Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts

The Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts is a research centre of Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. It had a significant role in the early development of computer graphics and has continued to innovate in areas such as interactive media and sonic arts.

History
The Lansdown Centre is named after the computer graphics pioneer John Lansdown who was its head from 1993 until 1997. The Centre for Electronic Arts originated in 1985 (it was renamed in 2000 after Lansdown's death). Its roots lie in the still earlier work of John Vince to develop computer graphics at Middlesex University (then Middlesex Polytechnic). From the 1970s, John with others developed two suites of computer graphics subroutines in the FORTRAN programming language. PICASO (PIcture Computer Algorithms SubroutineOriented) was used to create line drawings of 2D and 3D objects and PRISM (Picaso's Raster Imaging SysteM) created full colour images with smooth Gouraud and Phong shading.

The aim of these systems was to give artists and designers access to the creative potential of digital technology. They were used for short courses which were attended by television creative producers from the BBC, Independent Television companies and the French national television service. A number of television sequences were commissioned and created. Before the availability of PRISM, television titles had to be created by frame-by-frame hand colouring of line drawings plotted directly onto transparent cel. By 1980, PICASO contained about 500 subroutines and together with its complementary rendering system PRISM, was being used by over 25 academic institutes in the UK.

In 1985, with a grant from the government's Department for Education, Middlesex became the National Centre for Computer Aided Art and Design under Paul Brown, a graduate of the Slade School of Art. By 1986, Middlesex had secured an international reputation for computer animation, setting up the UK's first MSc course in Computer Graphics. Keith Waters was the first Centre student to gain his PhD in 1988, with his development of a muscle-based model for facial animation.