer art and programming to design a phone with all of these key features. Josh. Mac of the Future. http://macofthefuture.com/2010/10/apple-changing-the-way-we-buy-changing-the-way-we-do-life/. Also, to say that one day, there would be a handheld computer that also operates off of a touch screen would have been ludicrous. New media artist have totally been the creators of the digital world that we live in today. Because of these artists, we as a society today have needs that were not even considered ten years ago. Primarily every American has to have a cell phone. On that cell phone there have to be certain features available or it wont be of any use. Of course it has to have email and applications, but more importantly is the design. The screen has to be large enough, bright enough, and all of the colors must show clearly and be at a high resolution. If a device is lacking these key features, the average American today will not even consider it. And why is that? New Media Designers have pushed the envelope. If one gadget has all of these bells and whistles, the next gadget that comes out after it has to have these bells and whistles, and more.

Another reason why new media art is so relevant is because of new technology. Within the last ten years so many new gadgets like the Ipad, phones, mp3 players, laptops, and many others have been created which call for new types of media to be created. Another thing that is great about new technology that come out is that it means more jobs are being created. “Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.” McLuhan, Marshall. Think exist. 1 Dec. 2010. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/new_media/. I enjoyed this statement because this expresses how significant new media has become. Everyday there is a new buzz about a new form of media in the works. “China Mobile is preparing to launch new upgrades for its favored smartphone operating system that it believes will help turn the tide in boosting the appeal of the company's 3G network.” PC World. Yahoo News. 3. Dec. 2010. http://news.yahoo.com/technology. Whether it is in The United States or in another country like China, new technology is everywhere. The world of technology speaks many different languages. A career in technology does not limit anyone as seen in this quote.

Another “perk” of new media art is being able to study technology that comes from Japan. Japans economic success comes from being so technologically advanced in areas such as engineering, manufacturing technology and, electronics. So how does this coincide with new media art? Well this is in fact new media art. Japan advances segue into new media that comes to the United States although many people would not like to admit it. For instance, “Japan today is establishing itself as more of a technology savvy country due to the emergence of new IT and Bio-te chnologies. Nano-technology is one of the most recent advances in Japanese innovations which has had an enormous affect on businesses in Japan as well as in other foreign nations. Nano-technology basically is a way in which we can use carbon nanotubes to convert larger technology into much smaller structures. This recent form of technology has been one of Japan’s most popular and innovative findings that have been a primary strength in their ability to come closer to becoming a more dominant force in the technological industry. Nano-technology is seeing more use in the development of equipment used by most businesses today. It is being used in computers, hardware circuits, televisions, phones, and other high-use products. Due to the recent success of Nano-technology, businesses are operating more efficiently and effectively. This is because more information can be obtained and installed in such hi-tech devices such as computers.

In conclusion, Japanese research continues to increase with regards to the success of this new form of technology that will inevitably enable Japan to produce more revenue.” Wikia Contributor. International Buisness Wiki. http://internationalbusiness.wikia.com/wiki/Japan%E2%80%99s_strength_in_providing_advances_in_technology. This is proof of how far New Media artist have become. These Nano-Technology systems are used in the Untied States today.

Another obsession that has become popular in the design and technology field are applications. Applications are programs that are designed to help the user perform tasks. Types of applications are processors, media players, games, and programs to help assist users accomplish a certain goal. Recently, applications are created to entertain people whether it is on phones, computers or other portable devices. The most popular applications are games, or applications that can assist the user in any way. “Because dining out can become cumbersome and the cost can quickly add up for those who frequently order take-out food or visit restaurants, most people prefer to make and eat the majority of their meals at home. Of course, making a meal that an entire household will enjoy is sometimes challenging to the home chef but with the android cooking and recipe applications in this article, it does not have to be that way.” ANDROIED APPS AND TECH NEWS. 1DEC. 2010. http://www.androidapps.org/. From this, it is evident that applications have been created for just about anything.

