prehysteries of new media: >> Ronald Baecker, GENESYS, 1967-69

<< preface

this blog is nina wenhart's collection of resources on the various histories of new media art. it consists mainly of non or very little edited material i found flaneuring on the net, sometimes with my own annotations and comments, sometimes it's also textparts i retyped from books that are out of print.

it is also meant to be an additional resource of information and recommended reading for my students of the prehystories of new media class that i teach at the school of the art institute of chicago in fall 2008.

the focus is on the time period from the beginning of the 20th century up to today.

2008-07-02

>> Ronald Baecker, GENESYS, 1967-69

GENESYS: Interactive Computer-Mediated Animation

The Genesys system, developed by Dr. Ron Baecker in MIT's Lincoln Laboratory from 1967-69, was one of the world's first interactive systems for real-time animation. The system involves the process of "interactive computer-mediated animation", in which dynamic displays are constructed by utilizing direct console commands, algorithms, free-hand sketches, and real-time actions. The resulting "movie" can then be immediately viewed and altered. Genesys utilizes a special kind of interactive computer-mediated animation that exploits the potentialities of direct graphical interaction. The animator may sketch and refine (1) static images to be used as components of individual frames of the movie, and (2) static and dynamic images that represent dynamic behaviour; that is, movement and rhythm. Because these latter pictures drive algorithms to generate dynamic displays, the process is called "picture-driven animation".