Peripheral Vision: Bell Labs, the S-C 4020, and the Origins of Computer Art

by Zabet Patterson

How the S-C 4020—a mainframe peripheral intended to produce scientific visualizations—shaped a series of early computer art projects that emerged from Bell Labs.In 1959, the electronics manufacturer Stromberg-Carlson produced the S-C 4020, a device that allowed mainframe computers to present and preserve images. In the mainframe era, the output of text and image was quite literally peripheral; the S-C 4020—a strange and elaborate apparatus, with a cathode ray screen, a tape deck, a buffer unit, a film camera, and a photo-paper camera—produced most of the computer graphics of the late 1950s and early 1960s. At Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the S-C 4020 became a crucial part of ongoing encounters among art, science, and technology. In this book, Zabet Patterson examines the extraordinary uses to which the Bell Labs SC-2040 was put between 1961 and 1972, exploring a series of early computer art projects shaped by the special computational affordances of the S-C 4020.

The S-C 4020 produced tabular data, graph plotting and design drawings, grid projections, and drawings of axes and vectors; it made previously impossible visualizations possible. Among the works Patterson describes are E. E. Zajac's short film of an orbiting satellite, which drew on the machine's graphic capacities as well as the mainframe's calculations; a groundbreaking exhibit of “computer generated pictures” by Béla Julesz and Michael Noll, two scientists interested in visualization; animations by Kenneth Knowlton and the Bell Labs artist-in-residence Stan VanDerBeek; and Lillian Schwartz's “cybernetic” film Pixillation.

Arguing for the centrality of a peripheral, Patterson makes a case for considering computational systems not simply as machines but in their cultural and historical context.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art

215 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2015

Reviews

[D Schmudde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an important book. As we shape with our tools, our tools shape us. Mid-century computer generated art is misunderstood because the process is so foreign. It is not immediate like painting, it is not common like using an iPad. The author does an excellent job of detailing how these images were created.

The book has a little difficulty knowing what it is about, but that’s something that happens with most platform studies. Regardless, there will be parts that seem less relevant or meander.

[Lucas Gelfond]

research for formalism. at times a bit more art-theoretical for my taste than I'd wish / points where I wanted more technical depth or explication, but really cool / focused / illuminating read

[Koen Crolla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Supposedly about the Stromberg-Carlson 4020 microfilm printer, which was only noteworthy because it was one of the bigger fish in a very small pond for a while. It certainly wasn't remarkable enough to fill even the 110 pages of this book, which is why most of it is actually just descriptions of early computer art for the most part not produced with it. Which is nice, I guess, if you're into that.

I understand that platform studies is less about studying platforms than it is about apologising for the fact that engineering produces useful results and pretending that endless content-free bullshitting is just as legitimate, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

[William Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent text for going over some of the earliest digital art. It most heavily focuses on the works of two particular artists Noll and Schwartz, detailing some of the earlier works, the significance of those works and insights into the processes of their creation.

Overall the book could've delved more into the technical aspects of the machines used in terms of code and actual input, though description was given of the interface through which the machines were operated.

My favorite quote was "Pulsing and straightforwardly manipulative, they blister the eye."