Digital Art Museum
 
History      
 

Year
 

   

Events
 

 

Technologies
 

     
 

1956

   

Ben Laposky's 'Oscillons,' US, (since 1950) and Herbert Franke's first experiments (Germany).

Date given by Jasia Reichardt as the start of (analogue) Computer Art (in The Computer in Art).

   
     
 

1957

   

1st image-processed photo at National Bureau of Standards (US).

   
     
 

1958

   

John Whitney Sr. uses analog computer to make art animation (US).

   
     
 

1959

   

Exhibition: "Experimentale Asthetik" at the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, shows 'oscillons' etc. (Austria).

   
     
 

1963

   

1st computer art competition, sponsored by US journal Computers and Automation, won in 1965 by Michael Noll (US), and in 1966 by Frieder Nake (Germany).

1st computer generated film by Edward E. Zajac (Bell Labs, US).

Charles Csuri makes his first computer generated artwork (US).

 

Sketchpad, a program for interactive computer graphics, presented by Ivan E. Sutherland at the Fall Joint Computer Conference. Work begun at MIT in 1961. First PhD thesis in computer graphics.

     
 

1964

   

Poem Field by renowned animator Stan Vanderbeek and computer scientist Ken Knowlton (Bell Labs, US).

   
     
 

1965

   

1st computer art exhibition, at Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, organised by Frieder Nake, Michael Noll and George Nees (Germany).

1st U.S. computer art exhibition, at Howard Wise Gallery in New York. 'Computer generated Pictures' including Bela Jules and Michael Noll (US).

First three public exhibitions of computer art:
Feb. 5-19, Generative Computergrafik. Georg Nees. Studien-Galerie des Studium Generale, TH Stuttgart. Opened by Max Bense (Germany)
April 6-24, Computer-generated pictures. A. Michael Noll, Bela Julesz. Howard Wise Gallery, New York (US)
Nov. 5-26, Computergrafik. Frieder Nake, Georg Nees. Galerie Wendelin Niedlich, Stuttgart. Opened by Max Bense (Germany)

   
     
 

1966

   

IBM awards Artist-in-Residence to John Whitney, Sr. (US).

   
     
 

1967

   

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) started in New York by by a group of artists and technical people including artist Robert Rauschenberg and engineer Billy Klüver (US)".

   
     
 

1968

   

Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts exhibition, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, curated by Jasia Reichardt (director of ICA and author of The Computer in Art) and advised by Max Bense (UK).

Csuri's Hummingbird purchased by Museum of Modern Art for permanent collection (US).

'Some more beginnings'-by Experiments in Art & Technology - Brooklyn museum (US).

Computer Arts Society formed as branch of the British Computer Society by John Lansdown (architect) and Alan Sutcliffe (pioneer of computer music) (UK).

   
     
 

1969

   

SIGGRAPH, Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics, formed by ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery (was Special Interest Committee in 1967, initiated by Sam Matsa and Andries van Dam) (US)

CTG (Computer Technique Group) founded (Japan).

Event One, organised by the Computer Arts Society (John Lansdown), London (UK).

Generative Computer-Grafik, by Georg Nees, published (first doctoral dissertation on computer art, submitted to Universität Stuttgart, supervised by Max Bense) (Germany)

   
     
 

1971

   

Worlds first museum based solo exhibtion of computer generated art; Manfred Mohr, Musee d'Art Modern, Paris (France)

Herbert Franke publishes 'Computer Graphics - Computer Art' (Germany).

   
     
 

1972-3

       

Richard G Shoup creates SuperPaint, first complete 8-bit paint system at Xerox Palo Alto (US).

     
 

1974

   

Hunger produced by Peter Foldes at National Research Council; wins Cannes Film Festival Prix de Jury award for animation (Canada).

   
     
 

1975

   

Fractals - Benoit Mandelbrot (IBM, US)

   
     
 

1976

   

'Artist and Computer', published by Ruth Leavitt (US)

   
     
 

1979

   

'Sunstone' animation - Ed Emshwiller (NYIT, US)

First Ars Electronica, Linz (Austria).

 
   
     
 

1980

       

Quantel introduces Paintbox (UK)

     
 

1983

   

Harold Cohen exibits AARON work at Tate Gallery London (UK).

 

David Em works at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab (US).

     
 

1984

   

Philip Perlstein uses paint system at NYIT

 

First Macintosh computer is sold; introduced with Clio award winning commercial 1984 during Super Bowl

     
 

1986

   

Painting with Light - David Hockney, Howard Hodgkins, Sir Sidney Nolan, and Larry Rivers invited to use Qantel Paintbox for BBC TV series (UK).

Andy Warhol uses Amiga for self-portrait and portrait of singer Deborah Harry (US).

'Luxo Jr', John Lasseter, Pixar, shown at Siggraph that year (US).

 
 

Photoshop first written as 24-bit paint system by Thomas and John Knoll, working at Lucasfilm (US).

 
     
 

1988

   

First International Symposium on Electronic Arts, Utrecht (Holland).

Art and Computers exhibition, Cleveland Gallery, Middlesborough, toured over the following 12 months (UK)

   
     
 

1989

   

'Electronic Print' show at Arnolfini Museum in Bristol, curated by Martin Reiser (UK). 

 

Photoshop released for Macintosh (US).

     
 

1992

   

First New York Digital Salon (US)

   
     
 

1994

       

Mosaic introduces the WWW to desktop computers (US).

     
 

1995

   

First CADE conference, Brighton (UK).

   
     
 

1997

   

Colville Place Gallery opens, London (UK).

   
     
 

1998

   

Digital Art Museum created by Wolfgang Lieser