While new media art takes on aspects like the Internet, mobile devices, and computers, another form of art called Video art falls under this category as well. Video art was said to had been started by Nam June Paik, when he shot footage in 1965. Video art is interesting because opposed to visual art like cinema; video art explores video art itself. It does not usually contain actors and actresses. It simply relies on moving pictures. In relation to new media art, some look at it as being started by video art. Since most video art is images being transformed into different things, and has a more visual connotation, new media art could have possibly stemmed from this somehow. I have found through the website Videoart.net, that video art is indeed entertaining. The website hosts an annual festival every year for video artist to come and showcase their work. One of the statements made by a representative reads, “The festival aspires to shed new light on the definition of the video art genre by showcasing the work of ground-breaking contemporary video artists and experimental filmmakers from all over the world. This much-anticipated event will also feature a panel discussion with a distinguished group of professionals including gallery directors, art critics and online video sharing experts.” Video Art. 1 Dec. 2010. http://festival.videoart.net/. Although video art can seem like a pastime, it is still used today by artist and filmmakers.

One video artist as well as interactive artist Miroslaw Rogala, bases his works on the ideas of nature, and that relationship to humans. He uses motion and collages of music to create his visions. Most of his pieces are not the least bit strait forward in the message they are trying to convey. Rogala experiments with typography, as well as colors to help drive his point across to the viewers. In one of his videos, “Nature is leaving us”, he experiments with still images and home videos. What is interesting about this is that Rogala manipulates the frames, and adds motion to them. Also, the images are black and white, and Rogala adds a small boost of color to them making them a bit more interesting to look at. So how does Video art, and artist like Rogala relate with new media art?

“The most recent obvious technological advancements involve the computers Internet. While video-streaming on the Internet has proven to be an option, the infrastructure (e.g. broadband) required to sustain high quality video is not yet an affordable option for the typical consumer. Given the rate of recent technological advancement, it is not too ludicrous to expect this technology to become mainstream within a few years. As such, it is not unlikely that artists will choose to take advantage of the potential exposure possibilities of this new medium.” Lee, Ryan. New Media Art. 5. Dec. 2010. http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/New_Media_Art_-_Video_Art. New media involves a lot of motion in art. Not necessarily simple motion like flash, but something that is put together to tell some sort of a story. Something that a viewer has to actually take the time to see play all the way through, to understand the message the artist is trying to give. New Media Art as well as Video art is similar because they both embody the same characteristics. Motion being one of them, and a story line being another. “In discussing new media technologies, focus is often placed on the introduction of new technologies and facilitations, e.g. radio, television, personal computers and the Internet etc. However, in the case of video, applications of the medium, other than originally expected, have added to related technological advancements to re-qualify it as a new media.” Lee, Ryan. New Media Art. 5. Dec. 2010. http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/New_Media_Art_-_Video_Art. New media art is definitely taking the world by storm in ways that most people don’t even realize. It is something that everyone comes in contact with everyday. A quote from Wikipedia reads, “As the technologies used to deliver works of new media art such as film, tapes, browsers, software, and operating systems become obsolete, New Media art faces serious issues around the challenge to preserve artwork beyond the time of its contemporary production. Currently, research projects into New Media Art Preservation are underway to improve the preservation and documentation of the fragile media arts heritage.” This is an interesting theory about where New Media art is headed. I’m not sure that I agree but it’s interesting to hear other opinions.

