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Elektronische Grafik
Franke, Herbert W., born 1927 - Enlarge image
Elektronische Grafik
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
Austria (made)
- Date:
1970 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Franke, Herbert W., born 1927 (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Screenprint mounted on board
- Credit Line:
Given by the Computer Arts Society, supported by System Simulation Ltd, London
- Museum number:
E.100-2008
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case 3H, shelf 24
This screenprint by Herbert W. Franke (born Austria, 1927) is from a photograph of an electronic oscillation - a type of electrical waveform. The photograph was taken by moving the camera across the screen of an analogue cathode ray tube, which is a machine for measuring electrical signal. The original photograph was part of a series of works entitled 'Pendular Oscillogrammes', which were produced in the mid 1950s. This series was preceded by the pioneering work of American artist Ben Laposky, who had also been working with an analogue cathode-ray tube a number of years earlier. Together, Laposky and Franke paved the way for much of the digital computer-generated art that followed.
Herbert W. Franke trained originally in physics, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and philosophy, receiving his PhD from the Unviersity of Vienna in 1950. He went on to work in the field of electrotechnology, moving to Siemens in Erlangen in 1952. It was whilst working at Siemens that Franke began to experiment with photography and produced the Pendular Oscillogrammes series.
Herbert W. Franke is a pioneering figure in the history of computer art. In 1971, he produced one of the first accounts of computer art entitled 'Computergraphics - Computerart'. In 1979, he co-founded the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, an event that runs annually and brings together art and technology. Franke is also well known as a successful author of science fiction novels.
