Inside Photoshop

Articles from Computational Culture Inside Photoshop 2011- 12- 06 16:12:45 matthew

Phot oshop t oolbox f rom version 0.63 (1988) t o CS2 (2005). Cont emporary media is experienced, creat ed, edit ed, remixed, organized and shared wit h sof t ware. T his sof t ware includes st and-alone prof essional media design and management applicat ions such as Phot oshop, Illust rat or, Flash, Dreamweaver, Final Cut , Af t er Ef f ect s, Apert ure, and Maya; consumer-level apps such as iPhot o, iMovie, or Picassa; t ools f or sharing, comment ing, and edit ing provided by social media sit es such as Facebook, YouT ube, Video, and Phot obucket , and t he numerous media viewing, edit ing and sharing apps available on mobile plat f orms. T o underst and media t oday we need t o understand media software – it s genealogy (where it comes f rom), it s anat omy (int erf aces and operat ions), and it s pract ical and t heoret ical ef f ect s.1 How does media aut horing sof t ware shape t he media being creat ed, making some design choices seem nat ural and easy t o execut e, while hiding ot her design possibilit ies? How does media viewing / managing / remixing sof t ware af f ect our experience of media and t he act ions we perf orm on it ? How does sof t ware change what “media” is concept ually? T his art icle approaches some of t hese quest ions via t he analysis of a sof t ware applicat ion t hat has become synonymous wit h “digit al media” – Adobe Phot oshop. Like ot her prof essional programs f or media aut horing and edit ing, Phot oshop’s menus cont ain many dozens of separat e commands. If we consider t hat almost all t he commands cont ain mult iple opt ions t hat allow each command do a number of dif f erent t hings, t he complet e number runs int o t housands.

Phot oshop 0.63 (on Syst em 7). Image source: ht t p://www.guidebookgallery.org/apps/phot oshop/empt y

Phot oshop CS2 (on Mac OS X 10.4 T iger). Image source:ht t p://www.guidebookgallery.org/apps/phot oshop/empt y/ T his mult iplicit y of operat ions of f ered in cont emporary applicat ion sof t ware creat es a challenge f or Sof t ware St udies. If we are t o underst and how sof t ware applicat ions shape our worlds and our imaginat ions (what people imagine t hey can do wit h sof t ware), we need some way of sort ing all t hese operat ions int o a f ewer cat egories so we can st art building a t heory of applicat ion sof t ware. T his can’t be achieved by simply f ollowing t he t op menu cat egories of f ered by applicat ions. (For example, Phot oshop CS4’s t op menu includes File, Edit , Layer, Select , Filt er, 3D, View, Window, and Help.) Since most applicat ions include t heir own unique cat egories, our combined list will be t oo large. So we need t o design a more general scheme. T his art icle st art s by proposing t wo such possible schemes and t hen t est s t hem by analyzing a subset of Phot oshop’s commands which, in a cert ain sense, st and-in f or t his applicat ion in our cult ural imaginary: Filt ers. In t he last sect ion, I also look at anot her key f eat ure of Phot oshop – Layers. It is import ant t o point out t hat t he t wo proposed schemes are int ended t o serve only as provisional cat egories. T hey provide one possible set of direct ions – an equivalent of Nort h, Sout h, West and East f or a map where we can locat e mult iple operat ions of media design sof t ware. Like any f irst sket ch, no mat t er how imprecise, t his map is usef ul because now we have somet hing t o modif y as we go f orward. A Map of Media Sof tware My f irst scheme t hat we will t est divides all sof t ware t echniques f or working wit h media int o t wo t ypes depending on which dat a t ypes t hey can work on. 1a) T he f irst t ype is media creation, manipulation, and access techniques that are specific to particular types of data. In ot her words, t hese t echniques can be used only on a part icular dat a t ype (or a part icular kind of “media cont ent ”). I am going t o ref er t o t hese t echniques as media specific (t he word “media” in t his case st ands f or “dat a t ype”). For example, t he t echnique of geomet rical const raint sat isf act ion already available in t he f irst graphical edit or – Ivan Sut herland ’s Sket chpad (1961-1962) – can work on graphical dat a def ined by point s and lines. However, it would be meaningless t o apply t his t echnique t o t ext . Anot her example: t oday image edit ing programs usually include various f ilt ers such as Blur and Sharpen t hat can operat e on cont inuous t one images. But normally we would not be able t o blur or sharpen a 3D model. We can go wit h such examples: it is would be as meaningless t o t ry t o “ext rude” a t ext or “int erpolat e” it as t o def ine a number of columns and t ab st ops f or an image or a sound composit ion.

1b) T he second t ype is new software techniques that can work with digital data in general (i.e. they are not specific to particular types of data). T he examples are “view cont rol,” hyperlinking, sort , search, and net work prot ocols such as HT T P. T hey are general ways of manipulat ing dat a regardless of what t his dat a encodes: pixel values, t ext charact ers, 3D shapes, et c. I will ref er t o t hese t echniques as media independent. An example of such a t echnique is Douglass Englebart ’s “view cont rol” (mid 1960s) – t he idea t hat t he same inf ormat ion can be displayed in many dif f erent ways. T his concept is now implement ed in most media edit ors so it works wit h images, 3D models, video f iles, animat ion project s, graphic designs, sound composit ions, and t ext . View cont rol has also become part of modern OS (operat ing syst ems such as Mac OS X, Microsof t Windows, or Google Chrome OS). We use view cont rol daily when we change t he f iles “view” bet ween “icons,” “list ,” and “columns” (t hese are t he names used in Mac OS X; ot her operat ing syst ems may use dif f erent names t o ref er t o t he same views). Media independent t echniques also include int erf ace commands such as cut , copy and past e. For inst ance, you can select a f ile name in a direct ory, a group of pixels in an image, or a set of polygons in a 3D model, and t hen cut , copy, and past e t hese object s. My second scheme also divides sof t ware t echniques f or working wit h media dat a int o t wo t ypes, but it does t his in a dif f erent way. What mat t ers here are t he relat ions bet ween sof t ware t echniques and pre-digit al media t echnologies. (T his is a scheme part icularly relevant f or media hist orians.) 2a) T he f irst t ype is simulations of prior physical media augmented with new properties and functions.2 When we use comput ers t o simulat e some process in t he real world – t he behavior of a weat her syst em, t he processing of inf ormat ion in t he brain, t he def ormat ion of a car in a crash – our concern is t o correct ly model t he f eat ures of t his process or syst em. We want t o be able t o t est how our model would behave in dif f erent condit ions wit h dif f erent dat a, and t he last t hing we want t o do is f or t he comput er t o int roduce some new propert ies int o t he model t hat we ourselves did not specif y. In short , when we use comput ers as a general-purpose medium f or simulat ion, we want t his medium t o be complet ely “t ransparent .” But what happens when we simulat e dif f erent media in a comput er? In t his case, t he appearance of new propert ies may be welcome as t hey can ext end t he expressive and communicat ion pot ent ial of t hese media. T his idea was already clearly art iculat ed at Xerox PARC in t he f irst part of t he 1970s – a place t hat more t han any ot her is responsible f or creat ing t he cat egory of sof t ware applicat ions. When Alan Kay and his colleagues at PARC creat ed comput er simulat ions of exist ing physical media – i.e. t he sof t ware t ools f or represent ing, creat ing, edit ing, and viewing t hese media – t hey “added” many new propert ies. Writ ing about t heir work in 1997, Kay and Adele Goldberg f or inst ance point out t hat “It [t he elect ronic book] need not be t reat ed as a simulat ed paper book since t his is a new medium with new properties. A dynamic search may be made f or a part icular cont ext . T he non-sequent ial nat ure of t he f ile medium and t he use of dynamic manipulat ion allows a st ory t o have many accessible point s of view.”3

