Head
Print
1969 (made)
1969 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Kenneth Knowlton (born 1931, Springville, New York) was a computer graphics engineer, who, from 1962 worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories (AT+T Bell Labs) in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was one of the focal points for the production of early computer art. In 1963 Knowlton developed one of the earliest programming languages for producing computer animations, called BEFLIX (from Bell Flicks). Knowlton collaborated with Lillian Schwartz (born 1927, Ohio) in the late 1960s, and together they developed EXPLOR (EXplicit Patterns, Local Operations and Randomness) to create a series of films that could produce both still and moving images. Schwartz was primarily an artist who was interested in the possibilities offered by new technologies, although she went on to become a consultant at Bell Labs. Early computer programs were limited in their graphical ability, and Schwartz tended to enhance her work by manually producing it in more traditional materials at the final stage of production. Transferring a computer generated image into a screenprint, such as with this work, would have enabled Schwartz to use more vivid colours than would have been possible with the computer output devices of the late 1960s.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Head |
Materials and techniques | Screenprint mounted on board |
Brief description | Colour screenprint on paper after a computer-generated portrait, by Lillian Schwartz and Kenneth Knowlton, 1969. |
Physical description | Screenprint in red, yellow and green on paper, mounted on board, from a computer generated image. The white non-printed areas depict a head and face. |
Dimensions |
|
Copy number | 5 of 100 |
Marks and inscriptions | 'SCHWARTZ - KNOWLTON 5/100 1969' (Artists' signatures, edition number and date, in pencil in lower left side.) |
Credit line | Given by the Computer Arts Society, supported by System Simulation Ltd, London |
Production | Schwartz's original sketch would be translated into alphanumeric characters and sketched on graph paper. The final silkscreen is based on a computer printout of these alphanumeric characters. |
Subject depicted | |
Summary | Kenneth Knowlton (born 1931, Springville, New York) was a computer graphics engineer, who, from 1962 worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories (AT+T Bell Labs) in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Bell Labs was one of the focal points for the production of early computer art. In 1963 Knowlton developed one of the earliest programming languages for producing computer animations, called BEFLIX (from Bell Flicks). Knowlton collaborated with Lillian Schwartz (born 1927, Ohio) in the late 1960s, and together they developed EXPLOR (EXplicit Patterns, Local Operations and Randomness) to create a series of films that could produce both still and moving images. Schwartz was primarily an artist who was interested in the possibilities offered by new technologies, although she went on to become a consultant at Bell Labs. Early computer programs were limited in their graphical ability, and Schwartz tended to enhance her work by manually producing it in more traditional materials at the final stage of production. Transferring a computer generated image into a screenprint, such as with this work, would have enabled Schwartz to use more vivid colours than would have been possible with the computer output devices of the late 1960s. |
Other number | CAS/A/0030 - Previous owner's number |
Collection | |
Accession number | E.85-2008 |
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Record created | May 20, 2008 |
Record URL |
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