PAGE SIXTY TWO - SPECIAL TERMINATE CACHe ISSUE Bulletin of the - Northern Hemisphere Autumn 2005

EDITORIAL

ACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc...) - the three-year CONTENTS Cproject researching the origins of the computer arts in the UK - finished in September 2005. It has produced a number of important outcomes Editorial 1 which are detailed in this special issue of PAGE. In 1999 I was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts New Media Blast From the Past 3 Arts Fellowship. It offered me a two-year income to pursue my practice Some Reflections on the and, for the first year of the fellowship (2000) I accepted an invitation to History of Early British become artist-in-residence at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience Computer Art and the CACHe and Robotics and School of Cognitive and Computer Science at the Project 4 University of Sussex. I had left 12 years before, resigning my post as Head of the UK’s National Centre for Computer Aided Art and Design The Cache Project as seen by (NCCAAD) and Centre for Advanced Studies in Computer Aided Art and its Research Fellow 5 Design (CASCAAD) at Middlesex Polytechnic (now University) to I met George for lunch and we End of Project Report - become Director of the Computer convened a meeting to discuss how the Cultural Institutions 9 Imaging Program at Swinburne to properly conserve this important A Personal Letter from the Institute (also now a University) in historical collection. Tony Sweeney, Philippines 10 Melbourne, Australia. My successor then Deputy Director of the National as Head of NCCAAD & CASCAAD of Photography, Film and Television and now Director of the Anna Valentina Murch’s Tent was John Lansdown. at Interact 11 John was an old friend and Australian Centre for the Moving mentor. We had first met in the mid Image (ACMI) in Melbourne was The CBI North West Export 1970’s when I joined the Computer there. Phil Husbands and Owen Award 12 Arts Society. After I left for Australia Holland who were then researching we bumped into each other in their history of cybernetics in the Announcements 15 UK also attended. But I think the most unusual places. Once it About CAS 16 was in the bar of the Holiday Inn, it was Bronac Ferran of Arts Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco Council England who suggested – an unusual encounter as John that we should apply for a grant was a teetotaller. Another time I from the then relatively new Arts Guest Editor Paul Brown was sharing a coffee with a friend and Humanities Research Board Sub-Editor Celeste Brignac in one of the trendy confectionary (AHRB), now Council (AHRC). shops in Sydney’s Glebe Point Road when Dorothy, John’s wife, came in to buy some cakes. In general I had not maintained many contacts with professional colleagues in the UK after leaving for Australia. Trips home had focussed on relatives. So my fellowship offered a unique opportunity to re-network into the community I had left 12 years before. Almost the first news I heard was that John had died. I phoned Dorothy to give my condolences and couldn’t resist asking about the amazing collection of artworks and memorabilia that John had accrued over the years in the basement of their Russell Square apartment. Dorothy told me that George Mallen had moved CAS members viewing the Patric Prince Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum at a most of it into System Simulation’s meeting convened and led by Doug Dodds (centre left). This important donation to the V&A offices in Plaza. was facilitated by the CACHe project and is one of its many outcomes.

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page  We would need an academic Catherine had graduated from the projects with similar goals. In base for the project and George HAFVM department at Birkbeck particular we met a broad spectrum introduced me to who before running a successful artist’s of teachers of “new media” who was then in charge of the computer agency. She was keen to upgrade confirmed our belief that there is program in the History of Art, Film her qualifications and had a special an urgent need for documentation and Visual Media Department interest in the arts history of the of these largely forgotten histories (HAFVM) at Birkbeck. The three of period we were investigating. of the discipline. So this popular us worked together to develop an The project officially began in book is intended to fill this gap application to the AHRB which was October 2002. We sifted through and will have lots of images and submitted in 2001. We proposed the old CAS records and began a short, non-challenging text. It is to focus on the first two decades to Google the names of pioneers aimed at the interested layperson, – the 1960’s and ‘70’s – prior to the as they came to light. Amazingly undergraduates and high school introduction of the “user friendly” many were found and most had students and will be published by PC systems. In December 2001 I their own archives of the period. the ICA, Singapore in late 2006. was back in Australia and, as the It soon became obvious that we Nick, who now works deadline for notification had passed, had underestimated the amount of permanently for Birkbeck, together had given up much hope of being material that still existed and that with Jeremy Gardiner (of Thames successful. Then, late one evening, we had been wildly overoptimistic Valley University) and Doug I got a call from Charlie. It was first about our ability to process and Dodds from the V&A have recently thing in the morning in and assess everything we found. submitted an application to the he’d just opened his mail. We’d got Elsewhere in this issue AHRC to continue the work of the money! each of the team members has building a national record of the Mid-year 2002 saw me back the opportunity to tell their story. development of the computer in the UK and we interviewed for For my part I was pleased to arts. They will extend the period to the two funded positions. Nick meet up again with friends and include the advent of the personal Lambert, who was just about acquaintances I had not seen for computer in the 1980’s which to complete his DPhil in the Art decades. One major outcome of introduced the computer to a much History Department at Oxford this was the re-formation of the broader franchise. I’m sure all under Professor Martin Kemp, was Computer Arts Society in 2004. I the members of CAS will join me appointed as Research Fellow and am also working with Catherine in wishing them success in this Catherine Mason joined us as our to co-author one of the book important venture. PhD candidate. At Oxford Nick had outcomes of CACHe. A Machine And now I should leave it to my specialised in the computer arts with That Makes Art is intended to be colleagues to tell their own stories a focus on the USA-based Algorist a popular book about the origins of but, before I do I would like to take Group. He had also looked after the computer arts with a broader this opportunity to thank everyone the department’s computer systems – international – context than who has contributed to our research and had a significant experience in CACHe’s other outcomes which over these past three years. They the systems and software that we focus on the UK. During CACHe are far too numerous to mention would need to meet the challenge of we ran a number of seminars individually and I hope they will building the large online database, and birds-of-a-feather sessions not feel neglected by this blanket based on Software Simulation’s at major international gatherings acknowledgement. MUSIMS product that would act like ISEA and SIGGRAPH. We as the repository for our research. were pleased to find many other Paul Brown Guest Editor - PAGE 62 Melbourne, January 2006

aul Brown is an artist and writer Pand was the Visiting Research Fellow on the CACHe project. He is currently Visiting Professor in the Informatics Department, the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) and the Centre for Cognitive Science (COGS) at the University of Sussex where he is involved in a project that attempts to evolve robots with creative behaviour.