Xerox brochure f or St ar workst at ion (of f icially known as of f icially known as t he Xerox 8010 Inf ormat ion Syst em) int roduced in 1981. T he St ar was a commercial compput er based on t he ideas developed by Alan Kay and his collaborat ors at Xerox PARC in t he f irst part of t he 1970s.Image source:ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_St ar/ 2b) T he second t ype is a number of new comput at ional media t hat do not have any obvious equivalent s in previous physical or elect ronic media. Here are a f ew examples of t hese “new media” list ed wit h names of t he people and/or places usually credit ed as t heir invent ors: hypert ext and hypermedia (T ed Nelson); int eract ive navigable 3D spaces (Ivan Sut herland), int eract ive mult imedia (Archit ect ure Machine Group’s “Aspen Movie Map”), Int ernet (Paul Baran and Lawrence Robert s), T he World Wide Web (T im Berners-Lee). While f or a media hist orian t his scheme is quit e meaningf ul, what about users who are “digit al nat ives”? T hese sof t ware users may never have direct ly used any ot her media besides t ablet s or lapt ops, or mobile media devices (mobile phones, cameras, music players); and t hey are also likely t o be unf amiliar wit h t he det ails of 20t h cent ury cell animat ion, f ilm edit ing equipment , or any ot her pre-digit al media t echnology. Does t his mean t hat t he dist inct ion bet ween sof t ware simulat ions of previously exist ing media t ools and new “born digit al” media t echniques has no meaning f or digit al nat ives but only mat t ers f or hist orians of media such as myself ? I t hink t hat while t he semant ics of t his dist inct ion (i.e. t he ref erence t o previous t echnologies and pract ices) may not be meaningf ul t o digit al nat ives, t he dist inct ion it self is somet hing t hese users experience in pract ice. T o underst and why t his is t he case, let ’s ask if all “born digit al” media t echniques available in media aut horing sof t ware applicat ions may have somet hing in common – besides t he f act t hat t hey did not exist bef ore sof t ware. One of t he key uses of digit al comput ers f rom t he st art was automation. As long as a process can be def ined as a f init e set of simple st eps (i.e. as an algorit hm), a comput er can be programmed t o execut e t hese st eps wit hout human input . In t he case of applicat ion sof t ware, t he execut ion of any command involves “low-level” aut omat ion (since a comput er aut omat ically execut es a sequence of st eps of t he algorit hm behind t he command). However, what it is import ant f rom a user point of view is t he level of aut omat ion being of f ered in t he command’s int erf ace.

Many sof t ware t echniques t hat simulat e physical t ools share a f undament al propert y wit h t hese t ools: t hey require a user t o cont rol t hem “manually.” T he user has t o micro-manage t he t ool, so t o speak, direct ing it st ep-by-st ep t o produce t he desired ef f ect . For inst ance, you have t o explicit ly move t he cursor in a desired pat t ern t o produce a part icular brushst roke using a brush t ool; you also have t o explicit ly t ype every let t er on a keyboard t o produce a desired sent ence. In cont rast , many of t he t echniques t hat do not simulat e anyt hing t hat exist ed previously – at least , not in any obvious way – of f er higher-level aut omat ion of creat ive processes. Rat her t han cont rolling every det ail, a user specif ies paramet ers and cont rols and set s t he t ool in mot ion. All generat ive (also called “procedural”) t echniques available in media sof t ware f all int o t his cat egory. For example, rat her t han having t o creat e a rect angular grid made of t housands of lines by hand, a user can specif y t he widt h and t he height of t he grid and t he size of one cell, and t he program will generat e t he desired result . Anot her example of t his higher-level aut omat ion is int erpolat ion of key values of f ered by animat ion sof t ware. In a 20t h cent ury animat ion product ion, a key animat or drew key f rames which were t hen f orwarded t o human inbet weeners who creat ed all t he f rames in between t he key f rames. Animat ion sof t ware aut omat es t he process of creat ing inbet ween drawings by aut omat ically int erpolat ing t he values bet ween t he keyf rames. T hus, alt hough users may not care t hat one sof t ware t ool does somet hing t hat was not possible bef ore digit al comput ers while anot her t ool simulat es previous physical or elect ronic media, t he dist inct ion it self bet ween t wo t ypes is somet hing users experience in pract ice. T he t ools t hat belong t o t he f irst t ype showcase t he abilit y of comput ers t o aut omat e processes; t he t ools t hat belong t o t he second t ype use invisible low-level aut omat ion behind t he scenes while requiring users t o direct t hem manually. Filter > Styliz e > Wind Having est ablished t wo set s of cat egories f or sof t ware t echniques (media independent vs. media specif ic; simulat ion of t he old vs. new), let ’s now t est t hem against t he Phot oshop commands. As ment ioned above, we will concent rat e on f ilt ers – i.e. t he set of commands t hat appear under t he Filt er menu. (Not e t hat a large proport ion of Phot oshop f ilt ers are not unique t o t his program but are also available in ot her prof essional image edit ing, video edit ing and animat ion sof t ware – somet imes under dif f erent names. T o avoid any possible misunderst anding, I will be ref erring t o t he Phot oshop versions of t hese commands as implement ed in Phot oshop CS4, wit h t heir part icular opt ions and cont rols as def ined in t his sof t ware release.)4 T he f irst t hing t hat is easy t o not ice is t hat t he names of many Phot oshop f ilt ers ref er t o t he t echniques f or image manipulat ion and creat ion and mat erials t hat were available bef ore t he development of media applicat ion sof t ware in t he 1990s – paint ing, drawing and sket ching, phot ography, glass, neon, phot ocopying. Each f ilt er is given a set of explicit opt ions t hat can be cont rolled wit h int eract ive sliders and/or by direct ly ent ering numerical values. T hese opt ions make possible t o cont rol f ilt er’s visual ef f ect s wit h a degree of precision t hat would be hard t o achieve when using t he corresponding physical t ool. T his is a good example of my earlier point t hat simulat ions of prior physical media augment t hem wit h new propert ies. In t his case, t he new propert y is t he explicit f ilt er cont rols. T hese cont rols not only of f er many opt ions but also of t en allow you t o set f ilt er’s propert ies numerically by choosing a precise value f rom a range. For example, t he Palet t e Knif e f ilt er of f ers t hree opt ions: St roke Size, St roke Det ail, and Sof t ness. St roke Size can t ake values bet ween 1 and 50; t he ot her t wo opt ions have similarly large ranges. (At t he same t ime, it s import ant t o not e t hat expert users of many physical t ools such as a paint brush can also achieve many ef f ect s not possible in it s sof t ware simulat ion. T hus, sof t ware simulat ions should not be t hought of as linear improvement s over previous media t echnologies.) While some of t hese f ilt ers can be direct ly t raced t o previous physical and mechanical media such as oil paint ing and phot ography, ot hers make a ref erence t o act ions or phenomena in t he physical world t hat at f irst appear t o have not hing t o do wit h media. For inst ance, t he Ext rude f ilt er generat es a 3D set of blocks or pyramids and paint s image part s on t heir f aces, while t he Wave f ilt er creat es t he ef f ect of ripples on t he surf ace of an image. However, if we examine any of t hese f ilt ers in det ail, we realize t hat t hings are not so simple. Let ’s t ake t he Wind f ilt er (locat ed under t he St ylize submenu) as an example. T his is how Phot oshop CS4’s built -in Help describes t his f ilt er: “Places t iny horizont al lines in t he image t o creat e a windblown ef f ect . Met hods include Wind; Blast , f or a more dramat ic wind ef f ect ; and St agger, which of f set s t he lines in t he image.” We are all f amiliar wit h t he visual ef f ect s of a st rong wind on a physical environment (f or inst ance, blowing t hrough a t ree or a f ield of grass) – but bef ore you encount ered t his f ilt er, you probably never imagined t hat you can “wind” an image. Shall we underst and t he name of t his f ilt er as a met aphor? Or perhaps, we can t hink of it as an example of a concept ual “blend” (which is how, according t o Concept ual Blending t heory,5 many concept s in nat ural languages get f ormed): “wind” plus “image” result s in a new concept act ualized in t he operat ions of t he Wind f ilt er.

