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British Computer Art 1960-1980 White Heat Cold Logic British Computer Art 1960–1980 Edited by Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert, and Catherine Mason The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2008 Birbeck College All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email special_sales@mitpress.mit .edu. This book was set in Garamond 3 and Bell Gothic on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White heat cold logic : British computer art 1960–1980 / edited by Paul Brown . [et al.]. p. cm.—(Leonardo books) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0-262-02653-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Computer art—Great Britain. 2. Art, British—20th century. I. Brown, Paul, 1947 Oct. 23– N7433.84.G7W45 2008 776.0941—dc22 2008016997 10987654321 Index 010101: Art in Technological Times, 415 Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 192 2000 AD, 307 Air Loom, 412 2001: A Space Odyssey, 171, 224 AISB. See Society for the Study of Artificial 20th Century Fox, 201, 223 Intelligence and the Simulation of Behavior A&L. See Art & Language Alan Stone Gallery, 422 AA. See Architectural Association Albers, Josef, 265 AARON, 4, 134, 145, 147–150, 276– Aldeburgh Festival, 182 277, 396, 422 Aldermaston March, 164 Abel, Robert, 399 ALGOL, 328 Abstract expressionism, 249–250, 291 Alien, 188–189, 199, 201, 315, 326 Abstraction, 4, 32n18, 122, 124, 248–249, Alife. See Artificial Life 251, 262n17, 269, 345, 390 Allende, Salvador, 198 ACM. See Association for Computing Alloway, Lawrence, 2, 7 Machinery Alphaville, 171 ACM SIGGRAPH. See Association for Altair, 385–386 Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Ambler, Pat, 354 Group on Graphics AMM, 219, 221 ACTT. See Association of Cinematograph Amsterdam String Quartet, 213 Television, and Allied Technicians Union Animation, 90, 108, 158, 188–189, 193, Adams, Ken, 220 199, 201, 222–224, 230–233, 234, Adrian, Marc, 224 235, 237, 238–240, 242–245, 282, AERE. See Atomic Energy Research 328, 373, 375 Establishment Annecy Grande Prix, 229 Agam, Yaacov, 21, 30n2, 32n18 Annely Juda Fine Art, 269 AHRB. See Arts and Humanities Research Antics, 199, 213, 217n15 Board Apple Computers, 161, 211, 244, 271, AI. See Artificial Intelligence 356, 385, 386 Airfix, 328 Appleton, Jon, 183 Applied Physics and Information Science, Arts Council of Great Britain, 77, 85, 155, 143 157, 159, 170, 182, 270, 288, 321, Applied Psychology Research Unit, 192 342–343 ARC. See Augmentation Research Center Artshow Gallery, 397 Archer, Bruce, 198, 355 Arts Lab, 5, 221, 284 Architectural Association (AA), 41–45, 170 Artspace, 163, 171 Architectural Design, 38, 42 Art Strike, The, 170 Architecture Machine Group, 69, 198 ArtWare, 81 Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, 213 Arvatov, Boris, 121 Armory of the 69th Regiment, New York, Ascott, Roy, 3, 4, 9–16, 20, 22–23, 30n5, 75 66, 134, 172n13, 219, 250, 251, 252, Armstrong Jones, Anthony, 85 278, 288, 348, 419n29 Army Ballistic Missile Research Laboratory, Ashby, W. Ross, 10, 32n17, 219, 221, 174 227, 295–296, 304 Arnatt, Keith, 31n8 Ashdown, Paul, 369, 374 Arne, Inke, 412, 