Antonio Berni; B/W silkscreen - untitled - date not known - one of the many images discovered in the CAS collection. page  PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE Letter from Art Forum to Matthew Baigell (1967) regarding a manuscript on the work of computer arts pioneer Charles “Chuck” Csuri. This was just a year before the Studio International special issue - the catalogue of Cybernetic Serendipity. Courtesy Chuck Csuri.

FROM PAGE 11, OCTOBER 1970

Art today is the end of the road / It is a result / It is a static thing / The final result (and we really mean final) of creativity today is art pollution

All artists who prostitute their functions in this way –

All artists who use the title of avant-garde to help conserve the old elite –

All artists who refuse to join in attacking the present system –

Are shit.

There is only one solution

We must liquidate this crazy thing called art to make it possible for all people everywhere to be creative. … The artist must liquidate the art world by closing down art magazines, art councils and art because they are the tools of an irrelevant society. …

Manifesto of the International Coalition for Application for membership of CAS from Gustav Metzger - the first editor of AGEP the Liquidation of Art, Gustav Metzger

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page  SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE HISTORY OF EARLY BRITISH Chris Briscoe, Julian Sullivan, COMPUTER ART AND THE CACHe PROJECT Stephen Scrivener, Stephen Bell, Edward Ihnatowicz, Ernest n the early nineteen nineties I studied for a Masters Degree in Computing Edmonds, Harold Cohen, Paul Iin Design at the Centre for Advanced Study of Computer-Aided Art and Brown and Darrell Viner, among Design (CASCAAD) at Middlesex Poly (as it was then), in North London,. others. Other kinds of practitioners, It should have been called Computing in Art and Design, but the use of such as cybernetics experts like the word ‘art’ in the course title would apparently have been detrimental to George Mallen and Gordon Pask, getting government funding. At the time, the late eighties and early nineties, programmers, such as Alan Sutcliffe doing either art or design with computers was regarded as odd. Friends (also a musician and composer) and would look bemused and confused as I explained what I was studying. The John Vince, animators such as Stan coupling of art, with all its humanist implications of creativity and inspiration, Hayward, architects such as John and computers, supposedly so rational, mathematical and inhuman, Lansdown and John Frazer; groups seemed perverse and arbitrary to many. This encouraged a strong sense such as Art and Language, the of doing something special, something radically new and innovative. We Computer Arts Society, Institute for imagined that, though nobody understood us at the time, in the future they Research into Art and Technology would recognise us as pioneers of an entirely new form of art and design and the London Film-Makers practice involving the use of new technologies. Co-op, exhibitions such as Jasia What we did not know at the Reichardt’s Cybernetic Serendipity time, because nobody told us, was As far as we can tell the at the Institute for Contemporary that, far from being new, computer numbers involved in this area in the Arts and the vital role played by art art and design had a long and period were not great, and there schools and polytechnics. honourable, if largely forgotten was a great deal of interconnection I once tried to make a diagram history, going back at least to the and collaboration between them. to show how all these people, nineteen sixties. Furthermore the Our researches went back to the institutions and groups connected Middlesex degree was a direct Independent Group and the post- together, but found the task result of this history. The course had war Constructivist movements as impossible, given the proliferation been designed and set up in the starting points for British computer of links and affiliations. This is what mid nineteen eighties by the artist art and encompassed artists such has made the CACHe project so Paul Brown, one of the pioneers of as Roy Ascott, Steven Willats, interesting. It is far from simply an the use of algorithmic and artificial Gustav Metzger, Malcolm Le Grice, account of how a number of artists life techniques in art at the Slade in the nineteen seventies. Later on Professor John Lansdown took over the running of CASCAAD. Lansdown had been a pioneer of the use of computers in architecture and in choreography in the nineteen sixties and had been instrumental in introducing the teaching of computing in art and design in higher education in Britain and Australia. It was only when I started to work with Paul and the CACHe team that I realised how extensive the history of British computer art is. John and Paul were not just innovative practitioners themselves but part of an extensive network of similarly minded people who understood, against the grain, how important computers were going to be for all areas of art and design. Given that this was long before ‘user-friendly systems’, GUIs, computer multimedia, photoshop, desktop publishing and all the apparatus of modern, ubiquitous, networked computing, this was both prescient and courageous. Manfred Mohr, Formal Language, 1971 page  PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE at a certain period in a certain place used a particular technology. It is rather an account of a pioneering community, drawn together by a shared vision of how technologies will change the way things can be done and the way they are done. This is especially admirable given the great difficulties of making such work at the time. It certainly puts me and my fellow students’ sense of our claims of being pioneers in the early nineteen nineties in its right place. Of course one of the notable corollaries of being a pioneer of this sort is that you are not understood in your own time. This is almost a given for any form of avant-garde art practice. Hal Foster suggests that [T]he avant- garde work is never historically effective or fully significant in its initial moments. It cannot be because it is traumatic – a hole in the symbolic order of its time that is not prepared for it, that cannot receive it, at least immediately, at least without structural change (Foster, 1996, p 29). But, unlike many more explicitly avant-garde movements, computer art has remained particularly resistant to recuperation and restitution by the institutions of canonical and orthodox . Perhaps this makes it more genuinely avant- garde. If so, maybe its moment has come, in that the structural changes Edward Ihnatowicz, untitled (mid 1980’s?) required for it to be understood are taking place. I hope in particular that White Heat and Cold Logic, the THE CACHe PROJECT AS SEEN BY ITS RESEARCH FELLOW edited collection of essays about pioneers and pioneering institutions he Computer Arts Contexts, Histories, etc [CACHe] Project officially of early British computer art that is Tbegan in the autumn of 2002. I joined the team at Birkbeck as a nearly- one of the main outcomes of the qualified DPhil from the Department of History of Art at Oxford University. I CACHe project (to be published by came into CACHe as an art historian, albeit in a field which is still gaining MIT Press in 2007) will help hasten recognition as a branch of art. However, I have always maintained a strong the recognition this area so richly interest in computer graphics systems and software, which ensured that deserves. my contribution would be as much technical as scholarly and thus more in keeping with its subject matter. Foster, H. (1996), The Return of the Real: My thesis dealt with the history of the term “Computer Art” and the The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press variety of artforms which had been produced under this rubric. Thus I was already aware of the pioneering work performed by the Computer Arts Charlie Gere Society in the 1960s to 1980s. Indeed, I had poured over copies of PAGE in the Bodleian Library, tracing the lively discussions between computer arts harlie Gere was the Chief practitioners and theorists throughout the Society’s most active period. The Investigator on the CACHe C insights gleaned from CAS provided me with much material for my thesis project and is now Reader and and I was very pleased to be appointed as Research Fellow on the CACHe Director of Research at the Institute Project. This gave me the chance to focus on the British contribution to for Cultural Research at the Computer Arts and investigate its sources in much greater detail. University of Lancaster.

