Where is the Art? Pen plotters and the history of computer art (emf2024)

In October 1971, Frieder Nake published an article in Page, the Bulletin of the Computer Arts Society, entitled "There Should Be No Computer Art", making the point that there were more important things for humans to work on together in the late Twentieth Century, than whether or not a computer should be allowed to make "art". In this talk, we'll take a journey together to look at one aspect of computer history - creative technology and art - and the ways in which it has been misunderstood and feared at different points in our shared history and culture. Along the way, you'll also hear about how I accidentally became an artist, after being laid off from my dream job with big tech; the story of building my own pen plotters; and, how you can make your own army of art robots! Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ about this event: https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/302-where-is-the-art-pen-plotters