Photorealism, Blockchains, Neural Nets, Algorithmic Governance: Ray Tracing Graphical Media - Liam Magee
Date: Thursday, 5 September 2019
Time: 11.30am–1pm
Venue: EZ.G.23, Female Orphan School, Parramatta South campus, Western Sydney University
Photorealism, Blockchains, Neural Nets, Algorithmic Governance: Ray Tracing Graphical Media
Presenter: Dr Liam Magee
Discussant: Professor Ned Rossiter
Abstract
Nvidia's 2018 Turing graphics processing unit (GPU) introduced real-time ray tracing, a technique for adding physics-based realistic illumination to three-dimensional scenes. Marketed as the 'reinvention of computer graphics', ray tracing today seeks to revive the company's fortunes after the collapse of cryptocurrencies and decline in data centre revenues.
The technique dates back four decades and marks the culmination of a formative period of research, from 1965 to 1979, that was to launch the computer graphics industry. Sponsored by ARPA, much of this research was conducted at the University of Utah's computer science department, and its alumni would later found Adobe, Pixar and Netscape. From its early evangelical associations to its latest sublime renderings, the history of computer graphics shows a recurrent mix of serendipitous technology transfer with a more determinant rapture with graphical media.
These determinations permit a wider interrogation of the operative role of the GPU in present computational cultures. Three effective tendencies can be articulated: the generation of economies, through cryptocurrency mining and deep learning; the adjustment of media norms, through the glitch aesthetics of YouTube gaming channels; and the militarisation of semiconductor IP, which forms one part of US complaints about Chinese industrial practice. Together these realign the space in which capital, power and subjectivity mobilise.
Biography
Dr Liam Magee is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) and together with Professor Ned Rossiter convenes the Digital Life Research Program. He is Chief Investigator, with Associate Professor Juan Salazar, Professor Paul James and Professor Elizabeth Leane, on "Antarctic Cities and the Global Commons", where he develops, with Dr Andrea Pollio, "Antarctic Futures", an digital game for engaging young people with Antarctic and environmental issues. Other current funded projects include studies on disability, migration and technology; human-machine interaction and organisational training; and gaming and youth wellbeing. He has published recently with Big Data & Society and Information, Communication & Society.