Computer graphics, computer imaging, computer animation, digital image synthesis, digital scene simulation. These terms refer to one of the most profound developments in the history of human communication: the computer as a visual instrument that combines the objectivity of the photograph, the subjectivity of the painting and the gravity-free motion of hand-drawn animation. It is possible to view the entire career not only of the visual arts but of symbolic discourse in general as leading to this Promethean instrument of representation. Its aesthetic and philosophical implications are staggering, and they are ultimately of profound social and political consequence as well.