Video Games As Art

Mark Anderson Page 1
12.1.2010
Final Paper

Video games, now over thirty years old have advanced from the two dimensional side scrollers all the way to a three dimensional space. From a side scrolling shoot 'um up to today’s fallout series which has one of the biggest game maps that you can explore right from the start. From what was a mostly single player experience to today's massive multiplayer online games that can have thousands of players online at one point, all able to communicate with one another from anywhere on the map. But what has concerned me is the fact that in recent years it has been discussed that video games are not a form of art. Having a good sense of where each side is coming from I will use various articles, web sources and books to show my belief that video games while a source of entertainment also prove to be a very intensive art form.
Taken from the side of a video game artist Brody Condon is said to be one of the foremost experts in video game art, having exhibits called Velvet-Strike and Adam Killer all around the world from New York to Amsterdam. In an interview with him in Video Games and Art Brody answers a few questions about what interested him in video game art. “How do you define video game art?” “the line between interesting cultural artefacts and intentional artistic production is completely blurry at this point. Just within the artworld we have seen machinima, online performances, pervasive gaming, console
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hacks, mods, ect., as well as traditional media like painting and sculpture incorporating elements from games and game culture.” (Clarke,85) While others believe that video games and art are completely different, Brody states he thinks that fine line has been blurred to the point where you cannot really tell where art begins and where it ends. An interesting theory that does not seem biased one way or another, this definition on video game leaves a lot for either side of the argument to go into. This quote may be the number one point that I believe why video games are not considered an art form and it could not be said better than in this book. “Every time a new technology provides a fresh medium in the art world it is met with a lack of respect, indifference, or indignation, and must go through an acceptance process by the art world.”(Clarke, 201) This is the process that I believe video games are going under and as time goes on it will be known as a legitimate art form. Clarke goes onto say how manipulated images on computers are not currently viewed as art either, Clarke believes that video games much like other forms of art such as photography, video art and cinema will struggle through this process before being accepted. Clarke tells about how cameras first started and how a painter would take hours to do one landscape scene, while a camera could do the very same thing in a matter of minutes. Clarke's entire seventeen page section consists of all the above mentioned arts and how they became accepted into the art community, with the last part on how video games are just beginning to take the first step to becoming the newest art form. Such as some of the newer Final Fantasy games which have started tackling bigger issues in game, such as death and the emotions related to that. “Another objective of art is to reach the audience in some way.” (Clarke, 206) Video
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games do that probably better than any other form of art with allowing the player to control the character. “A hindrance in the argument of video games as art is the lack of an efficient way to display them in an exhibit or gallery.”(Clarke, 206) This hurts video games from being taken as a legitimate form of art because of a large group of people who believe in a traditional art world, and video games do not fit into their ideas. A sort of dated definition of art by Charlie Rose is brought up in which it states that “art can in no way be functional.”(Clarke, 206) This definition would bring up many issues with certain forms of art that have been accepted, such as some of the interactive arts that can be found in museums today. It is stated that art imitates life, and life imitates art, so how are video games such as Grand Theft Auto not seen using that same structure. Grand Theft Auto imitates life, so by this belief Grand Theft Auto imitates art.
Kingdom Hearts is still seen as one of the biggest leaps forward in the fight to become art. This project was filled with problems right from the start, how would the two dimensional cartoony characters of Disney be brought together with the already fully three-dimensional intensely designed Final Fantasy series. Square had its work cut out for them, but through a mixture of realism and surrealism they ended up with one of the most artist games to have ever been released at that time. The levels all had to have a familiar feeling to anyone who has seen the Disney movies, the game ended up being a huge success, but at that time it was not seen as art because of the emotional detachment that reviewers and members of the art community found in the game. With newer games such a LIMBO trying to push idea of video games as art. LIMBO uses black white and shades of gray for the entire game, and to tell the truth even with the
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lack of color and the intentional cartoony designed characters, the game still happens to be one of the best looking games you have ever played. It is truly something that people need to play with the highest settings to just appreciate the amount of detail that got put into each element of the game.
One of the arguments I hear from people about why video games are not art, is that they do not use the concepts and core ideas of art. Which is an idea that I believe to be flat out wrong, all artists both digital and non have the same set of tools and rules to follow while designing. I picked up a book called The Art of 3d Computer Animation and Effects by Isaac Kerlow. Starting in chapter three Kerlow lists the basic modeling concepts which consist of space, objects, structures, points, lines, surfaces, it sounds familiar to any basic art design book. This is one argument I cannot get my head around so I went deeper to see if anything may be different deeper in. One quote I took out immediately was “think of a chair that was built using just two tools and a chair built with six tools. It is obvious that while the first chair could have an interesting design the various shapes would be limited. The second chair would have richer and more refined modeling.”(Kerlow, 81) I liked this because it shows the general work that has to go into making a single object in game with a real world object. Each object must be pulled into a variety of programs just to be considered completed. This also gives a good concept of how hard and time consuming making objects is and why games take years at a time to make. Designs as stated must have a good sense of spaces, they have to make something but make it in a space that can fit into the game. They cannot make a small house and then have the character not be able to fit through the door, they have to keep
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everything in the game as though it were real life, if anything like that happens it takes away from the immersion of a game, thus hurting it. All animators have to work in a three-dimensional space with x,y and z axes to worry about. Which is where the structure element comes in and arranging objects becomes more important, all while keeping the measurements and objects looking realistic enough for players not to notice low resolution objects from higher ones. A model shown in this book has three different skeletons each having a different polygon count, one with 8,979 another with 35,305 and the last being an insane 141,788 polygon model. Comparing the three, the first has a bit of a blocky structure, the second smooths out those problems and looks nice enough to be in a game, while the third blows the other out of the water with the amount of detail, every curve, every bone just has an extreme amount of detail. I bring this up because of a book I have for a drawing class which has the human bone structures in it, this model looks like it was taken out of my book and onto this one. The only reason you know it was modeled was each polygon being outlined, take off the edges to this and this could be sold as a real sketched drawing. So why is this not considered art if it can look good enough to be real, is its because its not real, or is it because video games are frankly new as far as the art community goes, and they have not been accepted yet. Why would so many video game jobs titles have the word artists, sculptor and animators not be considered a real artists. While if any of these titles were associated with any other form of art, they would be taken as a serious artist. Each element of art starts as a drawing, after that they are chosen to be taken to CADAM(Computer aided design and manufacturing) so in that process where is the art lost. Is it the second it