Lef t : original image. Middle: Wind f ilt er, met hod “wind.” Right : Wind f ilt er, met hod “blast .” T he sit uat ion is f urt her complicat ed by t he f act t hat t he result s of applying t he Wind f ilt er t o an image look pret t y dif f erent compared t o what t he act ual wind does t o a t ree or a f ield of grass. However, t hey do look rat her similar t o a phot ograph of a real windy scene t aken wit h a long exposure. T heref ore, we can t hink of t he name “Wind” bot h as a met aphor – t o help us imagine what a part icular algorit hmic t ransf ormat ion does t o an image – and as a simulat ion of a part icular phot ographic t echnique (long exposure). In short , alt hough it s name point s t o t he physical world, it s act ual operat ions may also ref er t o a pre-digit al media t echnology. Are there “Born Digital” Filters? Let ’s cont inue explorat ion of Phot oshop f ilt ers. T he great majorit y of t he f ilt ers make ref erences t o previous physical media or our experiences in t he physical world – at least in t erms of how t hey are named. Only a f ew don’t . T hese f ilt ers include High-pass, Median, Reduce Noise, Sharpen, and Equalize. Are t hese f ilt ers “born digit al”? In ot her words, did we f inally get t o pure examples of “new” media t echniques (2b)? T he answer is no. As it t urns out , all t hese f ilt ers are also sof t ware simulat ions t hat ref er t o t hings t hat already exist ed bef ore digit al comput ers.

Lef t : original image. Right : High Pass f ilt er (radius = 10 pixels.) Alt hough t hey represent a small subset of Phot oshop’s ext ensive f ilt er collect ion, t hese f ilt ers are cent ral t o all elect ronics, t elecommunicat ion and IT t echnologies. Moreover, t hey are not unique t o processing digit al images but can be used on any kind of dat a – sounds, t elevision t ransmission, dat a capt ured by an environment al sensor, dat a capt ured by a medical imaging devices, et c. In t heir Phot oshop implement at ion, t hese f ilt ers work on cont inuous-t one images, but since t hey can be also applied t o sound and ot her t ypes of signals, t hey act ually belong t o our “media-independent ” cat egory (1a). In ot her words, t hey are general t echniques developed f irst in engineering and lat er also in comput er science f or signal and inf ormat ion processing. T he applicat ion of t hese t echniques t o images f orms t he part of t he f ield of image processing def ined as “any f orm of inf ormat ion processing f or which t he input is an image, such as phot ographs or f rames of video.”6 Like t hese f ilt ers, many of the “new” techniques for media creation, editing, and analysis implemented in software applications were not developed specifically to work with media data.7 Rat her, t hey were creat ed f or signal and inf ormat ion processing in general – and t hen were eit her direct ly carried over t o, or adapt ed t o work wit h media. T his is one of t he most import ant t heoret ical dimensions in t he shif t f rom