418n17 Association for Computing Machinery Arp, Hans, 129 (ACM), 160, 260, 349 ARPANET, 277–278, 350, 384 Association for Computing Machinery’s Arrowsmith, Pat, 164 Special Interest Group on Graphics Ars Electronica, 81, 406, 410 (ACM SIGGRAPH), 81, 133, 160, 260, Arslab, 81 349, 393, 399, 406, 420n44 Art & Language (A&L), 6, 255, 277, 324– Association of Cinematograph Television, 332, 330, 331, 334, 336–337, 340– and Allied Technicians Union (ACTT), 343, 381 234 Art and Interactive Telecommunications, Atari, 223, 356 288 Atkeson, Christopher G., 110 Art and Language. See Art & Language Atkins, Peter. See Kardia, Peter Art and Technology Group, 169 Atkinson, Conrad, 169 Artec, 81, 407 Atkinson, Terry, 255, 324, 325, 326, 331, Arte povera, 307 336 Artforum, 218n19, 275, 294 Atlantic Monthly, 32n22 Artificial intelligence (AI), 4, 31n12, 106, Atlas Computer Laboratory, 199, 201, 233, 109–110, 145–147, 159, 169, 191– 235, 237, 240, 354 192, 201, 276–267, 286, 303, 343, Atlas Titan, 43 353–355, 384–385 Atomic Energy Research Establishment Artificial life, 5, 31n12, 44, 56, 58, 62, 68, (AERE), 222 159, 275–257, 279, 281, 283, 285– Augmentation Research Center (ARC), 22 287, 289, 386, 408 Aulton, Derek, 25, 29, 33n34 Artists’ Union, 170 Auto-destructive art, 41, 163–165, 168, Art Journal, 423 172n12 ArtLab, 81 Autogena, Lise, 402–403, 413 Art-Language. See Art & Language Arts and Humanities Research Board Babbage, Charles, 2, 378 (AHRB), 7 Bainbridge, Dave, 255, 324, 326 Arts Catalyst, 76 Bains, Sunny, 399 Artsci, 405, 409, 417n9 Baker, Bob, 225 Arts Council of England, 392, 413 Baker, Kenneth, 394 Index 432 Baker, Robin, 394 Bergson, Henri, 9 Baldwin, Michael, 255, 324, 326, 330, Berio, Luciano, 175, 427 331, 342, 381, 382 Bernstein, Basil, 20, 23, 25, 31n11 Baljeu, Joost, 269 Bertalanffy, Ludwig von, 268, 344 Banbury School of Art, 291 Besant, Colin, 234, 237 Bangor Technical College, 53 BETA. See Business Equipment Trade Banham, Reyner, 2, 7, 39, 248 Association Bann, Stephen, 129, 281 Betts, Tom, 411 Banovich, Tamas, 414 Beyls, Peter, 132, 281, 284, 320 Barbican Art Gallery, 46, 419n31, 424 BFI. See British Film Institute Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua, 324, 329, 342 Bickmore, David, 199 Baron, Wendy, 394 Biederman, Charles, 124, 133, 249, Barr, Alfred H., 75 262n15, 268–269 Barrow, Logie, 32n24 Bill, Max, 74, 123–124, 269 BASIC. See Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Billingsley, John, 89, 98 Instruction Code Birkhoff, George, 72–73 Basic Design, 3, 5, 20, 248–251, 258, Bisley, Roy, 292 262n20, 265–266, 271 Blacher, Boris, 183, 184 Bateson, Gregory, 16 Blake, Peter, 31n8 Bath Academy of Art, 78, 151, 269 Blaricum, 198 Bauhaus, 74, 248–249, 265–266, 268– Bletchley Park, 44, 324 269, 271, 294, 345, 390 Blinn, Jim, 160 Baylis, Mike, 189 Boden, Margaret, 354 BBC. See British Broadcasting Company Boeing, 74, 88, 92, 169 BBC micro, 374, 393 Bohm, David, 270 BCS. See British Computer Society Bomberg, David, 163 Beatles, The, 112, 364 Bond, Alan, 354 Becker, Lutz, 224 Boreham, Dominic, 132, 158, 281, 285, BECTU. See Broadcasting, Entertainment, 355 Cinematograph and Theatre Union Borough Polytechnic School, 163 Beer, Stafford, 4, 11, 41, 191, 196, 