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goes to the computer, or is it before it is even drawn for the fact that it is going into a game. No one I have found seem to have legitimate an answer to that question of when does the game stop being art. The common answer I found was that because it was going to be played, because it had a goal, usually to win the game in some form, it was a sense of entertainment. This argument also has a problem because that means interactive art is not a legitimate form of art, even though that has seemingly been accepted by the art community.
I decided it was time to check out one of the most controversial articles ever wrote about video games not being art, so I brought up Roger Ebert's cleverly named “Video Games Can Never Be Art” article off the sun times. In his article Ebert quotes Wikipedia for the definition of art, “Art is the process of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.”(Sun times) With that being said almost everything can be considered art as long as it appeals to one persons emotions or moves them in some way. Ebert continues to say “This is an intriguing definition although as a chess player I might argue that my game fits the definition.”(Sun times) and then this which I found very interesting “I tend to think art as usually the creation of one artists. Yet a cathedral is the work of many, and is it not art? One could think of it as countless individual works of art unified by a common purpose.” (Sun times) This can be thought of a development team all working together to create a cathedral in a game, from this I can draw a slight conclusion that Ebert contradicts himself probably unknowingly in his article. It is very easy to draw conclusions from his examples to a
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development team making a game together, it has different people making something different to make something part of a bigger project. Ebert has another passage that I would like to break down “One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Santiago might cite a immersive game without points or rules, but I would say then it ceases to be a game and becomes a representation of a story, a novel, a play, dance, a film. Those things you cannot win; you can only experience them.” I found this to be a big point that Ebert made, being a huge film critic he says that if a game does not have a point then it is not a game, so does this make The Sims art, is mine craft a revolutionary art form from this statement in the eyes of Ebert. Ebert returns to the definition of art in which he prefers Plato in which Plato believes that art grows better the more it imitates nature. In most games today I find that nature in games has become one of the biggest parts of actually making a game, designers are always asking does this look real, does it not fit into the level, designers want to make levels look as realistic as possible. They even send teams out to take pictures of real world objects to be put into the game, so how are games still not taken as a art form in Ebert's eyes. Platos definition of art is supported in a lot of games today, as graphics are pushed even further nature will be made even more clear and realistic. Ebert was quoted saying “No video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form.” Which I completely disagree with mostly due to the fact that I am a strong believer in Moore's Law, a law that has been true for more than a half of century already and is not predicted to stop until 2015 or later. Moore's Law clearly states that computing hardware will double every
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eighteen months, meaning that by this time next year processing speed, memory capacity, sensors, number and size of pixels in cameras. So by not knowing at what point Ebert will consider video games an art form, but with Moore's law saying that video games can be at their full potential in the next five years, games will possibly have the potential to be considered an art form.
Taken from the Ernest Adams article on “Will Computer Games Ever Be A Legitimate Art Form?” Adams believes the reason that more games are not art is because “interactivity precludes art; that art is a form of communication between the artist to viewer, and if the viewer starts to interfere, the message is lost.” (Adams, 3) Which I can understand that certain works of art are not meant to be played with, I mean imagine taking pictures side by side with the Mona Lisa, I believe that it would lose all the message of it being a very old painting that has been behind glass for a very long time. Some things should just not be played with for the sake of things, but video games have the core mechanic of being able to be played with, to have an art form with such capabilities should be admired by artists not shunned as I believe it has been. Adams makes a good point of how games can take a step forward by saying “Games must seem like other art forms, for games to be recognized as an art form they must do some of the things that other art forms do.” (Adams, 7) Taken from video game reviewer Dean Takahashi he brought up a good point in his review of the game Alan Wake “video games have plenty of artistic moments that can be appreciated as much as the finest scenes in novels, movies, TV shows, plays and classical musical concerts.” (Takahashi) So perhaps if more games have a form of artistic prowess it will bring recognition
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towards the industry, I do not think that it will take much but once that starts there will be no going back. Adams calls for the removal of awards, because of the fact that artists do not get awards simply by making a good art piece, they do not get worldwide publicity as a game would. Adams also calls for the removal of game reviewers but change to critics, each piece should be looked at in terms of artistic merit, Adams calls for a game to blow the minds of everyone such as the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey because when that came out no one knew what to think, no one at the time of the release had the skills to review that movie. It had no romance, no action, no suspense, and very little drama, while a video game done this way would prove very little. Its still possible that a game with an overloaded story of all could prove to be that game that breaks this. In my beliefs this game may very well be Rockstar Games next upcoming project called L.A. Noire could be that game. Coming from one of the best established video game publishers, known for some of the most rememberable if not controversial games of all time. It is there strong sense of putting out a great game, putting elements in that game that nearly every other game company would not touch with a ten foot pole. It is because of these factors that L.A. Noire may very well change the way we look at games. The story is already packed with crime, sex, moral ambiguity, drugs and corruption all the methods that Rockstar has put into good use over the years of making games. This game will be played like a movie, every aspect was filmed in a motion capture studio which will allow for some of the smoothest looking characters models to date, all while running at sixty frames per second.

