[ISEA94] Panel: Joan Staveley – Pedagogy of the Oppressed Panel Notes

Panel Statement

Panel: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The Computer Graphics model for three dimensional Cartesian coordinate space is an implementation of an invented method for the description of “real” space. People have been using 3D interactive computer graphics for a little over thirty years. This model for describing space is used in computer graphics because it works; it’s practical. A lot of quality 3D computer graphics have been produced over the past 30 years, but no descriptive language is absolute. Cartesian coordinate space has its biases; it does some things very well and it neglects others.
For a variety of reasons Western cultural and capitalist attitudes tend to falsely empower Cartesian coordinate space as absolute, and if not absolute then at least superior to other descriptive visual systems. A White heterosexual male point of view is dominant in this space and the pressures to create spaces, images, movement and narratives in a few limited styles reflecting the White male voice are great.

  • Joan Staveley, USA. Studied at the Computer Graphics Research Lab of the Ohio State University.