| Computer Arts Society |
Article Index for Computer |
Website Links For Computer |
Information AboutComputer Arts Society |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT COMPUTER ARTS SOCIETY | |
| 1968 establishments | |
| computer clubs | |
| london organisations | |
| arts in london | |
| computer art | |
|
The three founder members of the Society – Alan Sutcliffe, George Mallen and John Lansdown – had been involved with computing and its related concepts for some time. They knew Jasia Reichardt , the curator of Cybernetic Serendipity ( 1968 ) and had participated in or advised on aspects of the exhibition. Sutcliffe was involved with the exhibition through his collaboration with composer Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios (EMS) . Mallen was working with the English Cybernetician Gordon Pask at Systems Research and assisted on the production of the interactive robotic work Colloquy of Mobiles shown at the exhibition. Although not mentioned in the catalogue credits, Reichardt knew and respected Lansdown, who from 1963 , had used computing techniques in architectural design and planning. Jasia Reichardt , ''When New Media was New'', Seminar at Tate Gallery , September 30 , 2003 The original idea for a society dedicated to the computer arts (which was to become the Computer Arts Society) was instigated by Sutcliffe, at the IFIP (, 2004 ) The Computer Arts Society was founded to encourage the creative use of computers and to allow the exchange of information in this area. It was recognised that this was an area where there had been increasing activity, but with little formal publication of methods and results and little communication between artists in different fields (music, visual, performing arts, and so on).J D Lomax, (ed.), ''Computers in the Creative Arts'', Manchester: National Computing Centre Ltd, 1973 ) p.9 CAS supported practitioners through a network of meetings, conferences, practical courses, social events, exhibitions and occasionally, through funding. It ran code-writing workshops, held several important exhibitions, co-operated with the Scottish Arts Council at the Edinburgh Festival and produced a bulletin. PAGE was initially published from April 1969 until 1985 and was named after the concept of paging (the use of disk memory as a virtual store which had been introduced on the Ferranti Atlas Computer). It featured major British and international computer artists and hosted some fundamental discussions as to the aims and nature of computer art. Its first editor was Gustav Metzger (who named the journal),Alan Sutcliffe, interview with Catherine Mason, January 17 , 2003 thereby establishing from the beginning an association with the avant-garde. Metzger was ‘excited’ to discover CAS and ‘people coming together’ as he had ‘felt quite isolated.’Gustav Metzger, interview with Catherine Mason, July 11 , 2003 As early as 1951, Metzger had stated that ‘…the artist may collaborate with scientists, engineers.’ As many members were outside of London or overseas, PAGE was an important disseminator of information. CAS had international input early on in its history. A Dutch Branch (CASH) was formed in 1970 in Amsterdam and CAS US, formed in 1971 was based in the Mathematics Department of By 1970, the CAS membership list listed three hundred and seventy-seven members in seventeen countries, including fifteen libraries and institutional members.CAS membership list April 1970 in the CAS Archive During the early years of its existence, the Society acquired a large number of works by pioneers in the field, including Manuel Barbadillo , Charles Csuri , Herbert W. Franke , Edward Ihnatowicz , Ken Knowlton , Manfred Mohr , Georg Nees , Frieder Nake , Lillian Schwartz and Alan Sutcliffe . The artworks, and the archives of the Society itself, were acquired by the Victoria And Albert Museum in 2007.''Page'', No.63, 2007, p.1-3. Works by Sutcliffe are also held by the Kunsthalle Bremen , which included them in an exhibition entitled ''Ex machina: early computer graphics up to 1979''.Herzogenrath, W. & Nierhoff-Wielk, B., eds. ''Ex machina: Frühe Computergrafik bis 1979 = early computer graphics up to 1979.'' Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-422-06689-2. The Computer Arts Society is a specialist group of the British Computer Society . REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|