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Aaron Smuts takes a deep look into what parts of video games can be seen as art. He says “Video games combine elements from narrative fiction film, music and sports. They are arguably an art or sister art of the moving images, specifically, a form of digital animation.” (Smuts, 3) Smuts also mentions that games have already begun their step into being incorporated with exhibits, and how there is already a quickly growing body that has already been recognized for its works. While he does not cite who this maybe I do not disprove this statement either, great artistic works have been done as of late. Karen Moltenbrey wrote an article in 2001 which talks mostly about the technology of the time, with the PS2 topping 1.2 million consoles sold, Call of Duty Black Ops this year shattered that by over 5 million copies sold, and that was in single day, that single day had more game copies sold then console sales only nine years before. That just shows how big the video game industry has come over the years, having an exponential growth in just the matter of a few years. With software sales estimated at $20.2 billion last year, it exceeded the movie industry box office which only brought in $18.7 billion says CBS news reporter Jeff Glor. Taken from video game reviewer Dean Takahashi had one good point in his review of the game Alan Wake “video games have plenty of artistic moments that can be appreciated as much as the finest scenes in novels, movies, TV shows, plays and classical musical concerts.” While paging through my last book called The Art of Game Characters it is hard to not see the art within making a character, each page is just filled with a ton of detail. Nearly all of them just surpass my talents as an artist, and show off just how good of an artist they are.
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To sum up all my points I think this paper has made a decisive dent into the issue of how video games are not seen as a legitimate form of art. I found a lot of information saying that video games are still a ways off from being an art form, while others made it sound as though it maybe in the very near future. With strong supporters of video game artists such as Ernest, Adams; Andy, Clarke; Leo Hartas; Isacc Kerlow will out weight the words of Ebert and the rest of the art world who against video games as an art form. In a bright new world where video games can still expand, games will become the one number form of art.










