"Real" Wars: Aesthetics and Professionalism in Computer Animation
Publication
Manovich, Lev. "'Real' Wars: Esthetics and Professionalism in Computer Animation." Design Issues 6, no. 1 (Fall 1991): 18-25. Journal article.
Abstract
The rise of modern mass culture has created a new profession — a designer. Like other professionals, designers must satisfy their clients while upholding a professional identity. Unlike the others, designers also establish their professionalism through the appearances of their products. The appearance of every design product not only reflects the client's desires but also signals the designer's excellence.
The strive for illusionism in computer animation should not be taken for granted as a natural progress. The notion of illusionism acts as an umbrella for a number of distinct aesthetic standards, such as the smoothness of image and complexity of motion. The role played by these standards is not to make computer-generated images more illusionistic, more life-like, or more persuasive to the viewers. Rather, they allow the designers to signal their professional status, thus serving as the tools of competition within the industry.
Following Pierre Bourdieu's proposition that aesthetic preferences have the power to legitimate social distinctions precisely because they are proclaimed to be free of social values, the article examines how the standards of smoothness and complexity in 3D computer animation are so effective in protecting the status of the professionals because they figure in the realm of the aesthetic. The struggle for the simulation of the real masks another struggle — the real war for professional survival.