Digital Pioneers on display at the V&A

The results of a joint research project between Birkbeck and the Victoria and Albert Museum go on display from 7 December. Digital Pioneers is one of the outcomes of The Computer Art and Technocultures Project, which is a major study of the history of Computer Art, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Digital Pioneers provides an overview of the first decades of the computer's history in art and design. It includes some of the earliest computer-generated works in the V&A’s collections, many of which have never been exhibited in the UK before.

The display includes plotter drawings, screenprints, digital inkjet prints, photographs and animations, as well as important documentary material from the time.

Dr Nick Lambert, the project's Principal Investigator based in the Department of History of Art and Screen Media, said: "This exhibition shows how artists first began using the computer as a medium, leading directly to the complex animations and digital imagery that surrounds us today. We see here the birth of a whole new area of art."

The exhibition features pioneers such as Frieder Nake, Georg Nees and Herbert W. Franke. It progresses from the 1950s to the 1990s with Paul Brown, Harold Cohen, Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnar.  The show also encompasses more recent works by James Faure Walker, Jean Pierre-Hébert, Roman Verostko and Mark Wilson.

Digital Pioneers offers a historical context for contemporary digital practice, and is scheduled to coincide with the V&A exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations. Digital Pioneers is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and individual donors.

7 December 2009 – 25 April 2010

V&A Museum, Julie & Robert Breckman Prints and Drawings Gallery, Room 90 and Paintings, Room 88a

Free admission

Click here to learn more about the Technocultures research project

Click here for the Digital Pioneers website

Image credit:

Herbert W. Franke, Squares (Quadrate), screenprint, 1969/70. Given by the Computer Arts Society, supported by System Simulation Ltd, London.

Image courtesy of the artist

Photo: V&A Photography