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Works Cited:
Adams, Ernest W. "Will Computer Games Ever Be a Legitimate Art Form?" Journal Of Media Practice. 2006. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .
Brey, Karen. "The Art Of Games." Computer Graphics World . Mar. 2001. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .
Clarke, Andy, and Grethe Mitchell. Videogames and Art. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2007. Print.
Ebert, Roger. "Video Games Can Never Be Art." Chicago Sun-Times Blogs. 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .
Hartas, Leo. The Art of Game Characters. New York: Harper Design, 2005. Print.
Glor, By Jeff. "Video Games: The Most Dominant Popular Art Form of Our Time - Author Talk - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News -
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CBS News. 24 June 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .
Kerlow, Isaac Victor. The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print.
Smuts, Aaron. "Are Video Games Art?" Contemporary Aesthetics Is an International, Interdisciplinary, Peer- and Blind-reviewed Online Journal of Contemporary Theory, Research, and Application in Aesthetics. 02 Nov. 2005. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .
Takahashi, Dean. "Alan Wake Takes Video Games to an Art Form (review) | VentureBeat." Tech News | Innovation News | Money News | VentureBeat. 11 May 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

In today’s world, having access to a computer is something that most people, especially in the United States, take for granted. From the office, to the classroom, the public library, to at home, computers have become a part of our everyday life, and they come in all shapes and sizes, from desk tops with big screens, to lightweight portable laptops. Even our pocket sized cell phones have become more like mini computers than devices for communicating. In this paper, I will discuss how the computer has evolved from early mechanical calculating machines dating back to ancient times, to the personal computer we are all familiar with today. This will be a brief, but informative history of the computer.

The word “computer” by today’s standard can be defined as “an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.” However, this definition would not be suitable to describe the first computer, the reason being because the first computers, believe it or not were actually people. The term “computer” was actually a job title, for people who performed repetitive calculations day in and day out to make a living. These people, more often or not, were women whose task it was to compute things such as tide charts, or navigational tables. The fact that the first computers were human, is probably the most significant reason we actually have the computers we know today. As we all know, humans make mistakes, and because of that inventers were encouraged to come up with some form of mechanism to perform these tasks more consistently and accurately.

Probably the earliest tool used for mathematical computations is a device known as an abacus. To date, the earliest known use of the abacus, which has also been called a counting frame, goes all the way back to 300 B.C. by the Babylonians, and not surprisingly is still being used today, predominately in the Middle East and Africa by merchants. Generally, a modern abacus is made up of rings that slide over rods, but the more archaic forms of this device were simply pebbles or beads, which could be slid up or down in grooves on tablets made of metal, stone, wood, or even in the sand. A abacist, which is title of someone who operates an abacus, can calculate addition and subtraction problems with the same speed and precision of someone equipped with a calculator, assuming he is skilled enough.

Since the abacus could only be used to perform addition and subtraction, the need for a device to quickly and effectively calculate multiplication and division problems was great. In 1617 a man by the name of John Napier invented a device that solved half of that problem. His new device, known as the logarithm, was able to compute multiplication through addition. From this invention spawned yet another device, the slide rule, which was first created in England in 1632. Unlike logarithms, the slide rule was able to not only compute multiplication as well as division, but it could also be used for functions such as roots and trigonometry. This device was so effective in fact, that it was used in the 1960’s by NASA engineers in various programs that eventually landed men on the moon.

Nearly a decade after the invention of the slide rule, a new breakthrough in the evolution of computers was about to come to life. In the early 1640’s 19 year old Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline to aide his father who worked as a tax collector. Although it was not technically the first gear-driven calculating machine; that title belongs to Wilhelm Schickard’s calculating clock; and despite the fact that it was only able to calculate addition problems, as well as being frequently inaccurate, the invention of this mechanism is responsible for initiating the development of mechanical calculators all over the world. Another interesting fact about this device is that the odometer portion of a car’s speedometer used the same mechanism as the pascaline. That is up until dashboards went digital, thanks to more advanced computers.

