ABSTRACT
This chapter theorizes computer graphics workers’ interactions with their digital 3D models as an emerging form of discourse with the world, revealing our complex human entanglement with the world’s objects. It does so by following the trajectory of the “Teapot” model, one of the earliest 3D objects created using computer graphics techniques. Starting in the mid-1970s, digital and physical iterations of the model have circulated at professional conferences, in academic departments and in entertainment-industry workplaces. This chapter argues that both the physical Teapot and its ephemeral, computer-generated version are meaningful objects with data “shadows” that define them and shape their journeys. Digital object production links global communities of workers in computer science with the animation and visual effects industries—a highly skilled yet invisible workforce, buffeted by economic and technological change. Using interviews that the author personally conducted with programmers, artists, and technicians to build on computer histories and the object theories of Sherry Turkle, Perry examines the role of objects like the Teapot in shaping professional identities and research communities. The Teapot’s resonance for computer graphics workers adumbrates the hidden labor of crafting 3D models, evocative constructs around which conversations on labor, craft, nature, and technology coalesce.
