The Computer In Art

by Jasia Reichardt

An overview of the Computer in fine art, animation, design and art education at the time.

Genres: Art

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 1971

About the author

Born 1933

An art critic, editor, curator, and gallery director with an interest in art and its intersection with other fields, especially technology.

Reviews

[Marc Weidenbaum]

I'll likely have more to say about this book over at Disquiet.com, when I get the time, but for the moment suffice to say that Jasia Reichardt's The Computer in Art, published forty years ago this year, is one of my favorites. Like many people's favorite books, it's quite tiny, which aids in its rereading. I've reread some long books three or four times (Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson comes to mind), but this one easily 10. It's ostensibly a snapshot of computer art of the 1950s and 1960s, and by computer art that generally means graphic art, but everything in this book lends itself to computer enabled music: discussions of authorship, of software lifecycles, of the nature of chance, of networked creativity. It's all here.

I re-read it slowly to commemorate its four decades of influence. Highly recommended.