Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982

272 pages
Edited by Leslie Jones
Foreword by Michael Govan
Preface by Hannah B Higgins
Text by Bronac Ferran, Patrick Frank, Tiffany Funk, Meredith Hoy, Leslie Jones, Jennifer King, Lisa Gabrielle Mark, Joel McKim, Britt Salvesen, Edward Shanken, Staci Steinberger, Grant D. Taylor, Bobbye Tigerman, Debora Wood
27.9 x 22 cm
Language: English
Hardback
Publisher: Delmonico Books
2023

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.