Virtual Visions-the physics and metaphysics of light and space

The computer has made a whole range of new visual art forms possible. The paper describes the thinking behind the Virtual Visions project, which pursues a relatively untrodden sub-form within the digital art genres-3D still imaging for digital print. It is also an argument for the inclusion of science as a theoretical framework from which to pursue art, as an alternative or addition to contemporary cultural and media theory. The paper introduces some of the philosophical and art-theoretical implications of an artform that is predicated on computer graphics technologies, showing how an artist who is also a graphics programmer can bring together such different intellectual disciplines. The paper ends with a request for the computer graphics community to collaborate on this project in which there are many interfacing and aesthetic innovations.