T his is one of t he most import ant t heoret ical dimensions in t he shif t f rom physical and mechanical media t echnologies t o elect ronic media and t hen digit al sof t ware. Previously, physical and mechanical media t ools were used t o creat e cont ent which was direct ly accessible t o human senses (wit h some not able except ions like Morse code) – and t heref ore t he possibilit ies of each t ool and mat erial were driven by what was meaningf ul t o a part icular human sense. A paint brush could creat e brushst rokes t hat had color, t hickness, and shape – propert ies direct ly speaking t o human vision and t ouch. Similarly, t he set t ings of phot ographic camera cont rols af f ect ed t he sharpness and cont rast of capt ured phot os – charact erist ics meaningf ul t o human vision. A dif f erent way t o express t his is t o say t hat t he “message” was not encoded in any way; it was creat ed, st ored, and accessed in it s nat ive f orm. So if we were t o redraw t he f amous diagram of a communicat ion syst em by Claude Shannon (1948)8 f or t he pre-elect ronics era, we would have t o delet e t he encoding and decoding st ages. Media t echnologies based on elect ronics such as t elegraph, t elephone, radio, and t elevision, and lat er digit al comput ers use t he coding of messages (or “cont ent ”.) And t his, in t urn, makes possible t he idea of information – a disembodied, abst ract and universal dimension of any message separat e f rom it s cont ent . Rat her t han operat ing on sounds, images, f ilm, or t ext direct ly, elect ronic and digit al devices operat e on t he cont inuous elect ronic signals or discret e numerical dat a. T his allows f or t he def init ion of various operat ions t hat work on any signal or any set of numbers – regardless of what t his signal or numbers may represent (images, video, st udent records, f inancial dat a, et c.). Examples of such operat ions are modulat ion, smoot hing (i.e., reducing t he dif f erences in t he dat a), and sharpening (exaggerat ing t he dif f erences). If t he dat a is discret e, t his allows f or various addit ional operat ions such as sort ing and searching. T he int roduct ion of t he coding st age allows f or a new level of ef f iciency and speed in processing, t ransmit t ing and int eract ing wit h media dat a and communicat ion cont ent – and t his is why f irst elect ronics and lat er, digit al comput ers gradually replace all ot her media-specif ic t ools and machines. Operat ions such as t hose just ment ioned are now used t o aut omat ically process t he signals and dat a in various ways – reducing t he size of st orage or bandwidt h needed, improving qualit y of a signal t o get rid of noise, and of course – perhaps most import ant ly – t o send media dat a over communicat ion net works. T he f ield of digit al image processing began t o develop in t he second part of t he 1950s when scient ist s and t he milit ary realized t hat digit al comput ers can be used t o aut omat ically analyze and improve t he qualit y of aerial and sat ellit e imagery collect ed f or milit ary reconnaissance and space research. (Ot her early applicat ions included charact er recognit ion and wire-phot o st andards conversion.)9 As a part of it s development , t he f ield t ook t he basic f ilt ers t hat were already commonly used in elect ronics and adapt ed t hem t o work wit h digit al images. T he Phot oshop f ilt ers t hat aut omat ically enhance image appearance (f or inst ance, by boost ing cont rast , or by reducing noise) come direct ly f rom t hat period (lat e 1950s – early1960s). In summary, Phot oshop’s seemingly “born digit al” (or “sof t ware-nat ive”) f ilt ers have direct physical predecessors in analog f ilt ers.10 T hese analog f ilt ers were f irst implement ed by t he invent ors of t elephone, radio, t elephone, elect ronic music inst rument s, and various ot her elect ronic media t echnologies during t he f irst half of t he 20t h cent ury. T hey were already widely used in t he elect ronics indust ry and st udied in t he f ield of analog signal processing bef ore t hey were adapt ed f or digit al image processing. Filter > Distort > Wave T he challenges in deciding in what cat egory t o place Phot oshop f ilt ers persist if we cont inue going t hrough t he Filt er menu. T he dif f icult ies in deciding where t o place t his or t hat t echnique are direct ly relat ed t o t he hist ory of digit al comput ers as simulat ion machines. Every element of comput at ional media comes f rom some place out side of digit al comput ers. T his is t rue not only f or a signif icant port ion of media edit ing t echniques – f ilt ers, digit al paint brushes and pencils, CAD t ools, virt ual musical inst rument s and keyboards, et c. – but also f or t he most basic comput er operat ions such as sort and search, or basic ways t o organize dat a such as a f ile or a dat abase. Each of t hese operat ions and st ruct ures can, bot h concept ually and hist orically, be t raced t o previous physical or mechanical operat ions and t o st rat egies of dat a, knowledge and memory management t hat were already in place bef ore t he 1940s. For example, comput er “f iles“ and “f olders” ref er t o t heir paper predecessors already st andard in every of f ice. T he f irst commercial digit al comput ers f rom IBM were market ed as f ast er equivalent s of elect ro-mechanical calculat ors, t abulat ors, sort ers and ot her of f ice equipment f or dat a processing t hat IBM had already been selling f or decades. However, whenever some physical operat ions and st ruct ures were simulat ed in a comput er, t hey were simult aneously enhanced and augment ed. T his process of t ransf erring physical world propert ies int o a comput er while augment ing t hem cont inues t oday – t hink, f or inst ance of t he mult i-t ouch int erf ace popularized by iPhone (2007). T hus, while Alan T uring def ined t he digit al comput er as a generalpurpose simulat ion machine, when we consider it s subsequent development and use, it is more appropriat e t o t hink of a computer as a simulationaugmentation machine. T he dif f icult y of deciding how t o classif y dif f erent media sof t ware t echniques is a direct result of t his paradigm t hat underlies t he development of what we now call sof t ware applicat ions f rom t he very st art (i.e., Sut herland’s Sket chpad, 1962-1963). T he shif t f rom physical media t ools and mat erials as algorit hms designed t o

simulat e t he ef f ect s of t hese t ools and mat erials has also anot her import ant consequence. As we saw, some Phot oshop f ilt ers explicit ly ref er t o previous art ist ic media; ot hers make ref erence t o diverse physical act ions, ef f ect s, and object s (T wirl, Ext rude, Wind, Dif f use Glow, Open Ripple, Glass, Wave, Grain, Pat chwork, Pinch, and ot hers.) But in bot h cases, by changing t he values of t he cont rols provided by each f ilt er, we can vary it s visual ef f ect signif icant ly on t he f amiliar – unf amiliar dimension. We can use t he same f ilt er t o achieve a look t hat may indeed appear t o closely simulat e t he ef f ect of t he corresponding physical t ool or physical phenomena – or a look which is complet ely dif f erent f rom bot h nat ure and older media and which can be only achieved t hough algorit hmic manipulat ion of t he pixels. What begins as a ref erence t o a physical world out side of t he comput er if we use def ault set t ings can t urn int o somet hing t ot ally alien wit h a change in t he value of a single paramet er. In ot her words, many algorit hms only simulat e t he ef f ect s of physical t ools and machines, mat erials or physical world phenomena when used wit h part icular paramet er set t ings; when t hese set t ings are changed, t hey no longer f unct ions as simulat ions. For an example, let s analyze t he behavior of Wave f ilt er (locat ed under t he Dist ort submenu). T he f ilt er ref ers t o a f amiliar physical phenomena, and indeed, it can produce visual ef f ect s which we would conf ident ly call “waves.” T his does not mean t hat t he ef f ect of t his f ilt er has t o closely resemble t he lit eral meaning of wave def ined by a dict ionary as “a dist urbance on t he surf ace of a liquid body, as t he sea or a lake, in t he f orm of a moving ridge or swell.”11 In our everyday language, we use t he word “wave” met aphorically t o ref er t o any kind of periodical movement (“waving a hand”), or any st at ic f orm t hat resembles t he f orm of a wave, or a dist urbance in t he ordinary st at e of af f airs (“making waves.”) According t o an inf luent ial t heory developed by cognit ive linguist George Lakof f , such met aphorical use is not an except ion, but t he norm in human language and t hinking. Lakof f proposed t hat t he majorit y of our abst ract concept s are met aphorical project ions f rom sensorimot orial experiences wit h our own body and t he surrounding physical world.12 “Making waves” and ot her met aphors derived f rom our percept ual experience of seeing real waves exemplif y t his general mechanism of language. If we f ollow Lakof f ‘s t heory of met aphor, some det ails of t he Wave f ilt er operat ion – along wit h many ot her Phot oshop f ilt ers t hat ref er t o t he physical world – can be underst ood as similar met aphorical project ions. Depending on t he choice of paramet er values, t his f ilt er can eit her produce ef f ect s t hat closely resemble our percept ual experience of act ual physical waves, or new ef f ect s t hat are relat ed t o such waves met aphorically.

