For those who do not remember the name Memorex, it is the name of a manufacturer of recording tape used in VHS TV recorders. (Before CD's, DVD's, and TiVo). Their advertising suggested that the taped version was as good as the real performance of whatever was recorded. It was "so good that you could not tell if it was real or not". That was during the 1980's when illusion was trying to replace reality.
Flash forward to the present and we are asked to believe that what we see is real when so much of what we see on TV and the Net is based on "Green Screen", and CGI, (Computer Generated Imagery). We are asked to believe that someone selling potatoes from Idaho is standing in a field of potatoes growing behind her. This may have been in a real field in Idaho, but it is more likely that it is green screen and is taped in a studio. The lead photo above is not really from the Eiffel Tower. I fabricated it from my first use of Photoshop.
But here is the question that I have to ask. Does it matter whether or not it is real or an illusion? Well, I think that it does when it is meant to deceive or mislead us into accepting the content. There are some CGI images that make sense and have a context like fantasy movies. Or when entire cities explode and we see floods in programs that are clearly synthetic. But what happens when we will be unable to distinguish between reality and illusion?
The trend as I see it is a bit disturbing. Yes, because of cost, the computer will be the main source of images, but, I believe that we will eventually not recognize when the images have been manipulated to deceive us. I find this more likely as I hear TV viewers talk about reality TV as real! If we can be duped by the real housewives of wherever, we are in trouble! By the way, the weather in France was great...
Flash forward to the present and we are asked to believe that what we see is real when so much of what we see on TV and the Net is based on "Green Screen", and CGI, (Computer Generated Imagery). We are asked to believe that someone selling potatoes from Idaho is standing in a field of potatoes growing behind her. This may have been in a real field in Idaho, but it is more likely that it is green screen and is taped in a studio. The lead photo above is not really from the Eiffel Tower. I fabricated it from my first use of Photoshop.
But here is the question that I have to ask. Does it matter whether or not it is real or an illusion? Well, I think that it does when it is meant to deceive or mislead us into accepting the content. There are some CGI images that make sense and have a context like fantasy movies. Or when entire cities explode and we see floods in programs that are clearly synthetic. But what happens when we will be unable to distinguish between reality and illusion?
The trend as I see it is a bit disturbing. Yes, because of cost, the computer will be the main source of images, but, I believe that we will eventually not recognize when the images have been manipulated to deceive us. I find this more likely as I hear TV viewers talk about reality TV as real! If we can be duped by the real housewives of wherever, we are in trouble! By the way, the weather in France was great...
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