Realism

This week's lecture was based on the topic of 'realism' and began with Ivan holding a plastic baby doll, We looked at different examples of realism found in paintings, sculpture and media.

My understanding of 'realism' is that it is an attempt to imitate reality, as technology evolves the possibilities of creating more believable CGI is becoming ever more popular in modern day films and games. An example of film reaching newly possible levels of 'realism' is 'Avatar', which is a good example of how 'realism' in films can discreetly fool the viewer into believing what they are seeing is real, even to the point where people experience depression after watching the film. 

Videos games have also embraced more levels of 'realism' which has changed what we previously determined as being realistic. Super Mario world was a revolutionary game when it was released back in 1983, the technology was still in its early stages but to have control over a character in an environment was a technical achievement in itself. But compared with next generation games such as God of War 3 it is amazing how much has changed in games, they now have huge budgets and use high end technical effects also present in animated films such as object based motion blur and depth of field.

The theory of the Uncanny valley is if something that is clearly not human is given human qualities we find them induring and charming, but if you give it too many human characteristics then it starts looking like an imperfect simulation which we find rather discomforting. Wall-e is a robot with human qualities and a personality which we find cute and charming, if you go beyond and make something look too real the it enters the uncanny valley.