Representation Degree Zero

Alberto Sdegno

doi:10.26375/disegno.3.2018.10

Authors

Alberto Sdegno Dipartimento Politecnico di Ingegneria e Architettura, Università degli Studi di Udine,

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26375/disegno.3.2018.10

Abstract

“Conventionally, of course, drawing is an active process which leaves a trail of carbon on the paper. With a computer sketch, however, any line segment is straight and can be relocated by moving one or both of its end points.” [Sutherland 1963, p. 102]. With these surprisingly laconic words, the twenty-five-year-old Ivan Sutherland described, in his doctoral thesis [1], the most obvious difference between a traditional drawing and an electronic graphic document. Creator of the first interactive design system to be made public, called Sketchpad, presented precisely in the abovementioned thesis, and the first man to have drawn luminous lines on a monitor, he posed questions that have not yet been fully resolved even today, more than fifty years after that earliest act. Is it possible, in fact, to call this new iconic artifact with the same name by which an object drawn by hand has been defined? Sutherland answered in the abovementioned chapter that he had significantly entitled Drawing vs. moving: “[…] there is no state of the system that can be called ‘drawing’”.

References

AA.VV. (1963). AFIPS Conference Proceedings. 1963 Spring Joint Computer Conference. Washington, DC-London: Spartan Books, Inc.-Macmillan and Co., Ltd.

Bardini, T. (2000). Bootstrapping. Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution and the Origins of Personal Computing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Barthes, R. (1967). Writing Degree Zero. London: Jonathan Cape (First ed. Le degré zéro de l’écriture. Paris: Editions du Seuil 1953).

Baudrillard, J., Nouvel J. (2002). The Singular Objects of Architecture. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press (First ed. Les objects singuliers: architecture et philosophie. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 2000).

Billingsley, F.C. (1965). Digital Video Processing at JPL. In E.B. Turner (ed.). Electronic Imaging Techniques I, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 0003, XV, pp. 1-19. Los Angeles, CA, USA: SPIE.

Cardone, V. (2017). Gaspard Monge padre dell’ingegnere contemporaneo. Roma: DEI Tipografia del Genio Civile. 108 3 / 2018

Cardoso Llach, D. (2015). Builders of the vision. Software and the imagination of design. New York and London: Routledge.

Carpo, M. (2011). The Alphabet and the Algorithm. Cambridge, Mass.-London: The MIT Press.

Carpo, M. (2017). The Second Digital Turn. Design Beyond Intelligence. Cambridge, Mass.-London: The MIT Press.

Carpo, M. (2018). Post-Digital “Quitters”: Why the Shift Toward Collage Is Worrying. In Metropolis, 26.3.2018. <https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/post-digital-collage/> (accessed 2018, September 10).

Caudell, T.P., Mizell, D. (1992). Augmented reality. An application of headsup display technology to manual manufacturing processes. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Vol. II, pp. 659-669. Kauai, HI, USA: IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/HICSS.1992.183317.

Coons, S.A., Mann, R.W. (1960). Computer-Aided Design related to the Engineering Design Process. Technical Memorandum 8436-TM-5, Electronic System Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering. Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eisenman, P. (1992). Oltre lo sguardo. L’architettura nell’epoca dei media elettronici. In Domus, No. 734, pp. 17-24.

Johnson, T.E. (1963). Sketchpad III. Three Dimensional Graphical Communication with a Digital Computer. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kirsch, R.A. et al. (1958). Experiments in Processing Pictorial Information with a digital computer. In Proceedings of the Eastern Joint Computer Conference. New York: The Institute of Radio Engineers, Inc., pp. 221-229.

Lambert, J.H. (1760). Photometria Sive de Mensura et Gradibus Luminis, Colorum et Umbrae. Augsburg, Germany: Augustae Vindelicorum.

Levi, D., Tucker, P. (1997). Ruskin didatta: il disegno tra disciplina e diletto. Venezia: Marsilio.

Lyon, R.F. (2006). A Brief History of ‘Pixel’. In N. Sampat, J.M. DiCarlo, R.A. Martin (eds.). Digital Photography II. Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging. SPIE Vol. 6069, 606901, pp. 1-15.

Lynn, G. (ed.) (2013). Archeology of the Digital. Montréal-Berlin: Canadian Centre for Architecture-Sternberg Press.

Malevič, K. (1915). От кубизма к супрематизму. Новый живописный реализм. <http://rozanova.net/second_page.pl?id=443&catid=14> (accessed 2018, September 20).

Mitchell, W.J. (1977). Computer-Aided Architectural Design. New York: Petrocelli/ Charter.

Negroponte, N. (ed.) (1975). Computer Aids to Design and Architecture. New York: Petrocelli/Charter.

Pollack, S. (2006). Sketches of Frank Gehry. Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, film, 81’ (Italian translation Frank Gehry. Creatore di sogni. Milano: Feltrinelli).

Purini, F. (2000). Comporre l’architettura. Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Rule, J.T., Coons, S.A. (1961). Graphics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ruskin, J. (1957). The Elements of Drawing. London: Smith, Elder 1857.

Sacchi, L. (2018). Come cambia il disegno. In diségno, No. 3, pp. 131-142.

Saggio, A. (2007). Introduzione alla rivoluzione informatica in architettura. Roma: Carocci.

Scolari, M. (1988). L’idea di modello. In Eidos, No. 2, pp. 16-39.

Sdegno, A. (2001). E-architecture. Architecture in the Computer Age. In Casabella, No. 691, pp. 94-95.

Sdegno, A. (2012). Sulle origini della teoria del disegno digitale. In memoria di Steven A. Coons (1912-1979). In L. Carlevaris, M. Filippa (a cura di). Elogio della teoria: identità delle discipline della rappresentazione e del rilievo, pp. 333-341. Roma: Gangemi Editore.

Sdegno, A. (2013). Sketchpad: sulla nascita del disegno digitale. In Disegnare. Idee, immagini, No. 46, pp. 74-81.

Sutherland, I.E. (1963). Sketchpad. A Man-Machine Graphical Communication

System. PhD Thesis. Boston, MA: Massachussets Institute of Technology.

Sutherland, I.E. (1968). A head-mounted three-dimensional display. In AFIPS Conference Proceedings. 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference. Vol. 33, pp. 757-764. Washington, DC: The Thompson Book Company.

Unali, M. (2014). Atlante dell’abitare virtuale. Roma: Gangemi Editore.

Viollet-le-Duc, E. (1992). Storia di un disegnatore. Come si impara a disegnare. Venezia: Edizioni del Cavallino (First ed. Histoire d’un dessinateur. Comment on apprend a dessiner. Paris: J. Hetzel & Cie 1879).

Ward, J.E. (1960). Preface, In Coons, Mann 1960, pp. I-V.