Result s of applicat ion of wave f ilt er wit h dif f erent number of generat ors (all ot her paramet ers were lef t at def ault set t ings.) Lef t t o right : original greyscale image (800x800 pixels), number of generat ors = 1; number of generat ors = 10; number of generat ors = 50. T he f ilt er generat es sine wave f unct ions (y = sin x), adds t hem up and uses t he result t o dist ort an image. A user can cont rol t he number of sine waves via a paramet er called Number of Generat ors. If t his number is set t o 1, t he f ilt er generat es a single sine wave. Applying t his single f unct ion t o an image dist ort s it using a periodically varying pat t ern. In ot her words, t he f ilt er indeed generat es an ef f ect t hat looks like a wave. However, at some point t he met aphorical connect ion t o real world waves breaks, and t he use of Lakof f ’s t heory no longer helps. If we increase t he number of generat ors (it can go up t o 999), t he pat t ern produced by t he f ilt er no longer appears t o be periodic, and can t heref ore no longer can be relat ed t o real waves even met aphorically. T he reason f or t his f ilt er behavior lies in it s implement at ion. As we already explained, when t he number of generat ors is set t o 1, t he algorit hm generat es a single sine f unct ion. If t he opt ion is t o set t o 2, t he algorit hm generat es t wo f unct ions; if it is set t o 3, it generat es t hree f unct ions, and so on. T he paramet ers of each f unct ion are select ed randomly wit hin t he user specif ied range. If we keep t he number of generat ors small (2 – 5), somet imes t hese random values add up t o a result t hat st ill resembles a wave; in ot her cases t hey do not . But when t he number of f unct ions is increased, t he result of adding t hese separat e f unct ions wit h unique random paramet ers never looks like a wave. Wave f ilt er can creat e a pract ically endless variet y of abst ract pat t erns – and most of t hem are not periodic in an obvious way, i.e. t hey are no longer visually recognizable as “waves.” What t hey are is t he result of a comput er algorit hm t hat uses mat hemat ical f ormulas and operat ions (generat ing and adding sine f unct ions) t o creat e a vast space of visual possibilit ies. So alt hough t he f ilt er is called “Wave,” only a t iny part of it s space of possible pat t erns corresponds t o t he wave-like visual ef f ect s in t he real world.

T he same considerat ions apply t o many ot her Phot oshop f ilt ers t hat make ref erences t o physical media. Similar t o a Wave f ilt er, t he f ilt ers gat hered under t he Art ist ic and T ext ure submenus produce very precise simulat ions of t he visual ef f ect s of physical media wit h a part icular range of paramet er set t ings; but when t he paramet ers are out side of t his range, t hese f ilt ers generat e a variet y of abst ract pat t erns. T he operat ion of t hese Phot oshop f ilt ers has import ant t heoret ical consequences. Earlier I point ed out t hat t he sof t ware t ools t hat simulat e physical inst rument s – paint brushes, pens, rulers, erasers, et c. – require manual cont rol, while t he t ools t hat do not ref er t o any previous media of f er higher level aut omat ion. A user set s t he paramet er values and t he algorit hm aut omat ically creat es t he desired result . T he same “high-level” aut omat ion underlies so-called “generat ive (or “procedural”) sof t ware t echniques common t oday. T he work ranges f rom st ill and mot ion graphics t o archit ect ure and games – f rom live visuals and animat ions by sof t ware art ist Lia 13 t o t he massive procedurally generat ed worlds in t he game Minecraf t .14 Ot her generat ive project s use algorit hms t o aut omat ically creat e complex shapes, animat ions, spat ial f orms, music, archit ect ural plans, et c. (A good select ion of int eract ive generat ive works and generat ive animat ions can be f ound at www.processing.org/exhibit ion/.) Since most art works creat ed wit h generat ive algorit hms are abst ract , art ist s and t heorist s like t o oppose t o t hem t o sof t ware such as Phot oshop and Paint er t hat are widely used by commercial illust rat ors and phot ographers in t he service of realism and f igurat ion. Addit ionally, because t hese applicat ions simulat e older manual model of creat ion, t hey are also seen as less “new media specif ic” t hen generat ive sof t ware. T he end result of bot h of t hese crit iques is t hat sof t ware t hat simulat e “old media” are t hought t o be conservat ive, while generat ive algorit hms and art works are present ed as progressive because t hese are unique t o “new media.” (When people claim t hat art works t hat involve writ ing comput er code qualif y as “digit al art ” while art works creat ed using Phot oshop or ot her media applicat ions do not , t hey rehearse a version of t he same argument .) However, as t hey are implement ed in media applicat ions such as Phot oshop, sof t ware t echniques t hat simulat e previous media and t he sof t ware t echniques t hat are explicit ly procedural and use higher-level aut omat ion are part of t he same cont inuum. As we saw wit h t he Wave f ilt er, t he same algorit hm can generat e an abst ract image or a realist ic one. Similarly, part icle syst ems algorit hms are used by new media art ist s and mot ion graphics designers t o generat e abst ract animat ions; t he same algorit hms are also widely used in f ilm product ion t o generat e realist ic-looking explosions, f ireworks, f locks of birds and ot her physical nat ural phenomena. In anot her example, procedural t echniques of t en used in archit ect ural design t o creat e abst ract spat ial st ruct ures are also used in video games t o generat e realist ic 3D environment s. T he History and Actions Menus I st art ed t his discussion of Phot oshop f ilt ers t o t est t he usef ulness of t wo schemes f or classif ying t he seemingly endless variet y of sof t ware t echniques available in media sof t ware: 1) media independent vs. media specif ic t echniques (f irst scheme); 2) t he simulat ions of previous t ools vs. t echniques which do not explicit ly simulat e prior media (second scheme). T he f irst scheme draws our at t ent ion t o t he f act t hat all media applicat ions share some genes, so t o speak, while also providing some t echniques t hat can only work on part icular dat a t ypes. T he second scheme is usef ul if we want t o underst and t he sof t ware t echniques in t erms of t heir genealogy and t heir relat ion t o previous physical, mechanical and elect ronic media. Alt hough t he previous discussion highlight ed t he dif f icult borderline cases, in ot her cases t he divisions are clear. For example, t he Brushst rokes f ilt er f amily in Phot oshop clearly t akes inspirat ion f rom earlier physical media t ools, while Add Noise does not . T he Copy and Past e commands are t he examples of media independent t echniques; Aut o Cont rast and Replace Color commands are t he examples of media-specif ic t echniques. However, beyond t hese dist inct ions suggest ed by t he t wo schemes I proposed, all sof t ware t echniques f or media creat ion, edit ing, and int eract ion also share some addit ional common t rait s t hat we have not discussed yet . Concept ually, t hese t rait s are dif f erent f rom common media independent t echniques such as copy and past e. What are t hey? Regardless of whet her t hey ref er t o some pre-exist ing inst rument , act ion, or phenomena in t he physical world or not , t he media t echniques available in applicat ion sof t ware are implement ed as comput er programs and f unct ions. Consequent ly, t hey f ollow t he principles of modern sof t ware engineering in general. Addit ionally, t heir int erf aces use est ablished convent ions employed in all applicat ion sof t ware – regardless of whet her t hese t ools are part of spreadsheet sof t ware, invent ory management sof t ware, f inancial analysis sof t ware, or web design sof t ware. T hey are given ext ensive numerical cont rols; t heir set t ings can be saved and ret rieved lat er; t heir use is recorded in a Hist ory window so it can be recalled lat er; t hey can be used aut omat ically by recording and playing Act ions; and so on. (T he t erms “Hist ory palet t e” and “Act ions” ref er t o Phot oshop, but t he concept s behind t hem are f ound in many ot her sof t ware applicat ions.) In ot her words, t hey acquire t he f ull f unct ionalit y of modern sof t ware environment – t he f unct ionalit y t hat is signif icant ly dif f erent f rom t hat of physical t ools and machines t hat exist ed previously. Because of t hese shared implement at ion principles, all applicat ion sof t ware are like species t hat belong t o t he same evolut ionary f amily, wit h media