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page  It was a great privilege to be working in the context of a major AHRB-funded project at Birkbeck, under the direction of Charlie Gere, with Paul Brown as Senior Research Fellow and Catherine Mason as the project’s PhD student. Each member of the CACHe team contributed a very different perspective and area of expertise, which ensured that the project was able to cover a great deal of ground in terms of British computer arts pioneers, their work and their legacy. Charlie supplied a strong theoretical basis for studying the history of this area, which has proved invaluable whilst compiling and editing our book. His academic study of New Media arts and the History MA he taught at Figure 1 - Database Input Interface Birkbeck also fed into CACHe. quite early in digital art and continue office in the Vasari Multimedia Lab Paul provided us with a to inform it to this day. My earlier at Birkbeck, whilst we considered living link to the period we were work on aspects of British computer how best to approach its digitisation researching. From the mid-1970s art enabled me to link these and preservation. There has been he had studied at the Slade School, concerns into the current project much discussion about Digital worked as a computer artist and and relate the British experience Longevity in the past decade, as animator on numerous pioneering to the broader history of computer it has become clear that the rapid projects, edited PAGE and taught art since 1950. I was also able to obsolescence of earlier digital at Middlesex. He had a vast list leverage my outside interests in formats has rendered much pre- of personal contacts and folders computer graphics technology and 1990 data unreadable. This can full of primary image sources. digital preservation, which informed be due to incompatible physical Indeed, Paul’s personal collection our approach to scanning the media, such as non-standard floppy of unique visual material should be archive. and optical disks; or because the emphasised as a major component CACHe’s area of study computers that compiled this data of the overall CACHe archive. initially centred on the legacy of are now redundant and unavailable. Catherine’s research focused John Lansdown as computer arts CACHe had first-hand experience of on the specific contribution of pioneer and educator; this was the this when we found early computer Computer Arts practitioners to starting point for Paul’s outline of artwork stored in the form of 1960s arts education in the UK. Thanks the project in 2001. By the time of punch-cards and 1970s and 80s to Catherine’s diligence we the application to AHRB, CACHe’s magnetic tapes and disks. Had undoubtedly uncovered much interest had widened to include we not possessed the prints and obscure and unusual historical the computer artworks held by the (in some cases) films of the works material. Moreover, through her CAS at System Simulation and the themselves, it would have been extensive experience in art galleries Society’s documentary archives. difficult to reconstruct the graphic and with artists, we established Later, the project encompassed the images from the data stored on an important personal rapport with artists from the Slade School who these disks. That assumes that many of the surviving computer arts had worked on the departmental the data would be readable in the pioneers. Later we also benefited computer in the mid-1970s, plus first place: for instance, NASA has from another diligent researcher, Edward Ihnatowicz and a host of already lost a large proportion of Simone Gristwood, whose zealous other figures who had been closely the information from the Viking pursuit of obscure artists from or tangentially associated with CAS missions because in just 30 years the CAS lists brought us many during the formative years of British the magnetic tapes have become fascinating contacts and personal computer art. Towards the project’s too fragile to play. histories. end, the project latterly touched Thus the problem is a two- I contributed a general on the more distant connections pronged one involving both the overview of the history of computer uncovered by further research on stability of data storage media and art, combined with specific historical the foreign contributors to CAS. the longevity of the actual formats themes that traced the growth of Material from all these used to record the data. Bearing certain specific ideas that appeared contributors was stored at our these in mind, I decided to use page  PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE media and data standards that are matching set of high-resolution researchers to search the archives the most widely available at this TIFFs which were scanned directly in some detail. time and most widely supported from slides. Smaller pieces of art In view of the range of material across a range of operating and photographs were scanned at we were serving and the need to systems. In this case, the Arts and resolutions between 300dpi and integrate it with SSL’s MUSIMS Humanities Data Service provided 400dpi, depending on the quality system, I modified the database us with a long-term storage solution of the original. For instance, matte input interface as seen in the first and System Simulation’s MUSIMS photo prints were scanned at view [see Figure 1]. This interface database ensured we observed 400dpi and newspaper clippings at was very close to a paper form I industry standards in terms of 300dpi because higher scanning constructed for field data collection. metadata and database structure. resolutions would not have To accommodate a variety of Whilst the ideal storage improved the image. artworks and documents, I made medium remains a pipe-dream, I With this in mind, all textual some sections quite wide-ranging have tried to preserve our data by documents and catalogues were and others very specific. For duplicating it widely across network digitised at 300dpi for the purpose instance, referring to “Artist or servers, websites, and CD- and of recompiling them into PDF Originator” allowed us to cover DVD-ROM. Because storage space documents. The rationale behind non-artist creators, including is cheap in itself, I believe this scanning the entire run of PAGE authors and programmers. Further distributed approach will give our magazine, for instance, was categories under Materials and data a better chance of persisting that it would become an online Artwork Classification allowed into the mid-term future. Within the resource and the PDFs would be objects besides two- and three- next five years, I anticipate a flash downloadable for on-screen viewing dimensional artworks to be memory-based storage format to or printing. A balance thus had to be included. Meanwhile, the “Issue no. rival hard disks in capacity, but struck between document size and or Existing ref no.” enabled us to without the associated problems of legibility both at screen and print refer to prior classifications of the mechanical drives, and the ability to resolutions. From the point of view work, such as the issue of PAGE. retain data without a power source of preservation, I have erred on the The free-text Description and Notes indefinitely. Until this format arrives side of printing resolution and the boxes allowed for a broader range a profusion of storage media will files are larger than if they had been of other information to be entered, have to suffice. purely for screen usage. which may still be searched within Partly for this reason, and To fully realise the potential the database. Meanwhile, the partly due to available technology, of the CAS archive and our other tick boxes identified stages of our it was decided to capture the CAS collections, we collated them into process which had to be satisfied archive of large-format artwork a database which allowed the for each individual picture. The with a traditional slide camera images and associated information categories were more generalised and then digitise the images from to be served on the Internet. This versions of those that had been film. This means we now have fulfilled our raison d’etre to make recommended for visual art a near-complete set of the CAS the material accessible to the non- metadata by AHDS’s predecessors, images on glass slides and a specialist public whilst allowing the Visual Arts Data Service, VADS. Once the data was in place, thumbnail images at screen resolution were added together with a facility to search the database by images alone. The resulting database entry can be seen in [Figure 2]. Here the categories of the entry page appear as headings on the page and the clickable thumbnail image comes up in the top-right hand corner. Clicking on it will open a window with a larger image at screen resolution. For document entries which have been compiled into PDFs, there will be an option to download the file from the database. Thus the database acts as the window into the CAS and other archives and may be browsed visually as well as textually. The strength of the MUSIMS system lies in its inter-relation Figure 2 - Database Entry of other databases to the main TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page  screen; thus the artist listing links the issues of digital longevity by Electronic Arts (ISEA) in Helsinki to biographical data about specific using widely available technologies. in 2004; and the Computer artists plus a further section on On the basis of experience gleaned Conservation Society (CCS) at the organisations and groups, and from this side of CACHe, I was able Science Museum in 2003. We have events. Thus our other findings to suggest technical procedures also forged a very close working could be integrated into the image to the University of Westminster relationship with Doug Dodds, database and displayed when it Archigram archival project, which head of Central Services at the goes online and is queried via the recently received AHRC funding Department of Word and Image in web. Because the CACHe database and will begin in March 2006. the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is will be served as part of the general The database is the major anticipated that the CAS archive will AHDS Visual Arts site, its holdings public outcome of our project, be permanently stored in a national can be searched within the larger alongside our book which is being collection, thus ensuring its survival framework of all the archives held published by MIT. It should be in the historical record. there. This contributes towards the noted that supplementary material Although the close of the goal of making the AHDS a central for the book will be presented on CACHe Project has brought this resource for this area. our Birkbeck website, which will study to an end, it is in a sense The CACHe Project developed continue to be updated for the only the data-gathering phase that a number of approaches to foreseeable future. This site will has finished. The interpretation facilitate studying and cataloguing also serve as a portal to our AHDS and consolidation of the images historic computer-generated art, site. Other public outcomes have and documents we uncovered will which might apply more widely to arisen from the presentation of take much longer and involve an multimedia artworks in general. Of our historical research to other increasingly larger group of people particular interest should be our organisations in the area, such as researchers discover the origins pragmatic strategy for dealing with as the International Society for of computer-mediated art. CACHe has not only secured an important and neglected segment of the UK’s art history; it has also given rise to numerous sub-projects and brought together a range of practitioners and theorists who either worked together in the 1960s and 70s or represent the new wave of interest in this area. I fully intend to see these outcomes develop into new projects that will cement these achievements and put in place a structure for the study of the computer-based arts.

