Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University
2018 to 2019
Research Fellow
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.