sof t ware occupying a branch of t he t ree.15 T he pioneers of media sof t ware aimed t o ext end t he propert ies of media t echnologies and t ools t hey were simulat ing in a comput er – in each case, as f ormulat ed by Kay and Goldberg, t he goal was t o creat e “a new medium wit h new propert ies.” Consequent ly, sof t ware t echniques t hat ref er t o previous physical, mechanical, or elect ronic t ools and creat ive processes are also “new media” because t hey behave so dif f erent ly f rom t heir predecessors. We now have an addit ional reason t o support t his conclusion. New f unct ionalit y (f or inst ance, mult iple zoom levels, t he presence of media independent t echniques (copy, past e, search, et c.) and st andard int erf ace convent ions (such as numerical cont rols f or every t ool, t he preview opt ion, or commands hist ory) f urt her separat e even t he most “realist ic” media simulat ion t ool f rom it s predecessors. T his means t hat t o use any media aut horing and edit ing sof t ware is t o use “new media.” Or, t o unf old t his st at ement : all media techniques and tools available in software applications are “new media”- regardless of whether a particular technique or program refers to previous media, physical phenomena, or a common task that existed before it was turned into software, or not. T o writ e using Microsof t Word is t o use new media. T o t ake pict ures wit h a digit al camera is t o use new media. T o apply t he Phot oshop Clouds f ilt er (Filt ers > Render > Clouds) t hat uses a purely aut omat ic algorit hmic process t o creat e a cloudlike t ext ure is t o use new media. T o draw brushst rokes using t he Phot oshop brush t ool is t o use new media. In ot her words, regardless of where a part icular t echnique would f all in our classif icat ion schemes, all t hese t echniques are inst ances of one t ype of t echnology – int eract ive applicat ion sof t ware. And, as Kay and Goldberg explained in t heir 1977 art icle quot ed earlier, int eract ive sof t ware is qualit at ively dif f erent f rom all previous media. Over t he next t hirt y years, t hese dif f erences became only larger. Int eract ivit y, cust omizat ion, t he possibilit y t o bot h simulat e ot her media and inf ormat ion t echnologies and t o def ine new ones, processing of vast amount s of inf ormat ion in real-t ime, cont rol and int eract ion wit h ot her machines such as sensors, support of bot h dist ribut ed asynchronous and real-t ime collaborat ion – t hese and many ot her f unct ionalit ies enabled by modern sof t ware (of course, working t oget her wit h middleware, hardware, and net works) separat e sof t ware f rom all previous media and inf ormat ion t echnologies and t ools invent ed by humans. T he Layers Menu For our f inal analysis, we will go out side t he Filt er menu and examine one of t he key f eat ures of Phot oshop t hat originally dif f erent iat ed it f rom many “consumer” media edit ors – t he Layers palet t e. T he Layers f eat ure was added t o Phot oshop 3.0, released in 1994.16 T o quot e Phot oshop Help, “Layers allow you t o work on one element of an image wit hout dist urbing t he ot hers.”17 From t he point of view of media t heory, however, t he Layers f eat ure is much more t han t hat . It redef ines bot h how images are creat ed and what an “image” act ually means. What used t o be an indivisible whole becomes a composit e of separat e part s. T his is bot h a t heoret ical point , and t he realit y of prof essional design and image edit ing in our sof t ware societ y. Any prof essional design creat ed in Phot oshop is likely t o use mult iple layers (in Phot oshop CS4, a single image can have t housands of layers). Since each layer can always be made invisible, layers can also act as cont ainers f or element s t hat pot ent ially may go int o t he composit ion; t hey can also hold dif f erent versions of t hese element s. A designer can cont rol t he t ransparency of each layer, group t hem t oget her, change t heir order, et c.

Layer opt ions in Phot oshop 3.0.4 (on Windows 98).Image source:ht t p://www.guidebookgallery.org/apps/phot oshop/layeropt ions/

