"Then One Day I Got In." Computer Imaging, Realism Tron
2012; Volume: 89; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2562-2528
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoDirector Steven Lisberger's groundbreaking effects film Tron (1982) concludes with a single static shot (captured from roof of a skyscraper) of an anonymous city as it moves from light to darkness. As grey cityscape transforms into a bustling neon glow and ultimately fades to black, image's prescient metaphor becomes clear: real-world nighttime city closely resembles film's computer world (the Grid), suggesting that Tron is merely a step towards an inevitable future in which audience's second life inside of machine will become increasingly normalized. Tron's delayed sequel Tron Legacy (directed by Joseph Kosinski, released some 28 years later) mirrors Tron's fitting coda in its commencement--abstract lines over a basic grid slowly transform into a city street as Kevin Flynn (in voiceover) explains his conception of Grid. If finale of Tron is to suggest a hopeful utopian future enabled by computers, opening of Tron Legacy seems to announce arrival of that future. Though likening of corporeal body of city to abstract network of machine interface seems appropriate two films that often conflate and fantasy on level of narrative, changing attitudes between coda of Tron and prologue of its sequel are perhaps representative of a shift in Tron's means of presenting inside world of computer across 28 years between their respective releases. The ultimate question posed by Tron and Tron Legacy is one of technology and realism, and how traditional cinematic codes thought to demarcate notions of reality have been adapted to growing field of computer graphics, despite their inherent ability to represent anything conceivable to human imagination. In Chapter 4 of his monumental study of media, Lev Manovich takes up question of realism in computer generated imaging, noting that after 20th century art world's rejection of pursuit of illusionism: The production of illusionistic representations has become domain of mass culture and of media technologies--photography, film, and video [...] Today, everywhere, these machines are being replaced by new digital illusion generators--computers [...] this massive replacement is one of key economic factors that keeps new media industries expanding. As a consequence these industries are obsessed with visual illusionism. (1) This obsession with visual illusionism, defined by perceived ability of a computer generated image to faithfully recreate reality, mirrors similar concerns illusionism in visual arts at large, concerns that are reduced by Manovich into 3 primary arguments: image's representations must share some features with physical it recreates; image should be presented in a manner that reflects natural human vision; each new image should contain an element of realistic representation that is superior to last: for instance, evolution of cinema from silent to sound to color. (2) Manovich takes up these arguments and, using film theories of four primary scholars of cinematic realism--Andre Bazin, Jean-Louis Comolli, David Bordwell and Janet Staiger--effectively asserts that history of realism in computer-generated imagery (CGI)--from its development in late 1970s to its renaissance in early 1990s--echoes similar developments in history of cinema from its emergence in 1895 to present era of digital cinema. By addressing each of these theorists in turn, and examining Manovich's application of their theories to medium of CGI, one is able to discover in Tron and Tron Legacy fulfillment of Manovich's argument that the history of technological innovation and research is presented as a progression towards real-ism--the ability to simulate any object in such a way that its computer image is indistinguishable from a photograph (3) And yet while this teleological progress narrative of finding realism in computer representations can be discovered in movement from Tron to Tron Legacy, latter film's increased library of codes of cinematic realism marks a regression in utopian potential of Tron's visual style. …
Referência(s)