Methodology and Structure of the Study

This chapter serves to present the methodology and structure of the study as well as the current state of research. Methodically the research takes place from a production-aesthetic angle, as mere visual or reception-aesthetic parameters no longer suffice in deciphering digital images as what they are – be they computer graphics (CG), artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content or digital photographs. This production-aesthetical approach is based on Hans Blumenberg&s;s phenomenological philosophy of technology from the 1960s. He suggests that with the technologization of our lives we are often not in touch with technological mechanisms anymore but rather interact merely with surfaces. According to Blumenberg we have therefore lost the “context of meaning” of our technological advances. To retrieve this “context of meaning” we need to understand the historical steps that led to it. Resonating with his suggestion, this chapter establishes why the historical and media-archeological accounts of this study are necessary to understand and analyze computer graphical images and their aesthetics more deeply. Following the methodological explanations within my book, in the current state of research studies are presented that have adopted a similar historical and also production-aesthetical angle in regard to computer graphics and related fields.