Layer opt ions Phot oshop CS2 (on Mac OS X 10.4 T iger). Image source:ht t p://www.guidebookgallery.org/apps/phot oshop/layeropt ions/ Layers change how a designer or an illust rat or t hinks about images. Inst ead of working on a single design, wit h each change immediat ely (and in t he case of physical media such as paint or ink, irreversibly) af f ect ing t his image, she now works wit h a collect ion of separat e element s. She can play wit h t hese element s, delet ing, creat ing, import ing and modif ying t hem, unt il she is sat isf ied wit h t he f inal composit ion – or a set of possible composit ions t hat can be def ined using Layer Groups. And since t he cont ent s and t he set t ings of all layers are saved in an image f ile, she can always come back t o t his image t o generat e new versions or t o use it s element s in new composit ions. T he layers can also have ot her f unct ions. T o again quot e Phot oshop CS4’s online Help, “Somet imes layers don’t cont ain any apparent cont ent . For example, an adjust ment layer holds color or t onal adjust ment s t hat af f ect t he layers below it . Rat her t han edit image pixels direct ly, you can edit an adjust ment layer and leave t he underlying pixels unchanged.”18 In ot her words, t he layers may cont ain edit ing operat ions t hat can be t urned on and of f , and re-arranged in any order. An image is t hus redef ined as a provisional composit e of bot h cont ent element s and various modif icat ion operat ions t hat are concept ually separat e f rom t he element s. We can compare t his f undament al change in t he concept and pract ice of image creat ion wit h a similar change t hat t ook place in mapping – a shif t f rom paper maps t o GIS (Geographical Inf ormat ion Syst em). Just as all media prof essionals use Phot oshop, t oday t he majorit y of prof essional users t hat deal wit h physical spaces – cit y of f ices, ut ilit y companies, oil companies, market ers, hospit al emergency t eams, geologist s and oceanographers, milit ary and securit y agencies, police, et c. – use GIS syst ems. Consumer mapping sof t ware such as Google Maps, MapQuest and Google Eart h can be t hought of as very simplif ied GIS syst ems. T hey don’t of f er t he f eat ures t hat are crucial f or prof essionals such as spat ial analysis. (An example of spat ial analysis is direct ing sof t ware t o aut omat ically det ermine t he best posit ions of new supermarket s based on exist ing demographic, t ravel, and ret ail dat a.) GIS “capt ures, st ores, analyzes, manages, and present s dat a t hat is linked t o locat ion.”19 T he cent ral concept of GIS is a st ack of dat a layers unit ed by common spat ial coordinat es. T here is an obvious concept ual connect ion t o t he use of layers in Phot oshop and ot her media sof t ware applicat ions – however, GIS syst ems work wit h any dat a t hat has geospat ial coordinat es rat her t han only images posit ioned on separat e layers. T he geospat ial coordinat es align dif f erent dat aset s t oget her. As used by prof essionals, “maps” const ruct ed wit h GIS sof t ware may cont ain hundreds or even t housands of layers. T he layers represent at ion is also used in consumer applicat ions such as Google Eart h. However, while in prof essional applicat ions such as ArcGIS t he user can creat e her own layered map f rom any dat a sources, in Google Eart h users can only add t heir own dat a t o t he base represent at ion of Eart h which is provided by Google and can’t be modif ied. In t he GIS paradigm, space f unct ions as a media platform which can hold all kinds of dat a t ypes t oget her – point s, 2D out lines, maps, images, video, numerical dat a, t ext , links. (Ot her t ypes of such media plat f orms commonly used t oday are dat abases, web pages, and spaces creat ed via 3D composit ing). In Phot oshop t he layers are st ill concept ually subordinat ed t o t he f inal image – when you are using t he applicat ion, it cont inuously renders all visible layers t oget her t o show t his image. So alt hough you can use a Phot oshop image as a kind of media dat abase – a way t o collect t oget her dif f erent image element s – t his is not t he int ended use (you are supposed t o use separat e programs such as Adobe Bridge or Apert ure t o do t hat ). GIS t akes t he idea of a layered represent at ion f urt her. When prof essional users

work wit h GIS applicat ion, t hey may never out put a single map t hat would cont ain all t he dat a. Inst ead, a user select s t he dat a she needs t o work wit h at t hat moment and t hen perf orms various operat ions on t his dat a (pract ically t his means select ing a subset of all dat a layers available). If a t radit ional map of f ers a f ixed represent at ion, GIS, as it s name implies, is an inf ormat ion syst em: a way t o manage and work wit h a large set s of separat e dat a ent it ies linked t oget her – in t his case, via a shared coordinat e syst em. From Programming T echniques to Digital Compositing What is t he concept ual origin of Layers in Phot oshop? Where do Layers belong t o in relat ion t o my t axonomies of sof t ware-based media t echniques? T hinking about various possible sources of t his concept and also considering how it relat es t o ot her modern media edit ing t echniques t akes us in a number of dif f erent direct ions. First of all, layers is not specif ic t o rast er image edit ors such as Phot oshop; t his t echnique is also used in vect or image edit ors (Illust rat or), mot ion graphics and composit ing sof t ware (Af t er Ef f ect s), video edit ors (Final Cut ), and sound edit ors (Pro T ools). In programs t hat work wit h t ime-based dat a – sound edit ors, animat ion and composit ing programs, and video and f ilm edit ors – layers are usually ref erred t o as “channels” or “t racks”; t hese dif f erent t erms point t o part icular physical and elect ronic media which a corresponding digit al applicat ion has replaced (analog video swit chers, mult it rack audio recorders). Despit e t he dif f erence in t erms, t he t echnique f unct ions in t he same way in all t hese applicat ions: a f inal composit ion is a result of a “adding up” dat a (t echnically, a composit e) st ored in dif f erent layers/channels/t racks. Phot oshop Help explains Layers in t he f ollowing way: “Phot oshop layers are like sheet s of st acked acet at e. You can see t hrough t ransparent areas of a layer t o t he layers below.”20 Alt hough not explicit ly named by t his Help art icle, t he ref erence here is t o t he st andard t echnique of 20t h cent ury commercial animat ion – cell animat ion. Like a f ilm camera mount ed above t he animat ion st and, Phot oshop sof t ware is cont inuously “shoot ing” t he image creat ed t hrough a juxt aposit ion of visual element s cont ained on separat e layers. It is not surprising t hat Phot oshop Layers are closely relat ed t o 20t h cent ury visual media t echniques such as cell animat ion, as well as t o various pract ices of pre-digit al composit ing such as mult iple exposure, background project ion, mat t es in f ilmmaking, and video keying.21 However, t here is also a st rong concept ual link bet ween image Layers and 20t h cent ury music t echnology. T he use of layers in media sof t ware t o separat e dif f erent element s of a visual and/or t emporal composit ion st rongly parallels t he earlier pract ice of mult it rack audio recording. T he invent or of mult it rack recording was t he guit arist Les Paul; in 1953 he commissioned Ampex t o built t he f irst eight -t rack recorder. In t he 1960s mult i-t rack recorders were already being used by Frank Zappa, t he Beach Boys and t he Beat les; f rom t hat point on, mult it rack recording became t he st andard pract ice f or all music recording and arranging.22 Originally a bulky and very expensive machine, a mult i-t rack recorder was event ually simulat ed in sof t ware and is now available in many applicat ions. For inst ance, since 2004 Apple has included t he mult it rack recorder and edit or GarageBand on all it s new comput ers. Ot her popular sof t ware implement at ions include f ree applicat ion Audacit y and prof essionallevel Pro T ools. Finally, yet anot her lead links Layers t o a general principle of modern comput er programming. In 1984 t wo comput er scient ist s T homas Port er and T homas Duf f working f or ILM (Indust rial Light and Magic, a special ef f ect s unit of Lucasf ilm) f ormally def ined t he concept of digital compositing in a paper present ed at SIGGRAPH.23 T he concept emerged f rom t he work ILM was doing on special ef f ect s scenes f or 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. T he key idea was t o render each separat e element wit h a mat t e channel cont aining t ransparency inf ormat ion. T his allowed t he f ilmmakers t o creat e each element separat ely and t hen lat er combine t hem int o a phot orealist ic 3D scene.

