William Fetter

William Alan Fetter (1963)

William Alan Fetter (also Bill Fetter ; born March 14, 1928 in Independence , † June 23, 2002 in Bellevue ) was an American graphic designer and pioneer of computer graphics . From 1959, Fetter researched the perspective basics for computer animation of human figures. He was the first to create a human figure as a 3D computer model for computer animation in films in 1964 . As First Man , Boeing Man and now known as BOEMAN by the Boeing company , Fetter preferred the term human figure for the aircraft pilot. In a team with Verne Hudson, he coined the term Computer Graphics in 1960 . At the time he was art director at the Boeing Company in Wichita .

Life

William A. Fetter attended school in Englewood and graduated from Northeast High School in Kansas City in 1945 . He studied at the University of Illinois where he was a 1952 BA as a graphic designer received. He started his professional career while studying at the University of Illinois Press (UIP), a US university publisher . He was employed there from 1952 to 1954. Even then, he was thinking of using computers as a tool for his work as a graphic designer. He wrote in 1966:

"The need for a computer to simplify certain graphic procedures first became evident to me at the University of Illinois Press Art Division, when I had to design and render an illustrated title page for" Space Medicine ".

The need to use a computer to simplify graphical processes first became apparent to me when I was designing and illustrating a front page on "Space Medicine" for the University of Illinois Press Design Department. "

In 1954 he became art director of Family Weekly magazine in Chicago . As he wrote in the article Computer Graphic at Boeing in Print magazine , he was interested in developing a computer program that would simplify the design of the magazine in the final phase. Together with a computer manager he worked on the development of a program. Before development could be completed, Fetter accepted an employment contract as Art Director of Boeing in Wichita in 1959.

Computer graphics

Word formation

In 1960, when "we" at boeing coined the term Computer Graphics , ... - When "we" coined the term Computer Graphics in 1960 , Fetter wrote in 1966 in Print magazine on page 29. In the article he also talks about the team, that was involved. In the course of time it was written repeatedly and everywhere that Fetter was the first to coined the term. He later realized the need to make it clear that his supervisor, Verne L. Hudson, was the first on the team to use the word. Meanwhile, Boeing calls Verne L. Hudson as the first to coined this term.

In 1966, in the editorial of the special edition The Designer and the Computer, Martin Fox, editor of Print magazine , explained to his readers the semantic difference between the words graphics and design , how traditional graphic artists and designers use and understand words compared to the generation of computer graphics designers.

Computer Graphics

Since the beginning of 1950, the development of controlling machines with computers in industrial production has been successful. In the mid-1950s, the development of CAD programs for 2D and 3D production drawings began in industries. Fetter was hired by Boeing in 1959 as the art director of the CAD department to research new ideas for the production of 3D drawings as a creative. He created a new concept for drawing perspectives. With the support of Walter Bernhardt, Assistant Professor of Applied Mechanics at Wichita State University , Kansas, his ideas were successfully implemented in mathematical formulas. These were then entered into the computer by programmers. Fetter was the team leader (supervisor) of this group. Due to the success of the first tests, a research program was started by Boeing in November 1960. Fetter was the manager of the project. The result of the research was filed for a US patent in November 1961 as the Planar Illustration Method and Apparatus and granted as a patent in 1970 with the number 3,519,997. Architectural Record magazine , January 1965, describes how Fetter worked as a graphic designer on a team with engineers and programmers to create the computer graphics.

"Mr. Fetter, who is a graphic artist and not a mathematician, achieved the results he desired by describing the process of perspective drawing on a chalk board, and letting others write a computer program for the mathematically equivalent operations.

Mr. Fetter, who is a graphic artist and not a mathematician, achieved the results by showing the perspective drawing to be achieved on a chalk board. Others wrote the mathematical operations required for the computer programs. "

The research department moved from Wichita to Seattle in 1963, and Fetter became the manager of Boeing's newly formed Computer Graphics Group .

Human Figure

Fetter became famous for creating the first human figure in a series of computer graphics of an airplane pilot. In the aforementioned article in Print magazine , he described the development of computer graphics and the human figure at Boeing. He also mentioned the need for a team of good employees. From the beginning it was the aim of the Computer Graphics Group to use the pilot as animation in films. The work began in 1964 and from 1966 the Human Figure was presented at conferences and lectures by Fetter. The film SST Cockpit Visibility Simulation was also shown at the lectures from 1966 onwards.