380 Borzyskowski, George, 238 Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruc- Boston University Art Gallery, 397 tion Code (BASIC), 120, 145, 156, 233, Bournemouth University, 421, 426, 428 279, 362, 374, 384–386 Bowen, Denis, 20, 30n5 Behaviorist art, 13–15 Bowron, Astrid, 174 Beigel, Florian, 320 Brach, Paul, 141 Bell, Robert, 28 Bracknell Play Group, 188 Bell, Stephen, 5, 132, 281, 284, 288, 307– Bramer, Max, 354 308, 310, 312–314, 316, 318, 320, 356 Breton, Andre´,10 Bell Telephone Laboratories, 75, 85, 88, Brieske, Jerry, 28, 34n46 92, 184, 213, 221, 229 Briggs, Asa, 15 Benjamin, Anthony, 30n5, 31n10 Brighton Polytechnic, 191, 193 Benn, Tony. See Wedgwood Benn, Rt. Hon. Briscoe, Chris, 5, 132, 158, 257–258, 260, Anthony 269, 270, 278–279, 284–285, 286, Bense, Max, 73, 76–77, 85 287–288, 304, 311, 319–320, 353, Benthall, Jonathan, 169, 181, 259, 305 369, 371, 421 Berg, Adrian, 30n5 Brisley, Stuart, 31n8 Index 433 Bristol Polytechnic, 308 Bush, Vannevar, 22, 32n22 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Business Equipment Trade Association 42, 87, 89, 175–176, 187, 199, 201, (BETA), 173n26, 191, 194 233, 235, 237, 242–244, 258, 369, Butler, Reg, 15 372–374, 380, 391, 393 Butler, Samuel, 10 British Computer Society (BCS), 47, 162, 168–169, 176, 178, 180–181, 188, CACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, 193, 426 Histories, etc.), 7, 288 British Council, 154, 423, 425 CAD. See Computer-Aided Design British Design Award, 47 Cage, John, 41, 50, 55, 75, 88, 182, 294 British Film Institute (BFI), 238, 425 CAiiA. See Centre for Advanced Enquiry in British Library, 422 the Interactive Arts British Society for Social Responsibility in Calcomp, 88, 91, 143–144, 173n17, 215 Science (BSSRS), 34n40, 169 Calder, Ritchie, 15, 58, 278, 294 British Universities Film Council, 288 California State University, 156, 425 Britten, Benjamin, 182 Callaghan, James, 244 Broadbent, Donald, 192 CalState. See California State University Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinemato- Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, 248 graph and Theatre Union (BECTU), 234 Cambridge Opinion,12 Brooker, William, 30n5 Cambridge University, 43–45, 53, 55, 98, Brooklyn Museum, 76, 422 163, 175–176, 192, 199 Brooks, Rodney, 103, 110 Camera Effects Ltd., 243 Brooks, Rosetta, 34n43 Camera obscura, 215, 379 Brougher, Kerry, 174 Canada House Cultural Centre Gallery, Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan, 270 393, 399 Brown, Paul, 6, 132, 157–158, 202, Canadian Centre for Architecture, 67 218n19, 257–258, 275, 278, 288, 320, Candy, Linda, 359 353, 406 Canterbury College of Art, 321, 381 Bru¨n, Herbert, 78, 182 Cardew, Cornelius, 219, 267 Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 201, 240, 365 Cariani, Peter, 67–68 Bryars, Gavin, 292, 294, 303 Carpenter, Loren, 162 BSSRS. See British Society for Social Carroll, Lewis, 186 Responsibility in Science Carter, Angela, 394, 399 Buchanan, Bruce G., 288 CAS. See Computer Arts Society Buckminster Fuller. See Fuller, R(ichard) Cass, John, 320 Buckminster Catlow, Ruth, 411, 414 Bukhari, Salim, 114, 115 Catmull, Edwin, 367 Bull, Gordon,
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