As we continue down the time line of computer history, we come to the invention of the punch card, which was an element of Joseph Marie Jacquard’s power loom. These cards allowed Jacquards loom to permit colored threads to either pass through or stop according to the presence or absence of holes in the card. Later, Charles Babbage came to the conclusion that the holes in these cards could be used to represent a problem statement and the raw data required for that problem’s solution respectively. Because of this he was able to employ a version of these cards as a storage mechanism, which would hold computed numbers for future reference, and through this use of the cards he was able to program a device called the Analytic Engine, which he invented shortly after his previous computing endeavor, the Difference Engine, failed to be completed. Because the idea of the punch card had originated from the weaving industry, Babbage respectively deemed the two main components of his Analytic Engine the “store” and the “mill”. The store was responsible for the holding of numbers while the mill was responsible for “weaving” those numbers into new results. In today’s computers, those terms are referred to as the memory unit and the CPU, or central processing unit. The Analytic Engine possessed the ability to perform all four arithmetic operations; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; and was equipped with a memory capable of storing 1,000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each. Apart from those abilities, the Analytic Engine was also equipped with a key function that set apart computers from calculators. This function is called the conditional statement. According to John Kopplin’s website, entitled “An Illustrated History of Computers”, a conditional statement is something that “ allows a program to achieve different results each time it is run. Based on the conditional statement, the path of the program can be determined based upon a condition or situation that is detected at the very moment the program is running.”

The next major break through in computing mechanisms came about as a result for the need of automation for the census of the United States of America, seeing as how the population had increased extensively between 1790 and 1880. A prize was offered by the census bureau to any inventor who could create such a device. Eventually that prize was won by Herman Hollerith for his invention of the Hollerith desk. The “desk” had successfully adopted not only the idea of punch cards from Jacquard’s invention, but featured a gear driven mechanism capable of counting, which was derived from the same mechanism Pascal used in his pascaline. Another main component of this device was a wall of dial indicators, which were responsible for displaying the result of the count. Probably one of the most significant innovations of this machine was the improvement made by Hollerith on the punch cards. In Jacquard’s design, the hole patterns on the cards were not determined until after a tapestry had been designed, and from that point on they were not changed. In today’s computer world, this could be compared to a “read-only” form of information storage. Holleriths version of the cards however, were comparable to read/write technology, in the sense that new cards could be punched based upon a reading of another, separate set of cards. As a result of this, analyses, which was too complicated to be accomplished during a single pass thru the cards, was able to be computed via multiple passes thru the cards by using newly printed cards to remember the intermediate results. This problem solution had actually been previously proposed by Babbage, but was never brought into action. This technique of punch card use in the Hollerith Desk allowed the census of 1890 to be completed within 3 years versus the 7.5 years it took to complete the previous one. It also saved the government a whopping 5 million dollars.

In 1896, thanks to the success of his invention, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company. That company eventually came to be known as one of the most familiar names in relation to computers to this day, International Business Machines, or IBM. As IBM flourished, so did the presence of punch cards. Their ubiquity was as much as today’s personal computers, and they played a part in people’s day to day lives in the form of election ballots, toll cards for highways, check out slips for library books, and government issued checks. They even came in the mail with bills! At this point, IBM’s primary focus was the development of calculators that could be distributed to businesses that needed help with accounting for their inventory and finances, both of which required little more than a machine with the ability to compute addition and subtraction. But as they say “necessity is the mother of invention”, and it was the necessity of a calculator optimized for more scientific computations by the U.S. military which ultimately led IBM down the road to the next stepping stone in computer history.

During World War II, physicists were capable and responsible for writing the equations to determine the trajectory of a shell launched from a battleship. However, capable as they may have been, the task of computing such formulas was, needless to say, a very strenuous one. The results of these equations were referred to as “firing tables”, and the military was constantly searching for math majors who could be employed to compute these tables, but there were never enough people to keep up with the need for new tables. As a result of this, the military was willing to invest in almost any idea that would make the computation of these equations faster and easier, and thus the Mark I was born.

This computer was built in 1944 as a joint effort between IBM and Harvard. Weighing in at an astonishing 5 tons, this computer, which was the first programmable digital one ever to have been made in the United States, was made up of switches, clutches, rotating shafts and relays. It was 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, possessed 500 miles of wire, and a 50 foot rotating shaft which was turned by a 5 horsepower electric motor. It also had four paper tape readers, paper tape being an improvement from a stack of punch cards. It was actually on one of these paper tapes that the first computer “bug” was found by a woman named Grace Hopper. Apparently, a moth had infiltrated the Mark I and its wings were blocking the holes in the paper tape so the machine could not compute the information. Hopper is now credited with the coining of the word “debugging” which is a term used to describe eliminating problems with a program.

