Reviewing The Comupter in The Visual Arts (Reviewed by: Rafiq R. Elmansy)

            In her book "The Computer in the Visual Arts" , Anne Morgan filled the gap between computer concept and art concept for those who want to use computer in visual arts or miss the computer graphic concepts, while being more concern in learning tools and graphic software.

 

This book takes you through the history of graphic design and how the new technology comes to life with new concepts in all the computer graphic fields; like printing, 2D and 3D graphics, and how these concepts are related to develop the computer hardware and tools.

 

The title is accurate in delivering the idea included in the book. I find "The Computer in the Visual Arts" useful for beginner and advanced users of the computer graphics either for the visual arts or the commercial proposes.

 

The "The Computer in the Visual Art" book consists of 12 chapters. Anne started her book with a brief history of the computer art in the first chapter and concerned in chapters 2 and 4 with the 2D graphics, while the 3 ^rd chapter was about the computer hardware used in the computer graphics. The color concepts are covered in 5^th chapter and the concepts of the printing are described in the 6^th chapter.

 

The 3D concepts are described in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th chapters, the video concepts are described in the 10 ^th chapter and the multimedia and interactivity are covered in chapter 11. Anne did not miss to mention some of the general concepts of the web in chapter 12.

In the end of the book, Anne included a conclusion and two appendixes about the modern art periods and computer theory.

 

Also, Anne included a very useful illustration to describe computer concepts. Moreover, she comprised an interesting gallery of computer graphics samples.

 

Although it is hard to include all the concepts of the fields mentioned in this book, Anne described some important concepts in each field in a simple way, which pushes me to think of reading more of her books.

 

For me as a graphic designer, I did not find the chance to go that much deeper in the computer graphic concepts, while being more concern in learning tools and graphic software. And when I wanted to know more about the computer concepts, I did not find many books concern about this issue, till I got this book, which was a good opportunity to fill what I miss in the computer graphic concept with the interesting way Anne used.

 

So, if you are a beginner in computer graphic field and got this book, then it is a good chance for you to know a general knowledge about the different computer concepts in many fields.

 

Product Details:

Book Name: The Comupter in The Visual Arts 

Written by: Anne Morgan Spalter

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

ISBN: 0201386003