이 연구는 뉴 미디어의 매체적 특성이 내포하는 포스트모더니티가 아닌 디지털 시각효과가 가진 고유의 포스트모던한 특성을 파악하는 데에 그 목적이 있다. 전/후방 영사와 같은 아날로그 시각효과에서 몰핑 기법이나 CGI와 같은 디지털 시각효과로의 발전 과정 속에서 생산된 '다층적 시공간 압축'은 포드주의에서 유연적 축적 체제로의 전환 과정 속에서 발생한 시공간 압축이라는 문화적 경험을 반영한다는 것이 이 연구가 주장하는 바이다. 아날로그 시각효과 미학의 모더니티를 예증하기 위해서 <슈퍼맨>에 사용된 전방영사기법과 Zoptic 기법을 분석하였고, 디지털 시각효과 미학의 포스트모더니티를 분석하기 위해 <매트릭스>에 사용된 time-slice photo- graphy를 살펴보았다

This study sets the goal of grasping the unique postmodern characteristics of digital effects, not of understanding their postmodernity as a new media. The transition in the techniques and meanings of creating visual effects reflects the cultural transformation from modernism to postmodernism. I argue that the characteristic feature of time-space compression, occurring in the process of the transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation, clearly reflects that of compression of multi- layered time and space, generated in the development process from analog visual effects, such as trick, rear and front projection, to the digital effects, such as rotoscoping and CGI animation. While the aesthetics of analog visual effects, without computing, can be compared to a Fordist production system, digital effects, which hugely rely on CGI manipulation, are examples of flexible accumulation. The phrase, “compression of multi-layered time and space” refers to the process of compositing CGI. To complete a CG frame in a film, multiple CGIs have to be overlayed. Each CGI frame forms a layer of time and space. So, to composite multiple CGIs in order to finish a complex and hyperreal CG frame, several layers of computer-generated time and space and real-action time and space have to be projected simultaneously. This process can be drawn as an analogy of the compression of multi-layered time and space of multiple CGIs. My contention is the process of the compression of multi-layered time and space reflects time-space compression of flexible accumulation as the condition of postmodernity. I made close textual analyses of Superman (Richard Donner, 1978) to illustrate modernity of analog visual effects aesthetic and The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 1999) to demonstrate postmodernity of digital effects aesthetic.

This study sets the goal of grasping the unique postmodern characteristics of digital effects, not of understanding their postmodernity as a new media. The transition in the techniques and meanings of creating visual effects reflects the cultural transformation from modernism to postmodernism. I argue that the characteristic feature of time-space compression, occurring in the process of the transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation, clearly reflects that of compression of multi- layered time and space, generated in the development process from analog visual effects, such as trick, rear and front projection, to the digital effects, such as rotoscoping and CGI animation. While the aesthetics of analog visual effects, without computing, can be compared to a Fordist production system, digital effects, which hugely rely on CGI manipulation, are examples of flexible accumulation. The phrase, “compression of multi-layered time and space” refers to the process of compositing CGI. To complete a CG frame in a film, multiple CGIs have to be overlayed. Each CGI frame forms a layer of time and space. So, to composite multiple CGIs in order to finish a complex and hyperreal CG frame, several layers of computer-generated time and space and real-action time and space have to be projected simultaneously. This process can be drawn as an analogy of the compression of multi-layered time and space of multiple CGIs. My contention is the process of the compression of multi-layered time and space reflects time-space compression of flexible accumulation as the condition of postmodernity. I made close textual analyses of Superman (Richard Donner, 1978) to illustrate modernity of analog visual effects aesthetic and The Matrix (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 1999) to demonstrate postmodernity of digital effects aesthetic.

digital effects, postmodernity, time-space, compression, Superman, The Matrix