The first human figure he created with a computer for a film, however, was the landing signal officer on an aircraft carrier CV A-59 . It was featured in a short CV A-59 film . The figure was only a silhouette and not as detailed as the First Man . In November 1964, Fetter published pictures of this in his book Computer Graphics in Communication in the chapter Aircraft Carrier Landing Depiction .

The Portland EAT Group

In 1965 Fetter was invited to a meeting at Bell Telephone Laboratories , Murray Hill , New Jersey , where he was the only one trained in graphics and art. The meeting was attended by Ken Knowlton and Ed Zajac of Bell Laboratories and others who were researching the advancement of computer films. While traveling to New York City, he met the EAT group and became an active member. His contacts with the Movement Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) inspired him in 1968 to help found the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Movement Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT). At the founding event, Fetter and Hans Graf showed the film Sorcerer's Apprentice .

From 1969

After retiring from Boeing, he was Vice President of Graphcomp Sciences Corporation in California from 1969 to 1970. At Southern Illinois University , Carbondale , he began to teach in 1970 and continue his research. He was head of the design department there for two years. In 1977 he became director of research at the Southern Illinois Research Institute (SIRIUS) in Bellevue .

In 1970, through an agreement with the Boeing Company and Computer Graphics, Inc., Fetter was able to use the First Man data for a 30-second TV commercial. In addition, the movement of the lips was animated in order to move synchronously with the text. It may have been the first time a simulated human figure was used on TV.

Exhibitions

The Landmark exhibitions between August 1968 and August 1969 were shown in London , New York City and Zagreb . An international scientific symposium was held in Zagreb for each of the two exhibitions. Another exhibition with a conference was in Berlin . The Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in London has received the most attention in secondary literature over the years. Today it depends on the nationality as well as the academic training and research of the observer which of the three is the most important for him. There were critical voices about the exhibition in London as early as 1968. The human figure by Fetter was seen in all exhibitions as Boeing Man . In the Cybernetic Serendipity catalog , only The Boeing Computer Graphics organization is mentioned as the author.

1968 exhibitions

• Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts , London, Institute of Contemporary Art.
• On the Path to Computer Art , MIT , and TU Berlin , Berlin.
• Some More Beginnings: An Exhibition of Submitted Works Involving Technical Materials and Processes , EAT, New York, Brooklyn Museum .

1969 exhibitions

• Tendencija 4 , "Computers and Visual Research" galerija suvremene umjetnosti, Contemporary Art Gallery, Zagreb
• Computerkunst-On the Eve of Tomorrow , Galerie Kubus, Hanover. Then in Munich, Hamburg, Oslo, Brussels, Rome and Tokyo.

• 1989: 25 years of computer art - graphics, animation and technology , BMW Pavilion, Munich
• 2007: Ex Machina - early computer graphics until 1979: Herbert W. Franke on his 80th birthday , Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen
• 2007: bit international: [Nove] Tendencije - Neue Galerie Graz - Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz
• 2008: Bit International, (Nove) tendencije, 1961 to 1973 , Zagreb, In: ZKM, Medienmuseum, Karlsruhe
• 2009: Digital Pioneers , Victoria & Albert Museum, London
• 2015: Galerija suvremene umjetnosti, contemporary art gallery, Zagreb
• 2015: Tendencies 4, Computer and Visual Research , ZKM, Karlsruhe

annotation

The exhibition Some More Beginnings , 1968, was a project by and was organized by the Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) group , of which Fetter was a member. The exhibition is rarely mentioned, but its relevance to computer art has now been rediscovered.