Nick Lambert

ick Lambert was the Research NFellow on the CACHe Project. He is now Research Officer in the History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College,

Nick Lambert and Catherine Mason with computer graphics pioneer Bob Hopgood at the Rutherford Altas Centre in 2005 page  PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE END OF PROJECT REPORT- THE CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS early computer arts was about specificity of material and technique s the Project PhD researcher, I have been researching the cultural - as such it can be seen as one of Ainstitutions that educated, supported, managed and funded early British the last aspects of Modernism. computer arts. The major route into computer arts in Britain during this Presenting some of this period was through academic institutions both artistic and scientific. It was research to conferences and events the unusual subject matter and the fact that it had been largely overlooked and meeting fellow historians in by mainstream Art History, which drew me to the CACHe project originally. Los Angeles, Helsinki and London One of my main intellectual tasks has been trying to unpick computer arts’ was rewarding, as was working problematic relationship to the institutional structure of the art world. with the knowledgeable and friendly One of the most exciting things members of the CACHe team. for me was tracing the influence computer arts is a unique example However, none of this would ever of individuals – “tutor” to “pupil”, of inter-disciplinary collaboration have happened without the superb through the art schools – thus within Art History. This diversity source material – something many proving a link from (pre-computer) creates a richly interesting aspect PhD students can only dream early cybernetic thought beginning to the field, but also has a major about. This has been a real bonus in the 1950s, via the 1960s with bearing on how the art was and for me and has made the project artists using analogue means, to continues to be perceived by the endlessly fascinating for the past later developments in the 1970s art world. That it existed largely three years. I wish to send my when artists were finally able to outside what may be considered the heartfelt thanks to the very many access digital computing. This was mainstream art world of museums pioneers - artists and practitioners, of course facilitated throughout and dealer-gallery networks is not who have so kindly offered much this period by governmental surprising. more than accounts of their changes to the educational system, But, far from being an isolated experiences and offerings of original including largely, the creation of the historical phenomenon, this activity material. I am truly grateful for your, Polytechnics. This allowed many did have a lasting impact – both often extensive, time, expertise and artists to access expensive and on the education of artists, their enthusiasm too. You have been the specialist equipment and expertise relationship to institutions and on best source material any historian - a unique feature of British art avant-garde art practice. The cross- could hope for and have brought education at this time. At the disciplinary work done in this period the period alive for me. I have met Polytechnic, it was theoretically has proved of lasting impact on arts and communicated with nearly sixty possible to study fine art and craft/ education, particularly with regard to of you over the past three years design (technology) together again, notions of freedom of materials as – your support and friendship have as in the first public art schools well as a manner of working which meant a great deal to me. To those opened in the Nineteenth century. takes into account the relationship of you I have yet to meet, I look Art with a techno-scientific between artist and audience, and forward to someday hearing your basis flourished particularly within material and environment. That stories. educational institutions supported there is little direct connection I am grateful for support from by charismatic individuals, who between this pioneering period the AHRC in funding this research inspired subsequent generations. and the New Media-based practice over the past three years. These pioneers had a real vision beginning in the 1990s, is in itself of the arts and sciences coming interesting. Contemporary digital Catherine Mason together for greater understanding art is often more involved with and creativity on both sides. the computer as a platform for atherine Mason is currently Forging alliances with academic communications and issue based Cfinishing her PhD thesis and co- institutions in order to gain access ideas, sometimes deconstructing authoring A Machine That Makes to the specialist equipment they the technology itself. Whereas Art. required to further their artistic aims, led to highly productive working relationships. However, working with equipment generally designed for completely different purposes was a difficult task requiring long hours, dedication and a particular type of mind-set, which might as easily belong to an art-school trained artist as an engineer. I have uncovered numerous examples of collaborations between artists and technologists in this period. Therefore the field of early Herbert Brun Untitled B/W photographic print

