Drawing comparing the axis of the body with the pelvis in the human and the cat, by Joseph Leidy.
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University
Model Bodies: The Art, Science, and Craft of Human Modeling for 3-D Computer Graphics and Animation, 1960-1995
My monograph examines the history of human modeling for computer graphics and animation in the United States and Canada from the early 1960s through mid-1990s. I investigate the circumstances in which engineers, scientists, animators, artists, and human models implemented both digital and analog technologies to render 3-dimensional humanoid forms for graphics research and commercial media. To date, scholars have overlooked the significance of the labor-intensive role of the human model, particularly in relation to the array of instruments used to discretize, digitize, and animate the human body. This project brings a fresh perspective to histories of science and technology, emphasizing the tactile, craft-based techniques employed to get information about bodies and the way they move into computer systems.
Read more about Alana's work here.
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