“Cubical Living” by Philipp J. Bosel
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I had a photography background before I came to England two years ago. After I had explored photography in the traditonal way. I became more and more interested in the idea of photo-stories. In a way that the whole presentation of photographs represent one work. In that way I could express time or changes or give the onlooker the feeling of three dimensions. The biggest work in this direction I have done with a friend, Burkhard Maus, in 1984. We took photographs of the entire Berlin Wall between East· and West-Berlin. 1985-1986 we presented this work in the Aarhus Kunstmuseum Denmark. The contact sheets are acquired by the Bibliotheque Nationale de Photographie in Paris.
I have worked for five years as a freelance photographer. Through an international conference of TV-design in Cologne by the WOR TV & Radio Station in 1986, I became more and more interested in the new media of computer graphics and computer animmion. When I went to that conference I was amazed about the possibilities in producing computer graphics. My most interest in terms of computer graphics was always the combination of live action and computer graphics. At that conference I met Or. John Vince who told me about the facilities at Middlesex Polytechnic. Because at that time ( 1986-1987) there were no full time courses in computer graphics I applied for a course im film & video production. During that year I became more and more curious in doing an animation with computers. I produced in that year the mixed video animation “CUBICAL LIVING”
That was not only the first time I used computers. Since I didn’t have a programming background, it was also the first time I used video and editing equipment. ln that work I modelled the objects with the computer using the software PICASO & PRISM (by Dr. John Vince). After six months of writing the animation software of “Cubical Living” I thought to myself: do we use computers to produce a piece of art or are we used by computers to declare art. When I wrote the storyboard of “Cubical Living” I wasn’t sure if we go ahead to the future or are we back in the past. “Cubical Living” represents the circle we are working in. But in the end we are the motor and not the street and it is moving us from A to B.
Now I am doing the MA in Computer & Design and I think we should use computers just in the area where the computer could do something new or better than any otber media. For the output it doesn’t matter what we put in the input. We should start to use computers but not to be used.