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page  A PERSONAL LETTER FROM THE PHILIPPINES you that the pollution and general destruction of the public space here ear CACHe, as a result of the Americanisation D of the economy (based on private It is good to hear that Nick is currently putting together a bid for funding wealth and public squalor) is hor- for a continuation of the CACHe Project, which would take in more interna- rific. If anybody ever tells you that tional links and continue the story up through the 1980s. the future lies in Asia - then ask I hope this works out. In my view there are very serious cultural-politi- them if they have ever been here cal issues involved: It was the conversion of the computer into a consumer (for more than a superficial visit in a plaything in the 80’s that became an important basis for the development of luxury hotel) and if such an insecure the current postmodern consumer-military-industrial complex which appar- and culturally arid future is really so ently continues to destroy national economies and cultures in the pursuit of desirable. (neo-conservative) American interests. In my view, instead of following If, for example, one compares Asia (in a US/UK lead race to the the current UNESCO digi-portal with a system of fees for participants, bottom) - Europe should be help- UNESCO activities in the late 80’s many conferences and cultural ing Asia to preserve local cultures (i.e. the “Synthesis: Visual Arts in manifestations limit participation to and develop economies on a more the Electronic Culture” seminar at grant supported artists and academ- stable basis than the current global Offenbach in 1987) then it seems ics - even though the academic slash and burn policies promoted by to me that there has only been a positions formulated at such confer- Bush and Blair. regression due to the prevalence ences often have direct influence However, worst of all -I miss of commercial interests (apparently on the lives and practises of non- the BBC world service radio which supported by the various supposed- academics. I suspect that -as a is not available here (except via ly neutral international organisations result of the increasing influence of Internet - which is no use when such as Leonardo, ISEA and Ars academic theory on the art funding, operating a dial-up system). I sup- Electronica). Personally, I find no presentation and education systems pose the British government doesn’t relationship between generally ac- -practical feed-back systems can want to interfere in the American’s cepted views of computer art history easily develop, which (backed up sphere of interest. With Asia and and my own personal experience. by international academic collabora- the Middle-East under American Perhaps it would be worth tracing tion) then become consolidated self- control there isn’t much left to argue the personal histories of the indi- fulfilling prophecies through their over. Interestingly, the early 20th vidual pioneers. How many became innate power to exclude all alterna- century American colonisation of marginalised because they did not tive visions. the Philippines (after the American- fit into the commercial system -and I guess such questions go to Spanish war) shows remarkable how many adapted to the “demate- the heart of the (apparent) dialectic similarities with the current situation rialised” (anti-programming) yuppie between “pragmatic” defenders of in Iraq. Then, as now, thousands of attitudes of the 90’s? How much did the status quo and “creative” devel- American troops were tied down by financial support play a role - and opmental visionaries. Perhaps the “isolated resistance” from trouble- from where came the necessary visionaries are always dangerous - makers -long after victory had been support for those who were suc- and so need to be eliminated unless officially declared. cessful? commercially or politically useful to On the other hand, local politics In this context, I’m afraid that those in power. But what is the cost are never less than fascinating one might also have to question the to society? here. The president is continu- possible effect of academic confer- If you are ever in Manila, then ally under pressure and there are ences: In my experience, through let me know. Although I must warn constant stories of (government) corruption - now being spiced up by current rumours of assassina- tion attempts, terrorist links and the possible introduction of a state of emergency. Recent presidential “executive orders” (one preventing government officials from testify- ing in public without presidential permission and another making public demonstrations more difficult) are being legally challenged for being unconstitutional. The politi- cal situation has been made even more complex by the spy who stole embarrassing documents which ap- Trevor Batten - an early member of the Computer Arts Society who recently moved to Manila parently reveal the true attitudes of page 10 PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE the Americans towards the Philip- ANNA VALENTINA MURCH’S TENT AT INTERACT pines. President Arroyo is upset by the potential damage to the n its first incarnation, the Computer Arts Society sponsored the production American-Filipino relationship -but Iof artworks for some of their exhibitions through fundraising. For Interact, are national interests best served a Fringe event at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973, the Scottish Arts Council by a cover-up or by (a democratic) agreed to “guarantee losses” of £3,000. This allowed the budget to be revelation of the contents? It seems over-run by that amount with the Scottish Arts Council picking up the that “A hundred years of Filipino- tab. Papers in the CAS archive show that CAS was then able to fund the American friendship” (Bush’s words) production and installation of several artworks. might have created a political-eco- These were Edward Ihnatowitz’s The Bandit at £600, Stephen Willats’ nomic nightmare for the locals. The Edinburgh Social Model Construction Project at £400 and John Lifton’s struggle for true Independence has Green Music, which received £105 (with Lifton himself raising a further often been denied and rendered £600 from the Arts Council of Great Britain, as it was then). In addition, the invisible - but it has deep historical CAS committee raised corporate sponsorship of £250 from John Player and roots which are apparently still alive. Sons (part of Imperial Tobacco Ltd). This funded Anna Valentina Murch’s Unfortunately, all forms of resist- Tent. It was thanks to CAS’s patronage that these works were able to ance are now increasingly likely to be exhibited to a wider audience attending the Edinburgh Festival. The be labelled as support for terrorism CACHe team met Anna Valentina Murch last year and were delighted when and therefore liable to be used as she shared photographs of her work. a justification for more repressive Murch studied Environmental intervention. globalism a natural and inevitable Media at the Royal College of Art in Absurd as it may sound -I’m development? Or, is the cultural in- the early 1970s. Tent was originally afraid that I can’t avoid the feeling tegration of the computer a carefully created for her degree show in that somehow “computer art” and nurtured and coordinated tool being 1973, where it won two awards. “multi-media art” (in all its various used, just like post-war American The same work was exhibited at forms) lies at the heart of all this. abstract expressionism was, to sup- Interact. (These pictures show the Perhaps it would be interesting if port cultural-economic imperialism? installation at the RCA). Due to the the Birbeck art-history department unusually large, interactive nature linked up with the Birbeck social-po- Happy daze! of the work, it was installed on the litical departments on these issues. Best wishes, fifth floor at the RCA, in a specially For example: Is (postmodern) cleared space. Murch recalled computer based consumerism trevor that most of the other graduates primarily a philosophical, social, were showing smaller pieces, cultural, political, technical, scientific revor Batten is an early member including painting, thus indicating or an economic phenomenon? Is Tof the Computer Arts Society. how unusual such installations were the current all-pervasive model of at the time. The work consisted of a spiralling tent, held up by columns of different heights and was eighteen feet across in total. The Fiberglas fabric contributed to the overall luminous effect. Ten projectors projected images to synchronised sound effects for viewers outside or reclining on cushions inside the tent. Murch worked with the departmental technician for the programming of sounds and images and remembers the use of punched cards. The idea was that viewers would see things not normally seen and from a different viewpoint in the city, from dawn to dusk – from peripheral vision of vast landscapes down to minute details. The images photographed by the artist ranged from the dawn, with abstracted natural terrain and textures just beginning to be seen through the dark, to lighter daylight and urban Anna Valentina Murch, Tent - Installation shot from the RCA, 1973 landscapes. Played to a soundtrack

