In conjunction with the exhibition Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989, this conversation addresses the connections between art making and computing since the 1960s, with a focus on women artists and designers. The exhibition explores the postwar rise of advanced mainframe technologies, and how artists have been at the vanguard of using computing to develop new forms and reinvent traditional modes of artistic production. The impact of early computing technologies on histories of art and design in the 20th century is central to understanding how we live today.
Participants include artist Beryl Korot, whose innovative video installation Text and Commentary (1976–77) draws together artistic practices ranging from weaving to computing; Zabet Patterson, Associate Professor, Art History and Criticism, Stony Brook University, and author of Peripheral Vision: Bell Labs, the S-C 4020, and the Origins of Computer Art (MIT Press, 2015), a material and technological history of art and science at Bell Labs; and artist Tamiko Thiel, lead designer of the CM-2 Supercomputer (1987), a commercially produced device that marked a significant advance in the history of data processing. The conversation will be moderated by MoMA exhibition organizers Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Giampaolo Bianconi, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art.
A reception will follow the conversation.
Tickets for this program will be available beginning October 14. Tickets ($15; $10 members and Corporate members; $5 students, seniors, and staff of other museums) can be purchased online, at the information desk, or at the Education and Research Building reception desk on the day of the program.
This event will be live-streamed.
Education at MoMA is made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.
Major support for Adult and Academic Programs is provided by the Estate of Susan Sabel.
Generous funding is provided by endowments established by Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, Walter and Jeanne Thayer, and by the gifts of Alan Kanzer. Additional support is provided by the Annual Education Fund.
