Computer Art

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first digital computer, was introduced at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946.

Soon after (1951) the first commercially available computer (UNIVAC) was patented. Through this time, research fostered extensive experimentation into computer technology.

A. Michael Noll

Considered one of the first ‘digital artists’, Noll was a researcher at Bell Laboratories. There he began experimenting, producing abstract, computer-generated images.

Gaussian Quadratic

Though a part of the initial exhibition of computer-graphics as, art Noll expressed apprehension in viewing it a new art form: “The computer has been used only to copy aesthetic effects”. 

Another Bell engineer, Kenneth Knowlton, joined with other artists Stan Vanderbeek and Lillian Schwartz to produce seminal works of computer art.

Poem Fields no 2

Pixilation

Pixillation by Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton (Bell Labs) 1970 from Rick Knowlton on Vimeo.

It is not until the 1990’s that computer art would be accepted as a new aesthetic form.  William Latham’s The Evolution of Form (1990) shows an attempt to create a new synthetic realism using computer graphics.

In modern discourse computer technology is often considered a tool used by the spectrum of digital artists rather than a separate artistic form.