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page 11 of natural sounds the artist acquired from the BBC, the images projected increasingly faster, before dissolving into darkness, representing annihilation and finally finishing with pictures of fields of daisies. The work clearly had an environmental and humanistic emphasis - that even after a point of horror, there is beauty and life goes on…as Murch said, “after the bomb the daisies come”. This tapped into the politicised culture the artist felt at the RCA and in wider society during this period. After Interact, Murch pursued further graduate work at the Architectural Association, before moving to the United States in 1976 to seek a greater range of production facilities and exhibition venues for her environmental installations. She is currently Associate Prof. of Studio Art and Chair of Fine Arts Division at Mills College, Oakland, CA. See http:// www.annavalentinamurch.com for examples of her latest public art projects.

Catherine Mason

Anna Valentina Murch, Tent - Installation shot from the RCA, 1973

THE CBI NORTH WEST EXPORT AWARD

This essay was written in 1977 and was never published.

n the spring of 1976, the North West Region of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), together with the Fine IArt Department of the Faculty of Art and Design, Liverpool Polytechnic, organised a competition, open to students in that dept., for the design and production of a trophy - the CBI North West Export Award - which could be presented annually. The commission was won by a design that I had submitted for a kinetic device containing an illuminated display and driven by a dedicated programmable logic circuit. After training as a painter, I had been working since 1968 first two-dimensional images that were with lightshows and then in multi- programmed in Fortran on an ICL media theatre. From this work I 1903A computer and drawn using developed an interest in computing an offline Calcomp 70mm drum and electronics and this was plotter using a paper tape controller. encouraged by the show Cybernetic One of the programs I had Unit Serendipity that I saw in 1968 at developed modelled a random line, the ICA in London. Consequently using a simple modular unit (fig. 1). in 1974 I became a mature The model included a memory that student in the Sculpture School of allowed the line to base its future Liverpool Polytechnic studying art decisions - whether to move to the and technology. Most of my work left or to the right - on its previous since joining the course had been behaviour. A simple rule structure Figure 1 - Random Walk, Plotter Drawing involved with the generation of prevented the line from moving page 12 PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE back along itself and from crossing the picture boundary. Since the computer was available to me only in Batch Mode (the program was submitted on punched cards and run in my absence) the output was in the form of a continuous line drawing which started at some random point within the picture boundary and terminated when the line met the boundary in such Figure 5 - Intel 1702 A EPROM a way that either a left or right turn decision would cause it to cross that Figure 3. Worm on Display. Black arrows from Plessy’s Radar Division, was boundary. represent past moves. White arrows show possible future moves enlisted to help with the circuit The program was better suited design. Alan’s knowledge of recent to a real-time environment. Here I got his far with the design developments in semiconductor a fixed length element (which when the competition took place technology and applications proved I nicknamed the worm) would and I finalised the design of the invaluable. My knowledge of manoeuvre within the screen area housing for the circuit and display integrated logic circuits (ICs) - which of a Graphic Display Unit (GDU). (fig.4). The CBI offered to find had previously been nil - grew This facility was not available so I member industries willing to provide as I carried messages back and began to investigate (with the help skills and services necessary to forth between Alan and Ian Ross, of the Polytechnic’s Departments of complete the trophy and introduced a technician in the Polytechnic’s Mathematics and of Electrical and me to specialists at Plessy’s Digital Electronics Laboratory who Control Engineering) the possibility Radar Division who confirmed the was helping me with the design and of building a display and circuit feasibility of the project. My initial construction of the circuit. dedicated to this program structure. hope to make the display from glass In the final design a single I decided to base the display on a with liquid crystal elements proved monolithic IC, the Intel 1702A square divided into 32 triangular unfeasible and a reflector/diffuser EPROM (Erasable Programmable elements (fig. 2). This would allow system using low-voltage bulbs was Read Only Memory) (fig. 5) used instead. Rolls Royce Motor replaced many of the less Car Division agreed to contribute complicated IC’s of previous the metalwork, which included designs and provided an efficient the stainless steel base housing, and sophisticated solution (fig 6). and Alan Isaacs, an engineer This 256x8 bit EPROM is

