Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982

Art and culture in the computer age is explored in the exhibit Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Since 1952, when the first analog computer image was generated for aesthetic purposes, the incorporation of technology in artistic practices continued to evolve throughout the mainframe computer age (1952-1982), the period between the use of computers exclusively as military tools and the rise of the personal computer.

“Coded brings to light early digital or computer art that has long been overlooked, re-contextualizing it to encourage a new way of looking at mainstream art of the period” said Leslie Jones, Curator, Prints and Drawings.

Both International and interdisciplinary in scope, Coded explores the origins of digital art within the context of mainstream art movements

such as the geometric, abstract, optical illusion of Op Art originating in the mid 1900 and the Conceptual Art of the mid 1960's to 70's, in which the essentiality of the depicted concept, rather than the technique, is the driving artistic force.

Many of the over 100 objects on display are from the museum's permanent collection, and numerous of the 75 artists are exhibited for the first time at LACMA.

Roughly chronologically organized, the six thematic sections are: The Computer and Popular Consciousness celebrates the development of computers from a pure technological form to creative tools; Mathematics and the Beginning of Computational Aesthetics represents a period of depersonalization of the creative process in favor of math's universality; Algorithms and Generative Text relates the use of sets of algorithms to create art;

Encoding Art explores the artist-scientist collaboration in computer generated art with traditional artistic techniques; Information as Art/Art as Information relates the use of computer data to address specific issues as well as to explore conventional art topics, such as landscapes and biblical texts, in computer age terms; and the Computer and Politics/ Open Scores in which the new technology was used to express political positions as well as to allow for performer input and improvisation.

Exhibition highlights include Edward Kienholz's The Friendly Grey Computer- Star Gauge Model #54 (1965) whose works anticipated the coming age of personal computing, 

 Vera Molnár's À la Recherche de Paul Klee (1970) plotter drawing inspired by a 1927 painting by Paul Klee, 

Frederick Hammersley's “computer drawings” (1969) made with Art1, one of the earliest computer programs designed for artists, 

and Stan VanDerBeek's film Poemfield No.1 (Blue Version) (1967) who coded and animated his poem using a program called BEFLIX (short for Bell Labs Flicks).

“As an institution with a longstanding commitment to exploring the intersection of art and technology ever since the founding of the Art and Technology Program in 1967, LACMA is excited to present this innovative exhibition,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director.

Alongside Coded, LACMA's Art + Technology Lab will be presenting a new two-part digital work by Casey Reas: an homage and a response to Victor Vasarely's unrealized proposal for LACMA's Art and Technology Program (1967-1971). 

Casey Reas: METAVASARELY, an interactive work, will be presented virtually on lacma.org during the run of the exhibition (February 12-July 2). Casey Reas: An Empty Room, a new digital work by Reas, will also be on view on BCAM, Level 2, from April 9 through July 2.

The exhibit runs from February 12 to July 2, 2023, at BCAM, Level 2, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit http://www.lacma.org/