Graduate Seminar, Fall 1997

History of Art and Computing is currently under production in the Art Studio Department at the University of California at Santa Barbara and has been made possible by grants from the U.C.S.B. Department of Instructional Development, and the David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion.

Directed by Victoria Vesna, Professor of Art Studio at U.C.S.B., HAC will be a twentieth century survey of the development of the computer and those artists that were directly and/or indirectly affected by digital technology.

The idea was born out of an ongoing project produced by Vesna in 1995 entitled Computers and the Intuitive Edge (CIE). CIE's purpose was to provide undergraduate students with an introduction to computer technology for the Visual Thinker.

It was soon discovered that a supplementary work was needed - an extension of CIE, discussing parallel events in the evolution of arts and computers - to give students exposure to some of the historic advancements in computer technology, and a knowledge of the artists who have been involved in discovering or utilizing these technologies in their work. This fall, Victoria is teaching a graduateseminar focusing on the years 1967-1997.

The History of Art and Computing is intended for instructional purposes only.


ART HISTORY RESEARCH

Voice of the Shuttle -- Art and Art History: Comprehensive guide to Internet resources covering art and art history.
Art History Research Centre: Great list of Internet tools to help art historians conduct research.

MISCELLANY

Adaweb artist sites/index: A mutating collection of interesting Web projects by various artists.
Art Education Resources (by location):
Art History and Art Education Resource Page, University of Massachusetts, Amherst:
ArtsEdge (sponsored by Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and National Endowment for the arts):
ArtsEdNet (sponsored by Getty Center for Education in the arts):
Arts USA (sponsored by American Council for the Arts):
Astralwerks: The mostest in ambient, techno and digital dub moozik.
Axiom Home Page: Bill Laswell's powerful, pulsating Temporary Autonomous Zone, Axiom, is an extraordinarily diverse and creative collection of trans-musical projects.
Canadian Arts Education Resources:
DADA Productions Inc.: If we subtract one's DREAMS/TREMENS and rhetoric to Judas and Tumeric-Hydro-Chloric reticence, we will rid our selves of Wicked Destitute threes, Denver and cess pool of Jesus' juggernaut.
Educational Resource Information Center:
...ellipsis...: Avant-garde contemporary architecture.
Extreme: Australia's leading publisher and distributor of experimental music, sound and noise.
Hollow Ear: The gap between the aural cavities. Music that defies easy categorizations or quick quips.
kosmic free music foundation: Hours of music to download, cool art, and incredible links.
LEONARDO: A fascinating journal that has kept up with the technology/art cross-overs since...
MUZAK Corp.: Ear Lithium for wage slaves.
The International Directory of Art Libraries: A means to access over 3,000 libraries and library departments with specialized holdings in art, architecture, nand archaeology throughout the world.
Yahoo -- Arts : Links, links, and more links...


THE NOT SO OLDEN DAYS

Association For History and Computing: The Association for History and Computing is an international organisation which aims to promote and develop interest in the use of computers in all types of historical study at every level, in both teaching and research.
Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers: A collection of product announcements and delivery dates from various sources, mainly computer magazines and newspapers.
Commercial Computing Museum - Computer History Web Sites: List of sites with interesting information about the history of computing.
Computer History and Folklore: Manifestos, interviews, and lots of links to resources.
French History of the PDP: All about old machines such as pdp11, dec20's and other old VAX systems; also includes information about old hard drives that were sold at the time.
Great Microprocessors of the Past and Present: A description of designs that are either unique (such as the RCA 1802, Acorn ARM, or INMOS Transputer), or representative designs typical of the period (such as the 6502 or 8080, 68000, and R2000).
Historical Computer Society: HCS can help owners find answers about system operation, peripherals, software, books, magazines and service.
History of Computing: Originally constructed as part of the course materials for the "Professionalism in Computing" class at Virginia Tech, and in particular as a set of notes and amplification of the materials in the video "The Machine That Changed The World", developed and distributed by WGBH (PBS) and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).
History of Computing at Los Alamos: Catagorized into four basic lines; [1] work done in Germany by Konrad Zuse, [2] the Bell Telephone Laboratories production of a series of computers based on relay technology, [3] the projects undertaken by Howard Aiken at Harvard, and [4] the efforts of IBM in the design of both small and largescale mechanical and electro-mechanical computing equipment.
History of the Rice University Computer: More than you ever wanted to know about the evolution of the R1Ős development, circuitry, memory, peripherals, layout, and so on...real propeller-head stuff.
Hobbes' Internet Timeline v2.2: An Internet timeline highlighting some of the key events and technologies which helped shape the Internet as we know it today.
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing: From the analytical engine to the supercomputer, from Pascal to von Neumann, from punched cards to CD-ROMs, the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing covers the breadth of computer history. Featuring scholarly articles by leading computer scientists and historians, as well as firsthand accounts by computer pioneers, the Annals is the primary publication for recording, analyzing, and debating the history of computing.
The Machine That Changed the World: Outlines the major topics of presentation in each of the episodes of the video series The Machine That Changed the World which was produced by WGBH Television in Boston MA, in cooperation with the British Broadcasting Corp., with support from ACM, NSF and UNISYS.
Unisys History Newsletter: The Unisys History Newsletter was written and published by George Gray, a Systems Programmer for the State of Georgia Department of Administrative Services.
Yahoo -- Computers and Internet History: Links, links, and more links...

GALLERIES AND COLLECTIONS

Computer Collection Main Page: The first goal of the collection is to save some good large machines on the West Coast for the edification and amusement of future generations.
Calculating Machines: Detailed chronologies, biographies, and picturials of the history of calculating.
ENIAC VM Curatorial Pages: A university-based project for creating a World Wide Web site for the history of computing and technology. It is supported entirely through the volunteer efforts of students and staff, along with contributions from the historical and professional computing communities.
Historic Computer Images: A collection of high resolution scans.
Obsolete Computer Museum: A place to stop by and reminisce about the old days of personal computing.
Smithsonian Computer History: Contains a selection of materials from the Division of Computers, Information & Society, National Museum of American History.
The Computer Museum: The Computer Museum is building The Computer Museum Network. Watch for it to open at this URL in April, 1996. When it does, this Web site will be replaced by the new Computer Museum Network.
Virtual Museum of Computing: An eclectic collection of hyperlinks connected with the history of computing and on-line computer-based exhibits available both locally and around the world.

NOTABLE PEOPLE

Guide to Isaac Asimov's Essays: A list of every known essay by Asimov together with a brief description of its subject, the source in which the essay originally appeared, as well as any collections of Asimov's in which it appeared.
Past Women of Computing: A compilation of pioneering women who made their mark in matematics and computing.
Photo Gallery of Women & Computers: An extensive catalog of images associated with the Past Notable Women of Computing site.

MISCELLANY

Internet 25th Anniversary: Special event coverage by the Amdahl WWW server, with timely links to many excellent ARPANET/Internet histories.
National Art Education Association Electronic Media Interest Group:
Portrait of J. Random Hacker: Intelligent. Scruffy. Intense. Abstracted. Surprisingly for a sedentary profession, more hackers run to skinny than fat; both extremes are more common than elsewhere. Tans are rare.
The New Hacker's Dictionary: A collection of slang terms used by various subcultures of computer hackers. Though some technical material is included for background and flavor, it is not a technical dictionary; what we describe here is the language hackers use among themselves for fun, social communication, and technical debate.

Please direct correspondence to: The HAC Project