Figure 2. Schematic of Display each element to be addressed by a five bit binary word (2^5=32) and this became the basis of the logic circuit design. The worm itself would consist of three adjacent elements each illuminated to distinguish them from the rest, The worm would move by making random left or right decision around the display until it became trapped in one of the corners (fig. 3). Here the circuit would be cleared (set to zero logic) - so the worm would appear to die and then be regenerated from the Figure 4 - North West Export Award, 1976, Stainless Steel, Perspex, Electronics, etc... zero address (00000) at the centre of the display.

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page 13 configured as a 32x8 byte array by turn lamp ON turn lamp OFF splitting the 8-bit address/content decode 5 into 32 decode 5 into 32 byte into a 5-bit word with a 3-bit B X suffix. The word addresses a lamp A to X must go to B 3x5-bit memory B to X must go to A A and is fed back to also address 1-bit random the row of the array containing the possible future destinations 3-bit suffix 3-bit suffix - Array Contents (Destinations) 5-bit word of the resident location which Embarkation 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 6 7 8 A X(100) are in different columns. One of 8 8 B X these columns is forbidden since it Pattern Store 6 5 1702A X A B A(000) B(001) B(001) contains the address of the present EPROM 5-bit word – or embarkation - location (Fig. 7). 1 1 Bits 6 and 7 of the suffix resolve this By including bit-8 at A/000 (i.e. X(100)) the location X/010 is made to appear to contain both A(000) and B(001) - indicated by arrow. - a 2-bit random 01 or 10 is included and this causes a column other Figure 8 - Edge conditions - showing the use Figure 6 - Schematic of circuit. Buffers, of bit-8 than the one in which it is already clocks, etc… not shown resident (and which contains the embarkation address) to be POSTSCRIPT 2005 chosen for the future state. Bit-8 B is used to define edge conditions A to X can then go to B or C B to X can then go to A or C scanned and OCRed this from a very poor where, because only one choice is X C to X can then go to A or B I1977 carbon copy. On reflection it would available for either one of the two A C probably have been quicker to have just embarkation locations (fig. 8), one typed it in again! It’s been interesting to revisit a project element of the array must appear to 3-bit suffix 5-bit word Array Contents (Destinations) after almost 30 years and especially to contain two destination addresses. Embarkation 000 001 010 realise that my main concerns as an artist Columns addressed by bit-8 A X have not changed much over the years. I am B X still preoccupied by the idea of art that makes contain this alternative item of data C X itself and the application of AI and Alife whilst the standard 7-bit address to the visual arts. I’ve also had the good remains unchanged. Once used, X A B C fortune to spend a significant part of my time bit-8 is cancelled and the program collaborating with scientists and engineers. continues normally. Figure 7 - Embarkation and destination rules In fact I’ve had a lot more success in showing corresponding layout of array communicating with them than I ever did The corner addresses decode trying to communicate with the art world! to the four lamps and also set invaluable and it also provided a The NW Award itself appears, sadly the circuit to its clear state at the unique opportunity to work within to have been lost. I have a selection of next clock count. Visually the photographs and transparencies and industry alongside specialists (somewhere I think!) the circuit diagram – an worm dies and is regenerated at in a wide variety of disciplines. I A1 sheet packed with detail. the centre of the display and the would like to thank Alan Isaacs, random procedure repeats. In Ian Ross and those members of order to prevent the worm from the staff of the CBI appearing rigid and monotonous in North West, Liverpool its movement a hesitation function Polytechnic, and the was included. This consists of a fifteen businesses and monostable triggered by a logic- industries who gave 1 state at both bits 1 and 3 of the advice, services and resident address. The monostable components free or disables the master clock for a at cost and without fractional period. This gives the whose help and worm a hesitant life-like quality support the trophy and also helps to keep the clock would still be an governing the random-generator out ambitious pipe dream. of phase with the master clock, thus It is to be hoped ensuring that no long-term repetition that cooperation of this of behaviour occurs. kind between art and The trophy was assembled industry will become a during the summer of 1976 and regular feature of our was first presented by Britain’s future. Minister for Trade, the Right Hon. Edmund Dell, to Mr. S.G. Reeves Paul Brown, - a representative of the Plessy Liverpool, 1977 Organisation in October of that year. The project gave me grounding in Figure 9 - internal detail logic design that has since proved page 14 PAGE 62 SPECIAL ISSUE CAS MARCH SPECIAL MEETING

