FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - PRINCETON, NJ
Stewart Dickson
PRESS RELEASE
WHO: THE WILLIAMS GALLERY
8 CHAMBERS STREET
PRINCETON, NJ 08542
(609)921-1142
MARY LOU BOCK, DIRECTOR
wmga...@aol.com
WHERE: Exhibition at the Williams Gallery
WHAT: "BINARY VISIONS: a realization of the computer's potential in the fine
arts as foreseen by George Stibitz, computing pioneer." The show features new
works of six internationally recognized artists, who have mastered the
computer's use as a powerful new medium in the creation of their art.
WHEN: October 8 - November 19, 1994
HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 to 5:00 & by appointment
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
In the 1940's and 50's George Stibitz of Lyme, Connecticut pioneered
the development of binary digital computing, and foresaw the eventual use of
computers in the arts. The exhibit "BINARY VISIONS: includes some of Stibitz'
exploratory work with computer art, and, in a demonstration of the accuracy of
his foresight, features the work of six contemporary artists who have
realized the potential of the computer as an artistic medium. The exhibit is
presented in cooperation with the Zoler Gallery of Penn State University,
who will be showing additional examples of these artists' work at the same
time.
GEORGE CRAMER, nationally known artist and sculptor from Madison,
Wisconsin, has chosen to work with processes and images which allow him to
include many conflicting historical, tribal and universal concepts of the
value of art in his work. He uses the power of the computer to bring order to
issues of our society which often seem chaotic or frightening. Often the final
images of his computer output are produced by traditional methods (eg.
lithographs, monoprints), as well as by "traditional" computer output media
such as ink-jet printers. He has long been associated with the University of
Wisconsin at Madison.
DOROTHY SIMPSON KRAUSE is Professor of Computer Graphics, Department
of Design at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and corporate curator for
IRIS Graphics, Inc. Her work manipulates historical and contemporary images,
enlarging on their ethical, social and political meanings by combining,
layering and merging them into provocative statements. She says, "I
challenge the viewer to look beyond the surface to see what is hidden. My
creative process in intuitive and experimental. I push the boundaries until
I know I have something worth pursuing." Her work has been widely shown and
published, and she occupies the post of Artist in Residence at the Kodak
Center for Creative Imaging.
BARBARA NESSIM of New York City is an internationally known artist and
educator whose works have been collected and/or exhibited at the Smithsonian,
the MOMA of Sweden, The Dusseldorf Kunst Museum, the Louvre, Time and Newsweek
magazines and many private collections. She holds the Chair of the
Illustration Department at Parsons School of Design in New York. Her works are
primarily figures directly drawn on the computer, but often hand colored in
watercolor or acrylics. While her works represent familiar objects and
humanistic figures, they convey considerations of human endeavour, social
and interpersonal issues and accomplishment.
JOAN TRUCKENBROD is a faculty member of the Art Institute of Chicago,
who has exhibited throughout the the United States and in Germany, Switzerland
and France. She uses the computer to synthesize images which address the
behavioral roles defined for/by women. "I sketch out figures and weave them
together with old family photographs and outlined images from fashion
magazines, catalogues and newspapers to illustrate that media figures have a
subliminal effect in forming attitudes and behavior in men and women." Her
striking use of color and manipulated imagery combine to produce powerful and
stimulating works.
MARK WILSON of West Cornwall, Connecticut, uses the computer to
create complex images by direct use of the digital nature of the computer
medium. Indeed, his pictures would not be realizable in any other medium.
Rather than attempting to disguise the pixel, the basic element of computer
output, he uses it as the central element in his work. After the initial
image is generated on a computer screen, it is mapped. pixel by pixel, into a
geometric surface and then "projected" into perspective space. The resulting
image is plotted on paper or canvas. This technique reveals a new visual
geometry that could not have been displayed before the computer became part
of the artist's media.
ROMAN VEROSTKO is chairman of Liberal Arts, Professor of Art History
and Software Artist at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. After a
long career in traditional art, he has developed the concept and practise of
"epigenetic art": that is, the development of computer software designed to
express his personal artistic preferences and to generate totally original
works of art automatically. He is one of the very few artists who actually
cause the computer to create original art. His software is an extension of
his own visual ideas, and creates works glowing with mystery and iconic
qualities. The work is executed by a color plotter, which can also produce
Chinese brush strokes through Verostko's modifications to its mechanism. The
pen lines and brush strokes, while executed by the machine, exhibit the
expressive qualities of the artist's hand.
GEORGE STIBITZ: FATHER OF THE MODERN DIGITAL COMPUTER
GEORGE STIBITZ may be considered the father of the modern digital
computer. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1904. After earning his MS in
physics in 1927 he completed his PhD in 1930 and accepted a position with
Bell Laboratories in New York City. In 1937, after observing the similarities
between the "on-off" positions of electronic relays and the binary
"one or zero" notation in mathematics, he constructed a one-digit binary
calculator. Named the "Model-K", the "K" stood for the kitchen table on
which it was assembled in 1937. His colleagues expressed interest as to
whether this little relay calculator could be expanded to perform complex
mathematics, and in 1939 the Complex Calculator was completed and put into
use at the Laboratories.
World War II provided the impetus to construct more complex computing
machines and Stibitz and his associates developed systems used in many
applications, bringing about enormous savings in human labor. Considered the
father of the modern digital computer, he has received many degrees and
honors including the IEEE's computer pioneer award in 1982.
His interest in the use of the computer as an artistic medium developed as
he realized the powerful manipulative techniques of form and color which it
provided. He says, "If Leonardo da Vinci and Van Gogh had had computers we
could now reproduce the "Last Supper" or the green pool table (now turned
brown), with colors unchanged by the passage of centuries." The private works
of Stibitz, shown in this exhibit, and his explanatory comments, display his
charm and fascination with the boundless capabilities of the medium. Both
the artistic and the intellectual communities owe a great debt to George
Stibitz.
The Williams Gallery
Princeton, NJ
October, 1994
The Williams Gallery's involvement in the integration of the computer art
movement with traditional art has been far reaching. Along with traditional
sculpture and painting, Mary Lou Bock, Director, has been curating Art &
Technology and Computer Art shows since 1986, including exhibits for
corporations, museums and private groups across the country. In a review
written by Eileen Watkins in the Oct. 28, 1994 edition of the Star Ledger
she says, "The Williams Gallery of Princeton has established itself as one
of the foremost showcases in the United States for computer art." And in
the Aug./Sept. 1994 issue of Computer Artist Magazine, the arts editor
mentions the Gallery's "...long-standing promotion of the computer as a
tool for the fine arts."
END PRESS RELEASE