Illust rat ion of digit al composit ing f rom T homas Port er and T om Duf f , “Composit ing Digit al Images,” Comput er Graphics vol. 18, no. 3 (July 1984): 253-259. Port er and Duf f ’s paper makes an analogy bet ween creat ing a f inal scene by composit ing 3D element s and assembling separat e code modules int o a complet e comput er program. As Port er and Duf f explain, t he experience of writ ing sof t ware in t his way led t hem t o consider using t he same st rat egy f or making images and animat ions. In bot h cases, t he part s can be re-used t o make new wholes: Experience has t aught us t o break down large bodies of source code int o separat e modules in order t o save compilat ion t ime. An error in one rout ine f orces only t he recompilat ion of it s module and t he relat ively quick reloading of t he ent ire program. Similarly, small errors in colorat ion or design in one object should not f orce “recompilat ion” of t he ent ire image.24 T he same idea of t reat ing an image as a collect ion of element s t hat can be changed independent ly and re-assembled int o new images is behind Phot oshop Layers. Import ant ly, Phot oshop was developed at t he same place where t he principles of digit al composit ing were def ined earlier. T he f irst version of t he program was writ t en by brot hers T homas and John Knoll when T homas t ook a six-mont h leave f rom t he PhD program at t he Universit y of Michigan in 1988 t o join his brot her who was t hen working at ILM. T his link bet ween a popular sof t ware t echnique f or image edit ing and a general principle of modern comput er programming is very t elling. It is a perf ect example of how all element s of modern media sof t ware ecosyst em – applicat ions, f ile f ormat s, int erf aces, t echniques, t ools and algorit hms used t o creat e, view, edit , and share media cont ent – have not just one but t wo parent s, each wit h t heir own set of DNAs: media and cult ural pract ices, on t he one hand, and sof t ware development , on t he ot her. In short : t hrough t he work of many people, f rom Ivan Sut herland in early 1960s, t o t he t eams at ILM, Macromedia, Adobe, Apple and ot her companies in t he 1980s and 1990s, media becomes sof t ware – wit h all t he t heoret ical and pract ical consequences such a t ransit ion ent ails. T his art icle dives int o Phot oshop Filt er and Layers menus t o discuss some of t hese consequences – but more st ill remain t o be uncovered.

Ref erences Adobe, Photoshop Help, ht t p://help.adobe.com/en_US/Phot oshop/11.0/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. Dict ionary.com, “Wave. (n.d.),” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Ret rieved December 29, 2007, f rom Dict ionary.com websit e: ht t p://dict ionary.ref erence.com/browse/wave/. Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, “Personal Dynamic Media”, IEEE Computer. Vol.

10 No. 3 (March), 1977. Lakof f , George & Mark Johnson (1980), Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Universit y of Chicago Press. Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (T he MIT Press, 2001.) T homas Port er and T om Duf f , “Composit ing Digit al Images,” Computer Graphics vol. 18, no. 3 (July 1984): 253-259. Lia, Liaworks, ht t p://www.liaworks.com/cat egory/t heproject s/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. Manovich, Lev. “Alan Kay’s Universal Media Machine,” in Arild Fet veit & Git t e Bang St ald, eds., Nort hern Light s 2006: Digit al Aest het ics and Communicat ion (Universit y of Copenhagen, 2007). Lev Manovich, Sof t ware T akes Command. T he f irst draf t November 2008, online at , ht t p://www.sof t warest udies.com/sof t book/. Azriel Rosenf eld, Pict ure Processing by Comput er (New York: Academic Press, 1969). C.E. Shannon, “A Mat hemat ical T heory of Communicat ion”, Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, pp. 379-423, 623-656, July, Oct ober, 1948. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Mont f ort , eds., New Media Reader, (T he MIT Press, 2003), 395. Emphasis mine – L.M. Wikipedia, ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/ accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. 1. T his is t he goal of my book in progress Sof t ware T akes Command. T he f irst draf t was released online under Creat ive Commons license in November 2008 at ht t p://www.sof t warest udies.com/sof t book/. (up) 2. I discuss how pioneers of comput at ional media syst emat ically added new propert ies t o t heir simulat ions of prior physical media in much more det ail in Manovich, Lev. “Alan Kay’s Universal Media Machine,” in Arild Fet veit & Git t e Bang St ald, eds., Northern Lights 2006: Digital Aesthetics and Communication (Universit y of Copenhagen, 2007). T he summary of f ered here is ext ract ed f rom t his art icle. T he art icle is available online at ht t p://www.manovich.net /. (up) 3. Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, ‘Personal Dynamic Media’, IEEE Computer. Vol. 10 No. 3 (March), 1977. T his quot e is t he reprint of t his art icle in The New Media Reader, eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Mont f ort (T he MIT Press, 2003), 395. Emphasis mine – L.M. (up) 4. For a hist ory of Phot oshop versions releases, see ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Phot oshop_release_hist ory/. (up) 5. ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept ual_blending/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 6. Ibid (up) 7. T hus, development of sof t ware brings dif f erent media t ypes closer t oget her because t he same t echniques can be used on all of t hem. At t he same t ime, “media” now share a relat ionship wit h all ot her inf ormat ion t ypes, be t hey f inancial dat a, pat ient records, result s of a scient if ic experiment s, et c. (up) 8. C.E. Shannon, “A Mat hemat ical T heory of Communicat ion”, Bell Syst em T echnical Journal, vol. 27, pp. 379-423, 623-656, July, Oct ober, 1948. (up) 9. Even t hough image processing represent s an act ive area of comput er science, and is widely used in cont emporary societ ies, I am not aware of any books or even art icles t hat t race it s hist ory. A f ut ure hist orian would have t o ref er t o t he original publicat ions in t he f ield, such as it s f irst t ext book: Azriel Rosenf eld, Picture Processing by Computer (New York: Academic Press, 1969). (up) 10. ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_signal_processing/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 11. wave. (n.d.). Dict ionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Ret rieved December 29, 2007, f rom Dict ionary.com websit e: ht t p://dict ionary.ref erence.com/browse/wave/. (up) 12. Lakof f , George & Mark Johnson (1980), Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Universit y of Chicago Press. (up) 13. ht t p://www.liaworks.com/cat egory/t heproject s/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 14. ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraf t , accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 15. Cont emporary biology no longer uses t he idea of evolut ionary t ree; t he “species” concept has similarly proved t o be problemat ic. Here I am using t hese t erms only met aphorically. (up) 16. ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Phot oshop_release_hist ory, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 17. ht t p://help.adobe.com/en_US/Phot oshop/11.0/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 18. ht t p://help.adobe.com/en_US/Phot oshop/11.0/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 19. ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIS/, accessed accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 20. Phot oshop CS4 Help, “About layers.” ht t p://help.adobe.com/en_US/Phot oshop/11.0/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 21. T he chapt er “Composit ing” in T he Language of New Media present s an “archeology” of digit al composit ing t hat discusses t he links bet ween t hese earlier t echnologies. Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (T he MIT Press, 2001.) (up) 22. See ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mult it rack_t ape_recorder/ and ht t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hist ory_of _mult it rack_recording/, accessed Oct ober 9, 2011. (up) 23. T homas Port er and T om Duf f , “Composit ing Digit al Images,” Computer Graphics vol. 18, no. 3 (July 1984): 253-259. (up) 24. Ibid (up) Series Navigat ion

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