Works

• Human Figure

book

• Computer Graphics in Communication , New York, McGraw-Hill Publishing, 1964.

items

• The Art Machine , In: The Journal of Commercial Art & Design , Vol. 4, No.2, Feb. 1962, p. 36.
• Computer Graphics . In 1967 University of Illinois Conference Emerging Concepts in Computer Graphics, edited by Don Secrest and Jurg Nievergelt. WABenjamin, Inc., 1968, pp.397-418.
• A Computer Graphics Human Figure System Applicable to Biostereornetrics , CAD J. Fourth Int'l Con /. and Exhibition on Computers in Engineering and Building Design, IDC Science and Technology Press, Guildford, SurT! Y, England, 1980, coverandpp.175-179.
• A Computer Graphics Human Figure System Applicable to Kineseology , ACM Special Interest Group on Design Automation Newsletter, Vol. No.2 of 3 (late issue), June 1978, pp. 3-7.
• A Progression of Human Figures Simulated by Computer Graphics , PROCEEDINGS, SPIE, Volume 166, NATO Symposium on APPLICATIONS OF HUMAN BIOSTEREOMETRICS. July 9-13 1978 Paris France.
• Wide Angle Displays for Tactical Situations , Proc. U.S. Army Third Computer Graphics Workshop, Virginia Beach, Va., Apr. 1981, pp. 99-103. II. Bui-Tuong Phong, Illumination for Computer Generated Images , Comm. ACM, Vol. 18, June 1975, pp. 311-317.
• Progression of Human Figures Simulated by Computer Graphics . IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 1982, Vol. 2, No. 9, p. 9-13.

literature

• Herbert W. Franke: Computer graphics - computer art . Bruckmann, Munich 1971.
• Herbert W. Franke: Computer Graphics-Computer Art . Phaidon Press, 1971.

Web links

• William Fetter's Boeing Man .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} William Fetter: Computer Graphics at Boeing. In: Print Magazine , XX: VI, November / December 1966, p. 29.
2. ^ William Fetter: Computer Graphics at Boeing. In: Print Magazine , XX: VI, November / December 1966, p. 26.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Robin Oppenheimer: William Fetter, EAT, and 1960s Computer Graphics Collaborations in Seattle on the website www.academia.edu .
4. ^ Bill Fetter , on the website of the Department of Design at Southern Illinois University .
5. ^ William Fetter: Computer Graphics at Boeing. In: Print Magazine , XX: VI, November / December 1966, pp. 26–32.
6. ^ ^{A b} William Fetter: Computer Graphics at Boeing. In: Print Magazine , XX: VI, November / December 1966, p. 32.
7. ↑ Dave Kasik and Christopher J. Senesac: Visualization: Past, Present, and Future at The Boeing Company , 2014 (PDF 2.01 MB).
8. ^ Martin Fox: The Designer and the Computer. In: Print Magazine , XX: VI, November / December 1966, p. 3.
9. ↑ JC McDonough and AW Susskind: A Numerically Controlled Milling Machine. In: From the Collection of the Computer History Museum , 1952, pp. 133-137 (PDF).
10. ↑ US Patent filed Nov. 13, 1961, issued July 7, 1970
11. ↑ Walter D. BERNHART and William A. Fetter
12. ^ Jonathan Barnett: Will the Computer change the practice of Architecture? In: Architectural Record , January 1965, Vol. 137, No. 1, p. 149.
13. ↑ Thomas Dreher: The History of Computer Art .
14. ^ William A. Fetter: Computer Graphics in Communication , McGraw-Hill , 1964, pp. 51-61.
15. ↑ ^{a b} William A. Fetter: A Progression of Human Figures Simulated by Computer Graphics , PROCEEDINGS, SPIE, Volume 166, NATO Symposium on APPLICATIONS OF HUMAN BIOSTEREOMETRICS. July 9-13 1978 Paris France.
16. ^ William Fetter , on the courses.washington.edu website .
17. ^ Christoph Klütsch: The Summer 1968 in London and Zagreb: Starting or End Point for Computer art? (PDF 2.19 MB).
18. ^ Metzger, Gustav: technological fun-fair
19. ↑ Jasia Reichardt, ed .: Cybernetic Serendipity , Studio International special issue, catalog, 1968, p. 88
20. ↑ ^{a b} E.AT Experiments in Art and Technology on the website of the Museum der Moderne Salzburg .
21. ↑ Sylvie Lacerte: 9 Evenings and Experiments in Art and Technology. A gap to fill in art history's recent chronicles. on the website of the Foundation Langlois .
22. ↑ Maxim Pouska: Computer - Advertising Graphic Design and Art 1935–2010 , BOD, 2011, pp. 60–61, 76–77. ISBN 978-3-8370-6229-8 . OCLC 724848434 .