In 1947, Howard Aiken, who was the principle designer of the Mark I, estimated that the computing needs of the entire U.S. could be satisfied with only six electronic digital computers. At this point in time, computers of this magnitude were built only by special arrangements, and realistically could only be afforded by the government and military, so IBM commissioned a study based on this estimate to determine whether or not they should invest time and money into developing this invention into a standard product. Unforeseen to Aiken was the micro-electronics revolution.

The micro-electronics revolution was probably one of the most significant events in all of computer history because it allowed the massive amounts of wiring involved in the production of a computer, which was done by hand, to be mass produced into what is called an integrated circuit, which is basically a sliver of silicon about the size of your thumbnail. These integrated circuits ultimately allowed the cost of computers to be reduced greatly due to the fact that they sped up the process of fabrication by allowing millions of tiny transistors to be created and interconnected in one mass production. With the reduced cost of computers, came the invention of the personal computer.

One of the earliest personal computers, was the Apple I, which was not only designed but hand built by a man by the name of Steve Wozniak. The computer is recognized as the very first Apple product and it was first demonstrated in 1976 in Palo Alto California at the Homebrew Computer Club. At that time, there was only one computer store chain, called the Byte Shop, and the owner of that chain, Paul Terell, was extremely impressed with Wozniak’s creation. Originally, the machine was nothing more than a bare circuit board that had been designed for hobbyists that would later add keyboards and displays, but when Terell offered to buy 50 fully assembled computers for $500 a piece, Wozniak, along with three of his friends were willing to take on the task. Despite the fact that they weren’t able to provide the “fully assembled” product in time, they were able to build all 50 of the motherboards by hand. Terell was satisfied with what they accomplished and he paid them in cash for their efforts, which was enough to pay off loans as well as make a profit. The Apple I was later sold by Apple, at a price of $666.66 and about 200 units were produced before being replaced by the Apple II.

Today, the thought of buying a computer that requires at home assembly is boarder line outrageous. The thought of a machine used for calculation big enough to occupy a whole room is almost unfathomable, when most of us have calculators built right into our cell phones, which can easily fit into the smallest of pockets. The evolution of the computer, from the archaic abacus, to the advanced and well-designed tools we use today for far more than calculating numbers, is indeed a long one. Its practically impossible to say for sure who can take credit for the first “real” computer that changed a job title into a functional machine, and to say that covering the entire history of this machine is a daunting task would be an understatement. Hopefully this essay, which highlights some of the more significant breakthroughs in computer technology, is one that is both informative and interesting to whom ever may read it and they can walk away with a greater appreciation and understanding for what it took to bring to us these tools we to often take for granted.

Bibliography
BOOKS

Rojas, Raul, ed. Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History. Fitzroy Dearborn. 2001

Wurster, Christian. Computers : An Illustrated History. Taschen. 2001

Frauenfelder, Mark. The Computer. Carlton Books. 2005

Spencer, Donald D. The Timetable of Computers : A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Computers. Camelot Pub. Co. 1999

Ifrah, Georges. The Universal History of Computing : From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer. John Wiley, 2001

Campbell-Kelly, Martin. Computer : A History of the Information Machine. Basic Books. 1996

WEBSITES

An Illustrated History of Computers. John Kopplin.(no publisher given.) Copyright 2002. http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.html. Dec. 8, 2010.

Computer Hope: When was the first computer invented. Computer Hope. FeedBurner. Copyright 2010. http://www.computerhope.com/issues /ch000984.html. Dec. 8, 2010.

A Brief History of the Abacus. Georges Ifrah. Wiley Press. Copyright 2000. http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history.html. Dec. 8, 2010.

Herman Hollerith. JJ O’Connor, E.F. Robertson. (No publisher given). Copyright 1999. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Hollerith.html. Dec. 8, 2010.

Charles Babbage. (No author, publisher, or copyright date given). http://www. charlesbabbage.net/. Dec. 8, 2010

Apple I. (No author, publisher, or copyright date given). http://applemuseum. bott.org/sections/computers/a1.html. Dec. 8, 2010

ARTICLES

Abacus, in Mathematics. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Copyright 2010.Columbia University Press. Dec. 8, 2010.

Hollerith Machine. Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright 1981-2010. The Computer Language Company Inc. Dec. 8, 2010

Herman Hollerith. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Copyright 2010. Columbia University Press. Dec. 8, 2010.