Rebecca A. Perry

I am a Research Associate in Space History at the National Air and Space Museum and a researcher at the University of Virginia. I focus on visual representation, digital media and the evolution of computer graphics and 3D modeling. I am especially interested in the creative collaborations between computer artists and computer scientists working in the entertainment industry.  For a recent piece on objects and their meanings see, "The Strange Journeys of Otherworldly Artifacts."

I teach the history of computer graphics in the Science, Technology and Society program at the University of Virginia. I earned my Ph.D. from MIT's program in History, Anthropology and Science, Technology and Society. I also have an M.A. in media studies from the New School in NYC.

 At left, a representation of the "Coons Patch," a computer graphics technique for describing and representing surfaces, developed c. 1967 by researcher, teacher and author Steven A. Coons. Below, Coons writes in The Little Red Book:

"The sketch forms the natural bridge between these vague stirrings of the imagination and the subsequent precise statement of the refined details of the concept."
​— Steven A. Coons