Noise-to-Signal Studies, 1986-1990
Fuji prototype ink-jet colour prints, 24 x 30" each



A series of investigations using image-processing algorithms derived from space satellite and surveillance literature with a focus on the relationship of noise and signal as defined by Claude Shannon's Information Theory. The AT&T Targa Truevision Raster Graphics video capture card released in 1985 was the first low-end system that allowed digital capture of video/photographic analog images, producing 16 bit (65536 color) photographic quality images on computers. The semiotics of television iconography therefore became a topic of interest in the exploration of what content to explore, in specific the staging of authority.

Other experiments followed to generate images purely from computer code, studying randomness using Brownian, Gaussian and fractal methods as a means to challenge and expand on the photographic paradigm. Through color sampling and analysis of digitized images, I could create look-up tables by which to visually transform an image from bronze, to rust, to copper, etc. "Algorithmic Texture" is from a series created using 2D convolution equations.

The unique nature of these images is that they were digitally produced through software processing, then digitally transferred to an early prototype Fuji ink-jet print process called "JetGraphix", stationed near UCLA and run by Mits Kataoka. Projects such as The Noise Factor; Poetics of the News; Bronze & Rust; Copyright; Fire in the Ashes/Ashes in the Wind; Words & Words, and others were the first experiments integrating computer processing in relation to conceptual art and the photographic paradigm. Computer generated art in the late 1980's was still in its infancy and not yet identified as a medium in itself.

Portfolio

From Noise to Signal: Digital Photographic-Based Works on Paper (Background History)

Photography & Belief in the Computer Age (SF Cameraworks, 1988 Exhibition Text)