Description

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and the CUNY Graduate Center’s Art and Science Connect are pleased to co-present a pair of panels inspired by the legacy of the Computer Art Festivals (1973-1975), alongside an online presentation of video works, programs, and materials from the event’s three year history. In the first panel, organizers and artists from the initial festivals will discuss the original impetus for the project, the nature of computer art at the time, and the event’s resonances today. In the second, contemporary digital art practitioners and institutional voices will consider the role of institutions in producing and shaping art made with computers.

First organized by Dimitri Devyatkin in 1973, the Computer Art Festivals were an instrumental forum for the convergence of art and computing technology at a formative moment in the histories of computer art. Within the short span of their three years -- taking place at The Kitchen in 1973 and '74 before relocating to the CUNY Graduate Center in 1975 -- the festivals brought together over 100 different artists, showcasing prescient experiments with computers from a wide array of disciplines, including music, film, video, and graphic sculpture. In this conversation with the festival’s early organizers and participants, EAI and the CUNY Graduate Center will consider computer art’s early history and its entanglement with the multidisciplinary spirit of intermedia art, as well as the role of institutions including public funding structures, arts organizations, and universities in cultivating a rich context and support network for emerging media art.

This panel assembles original participants including Dimitri Devyatkin, Charles Dodge, Louise Etra, and Alison Knowles with Joshua Selman, moderated by curator Michelle Kuo. RSVP for the panel here.

Learn more about Panel #2: Digital Art and Institutional Models here.