Bytes in Motion : Early British Computer-Generated Art Film

7 March 2006 - 6.10pm National Film Theatre Southbank, London

Tickets from 020 7928 3232 http://www.bfi.org.uk/nft New Book special CAS film screening event at the National Film Theatre in partnership with the ASchool of History of Art, Film & Visual Media, Birkbeck, University of London, supported by Painting the Digital River: the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise (LCACE). How an Artist Learned to Love the The event showcases early developments in computer animation by British artists and includes previously lost or obscure material arising from research conducted by the three-year Computer CACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc...) Project recently completed at Birkbeck James Faure Walker which was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Prentice Hall 2006 The pioneers of the medium often made their art on mainframes designed for scientific ISBN: 0131739026 use, developing innovative software to experiment with aesthetic effects. The programme will include the first computer animation made in Britain through to the appearance of computer t is a literate and witty attempt to make graphics in commercial TV and film. The event will also include introductions and discussion sense of the introduction of computer tools with artists and practitioners from the time, including Stan Hayward, Malcolm Le Grice and I into the creation of art, to understand the George Mallen. issues and the fuss, to appreciate the people involved and the work they produce, to know the promise of the new media, as well as the A unique Creative Writing MA risks. 95% online plus a week on campus in Leicester, UK The USA publishers offer a discount at the pplications are now being considered for Autumn 2006 entry to the Master’s Degree in website: ACreative Writing & Technology at De Montfort University, Leicester The course is devised and taught by Sue Thomas, formerly Artistic Director of the trAce http://www.pearson-books.com Online Writing Centre, and Kate Pullinger, well-known novelist and new media writer It is designed for writers wishing to experiment with the creative opportunities of technol- Enter this voucher code BEFORE selecting ogy and the internet and is ideal for those preferring to study online. (Please note, however, any books: BA003A that there is a compulsory Campus Week in Leicester during the Autumn semester) For more details and information on how to apply (As soon as stock arrives in the UK the book can be ordered online, with 20% discount http://writing.typepad.com/cwt/ and free shipping in Europe.) cfp: Computational Models of Creativity in the Arts Categories of Submission a two-day workshop • Position papers, posters, abstracts, Wednesday 16 to Thursday 17 May 2006 etc… A partnership between Goldsmiths and Birkbeck Colleges and the Places are limited! Please send in a one-page (maximum) outline of why University of Sussex you (and your colleagues) would like to Hosted by Goldsmiths Digital Studios, Ben Pimlott Building, attend and what you could contribute Goldsmiths College, University of London and/or how you might benefit. Include URLs to relevant projects/experience where possible. Including a public evening performance/exhibition event on the 16 May • Artworks, performances, etc… curated by BLIP and the Computer Arts Society. Please submit a one-page proposal in- The proceedings will be a special issue of Digital Creativity Journal cluding technical requirements. Include (2007:1), Routledge. URLs where possible. Deadline Call for Participation The deadline for outlines and proposals is his workshop will bring together practitioners and researchers who are involved in the use 19 March 2006. They should be sent to the Tof computational systems in the fine and performing arts, literature, design and animation conference chairs as PDF attachments to as well as the associated fields of aesthetics, cognitive science, art history and cultural theory. an email with the subject “CMCA Workshop It especially invites those involved in the computational analysis and modelling of creative Submission”. behaviour to meet and share their experiences and explore the potential of co-operative future ventures. Co-Chairs It is intended that this call should interest the widest possible constituency. However a • Paul Brown, University of Sussex very broad list of (non-exclusive) descriptors might include: – [email protected] • Janis Jeffries, Goldsmiths • the application of computational and generative methodologies in the arts and related – [email protected] creative disciplines • Nick Lambert, Birkbeck • computational approaches to creativity, cognition and aesthetics – [email protected] • the application of artificial intelligence and artificial life • the application of evolutionary and adaptive systems Funded by the London Centre for Arts and • cultural applications of computing and digital electronics in general Cultural Enterprise - LCACE - and the Uni- versity of Sussex

TERMINATE CACHe PAGE 62 page 15 Present & Future Computer Arts COMPUTER ARTS SOCIETY With so many novel and exciting developments in the creative uses British Computer Society Specialist Group of computers in the arts the society will continue its original aims of bringing together those active in this area Bringing together artists and technologists Exchanging techniques and ideas Collaboration Formulating needs for support The society plans to hold joint events with other BCS Specialist Helping to get works known Groups and hopes that this might develop into wider collaboration Exploring new forms Education The CAS plans to have an educational role in making students more aware of early work in computer arts and in helping artists to use ABOUT THE COMPUTER ARTS SOCIETY computers creatively

Aims CAS Committee The Computer Arts Society (CAS) promotes the creative uses of computers in the arts and culture generally Chair & Webmaster Paul Brown [email protected] It is a community of interest for all involved in doing, managing, interpreting and understanding information technology’s cultural Vice-chair potential Dr George Mallen [email protected] Membership & fees Treasurer Membership is open to all who are interested in the aims and activities Dr Alex Zivanovic [email protected] of the group Membership Secretary There is an optional annual contribution of £10 (€15 or US$20 Christos Logothetis [email protected] overseas) for which members receive a printed copy of each issue of PAGE Minutes Secretary Dr Nick Lambert [email protected] The British Computer Society (BCS) The CAS is a Specialist Group (SG) of the BCS Editor of PAGE Alan Sutcliffe [email protected] The CAS receives funding from the BCS 4 Binfield Road Wokingham RG40 1SL, UK Each CAS member who is not already a member of the BCS +44 (0)118 901 9044 automatically becomes an SG Affiliate member of the BCS Nam Loc [email protected] Website http://www.computer-arts-society.org Catherine Mason [email protected]

Publication Tony Pritchett [email protected] PAGE the Bulletin of the Computer Arts Society appears quarterly and can be downloaded from the CAS website Tony Mann [email protected]

Archiving Computer Arts All material in PAGE 62 is Copyright © the individual contributor/writer/ The CAS was originally active from 1968 until the mid 1980s. It was artist and may not be reproduced without permission re-formed in 2004. PAGE is Copyright © Computer Arts Society 2006 There are significant archives of material from this era, mainly stored in homes and offices of people then active in the group The CAS is working closely with CACHe, a project in the Art History PAGE 62 was produced at the Centre for Electronic and Media Department of Birkbeck, University of London, which is documenting Art (CEMA) at the Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, UK computer arts in the years to 1980 Melbourne, Australia during a residency by the guest editor who would like to thank Troy Innocent, Jon McCormack, Alan Dorin The collection, identification, collation and handing over of material to and their colleagues for their support. the CACHe team will continue in 2005 & beyond This leads to a wider interest in the archiving, study and presentation of computer arts from earlier years

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