Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982
July 25th, 2023 by Tiffany Funk
My research regarding Lejaren A. Hiller Jr. and John Cage’s HPSCHD has been included in the LACMA exhibition “Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982” (Feb 12–Jul 2, 2023) as well as the Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982 exhibition catalog.
Exhibition description:
Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 explores how the rise of computer technology, together with its emergence in popular consciousness, impacted the making of art in the age of the mainframe. International and interdisciplinary in scope, Coded examines the origins of what we now call digital art, featuring artists, writers, musicians, choreographers, and filmmakers working directly with computers as well as those using algorithms and other systems to produce their work. Whether computer-generated or not, the many artworks considered here reflect the simultaneous wonder and alienation that was characteristic of the 1960s and ’70s, along with the utopian and dystopian possibilities of these new machines. Today, with digital technology having been fully integrated into our lives, Coded’s examination of the years leading up to the advent of the personal computer is relevant, even imperative, to fully appreciating art and culture in the age of the computer—both then and now.
