ARTISTS, COMPUTERS AND PUBLISHING

In recent years artists and designers have increasingly exploited the computer - as a tool or a source of inspiration. Some of the publications displayed here make full use of the computer's inherent capabilities whilst others emphasise its characteristics.

31

Valerie Hollister.
Seven computer landscapes.
Woodside, Ca.: Occasional Works, 1993.
X940116

The images were created using MacPaint software, and the artist makes no attempt to disguise their origins.

Osterei

32

Couven-Museum (Aachen, Germany)
Osterei.
Aachen: Museen der Stadt, 1993.
X930228

This catalogue of an exhibition about Easter Eggs consists of individual circular pages presented in a compact disc box.

33

William Latham.
The garden of unearthly delights.
IBM United Kingdom Laboratories, 1993.
MM.95.0008
CD-ROM, Microsoft Windows format.

On this CD-ROM, the artist's images seem to evolve at random, rotating and mutating to create organic shapes and psychedelic colours.

34

Josef Albers
Interaction of color.
New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1994.
CD-ROM, Macintosh format.
MM.94.0011

This CD-ROM edition of Interaction of color contains the complete text, commentary and plates of the original 1963 edition, plus additional features enabling the computer user to experiment with colour.

35

Michael Heindorff
Drawn to seeing: works in pencil on paper.
London: Royal College of Art, 1995.
CD-ROM, MS-DOS format.
MM.95.0009

No. 30 in a limited edition of 200 copies, this is an early example of an exhibition catalogue published on CD-ROM. Images and typescript pages were scanned in, complete with manuscript alterations and the accompanying keyboard commands required to use the publication. The cover includes an original drawing by the artist.

36

Simon Parish.
Visceral rarity.
[Maastricht: the artist, 1993?]
X940083

No. 90 in a limited edition of 100 copies, this pamphlet includes images produced on a Macintosh computer.

37

High tension

Philip Zimmermann.
High tension.
Rochester, N.Y.: Visual Studies Workshop, 1993.
X930150

Produced using a variety of computer software including Aldus Freehand, Adobe PhotoShop and Quark Xpress, Zimmermann's book deals with the stress and tension of life at the end of the millennium.

38

William Gibson & Dennis Ashbaugh.
Agrippa: a book of the dead.
New York: Kevin Begos, 1992.

Some of the book’s images are impermanent, and are easily damaged if touched. Gibson’s text is on the enclosed Macintosh computer disk, but the data is destroyed when the disk is used. Although this copy has not been played, the text has been made available on the internet. "Agrippa" is the name of a Kodak photograph album available in the 1920s.

Agrippa: a book of the dead

39

Sara Garden Armstrong.
Airplayers.
New York: Wills, Locker & Owens, c1990.
X920242

Published in a limited edition of 65 copies, Airplayers is a translation of Sara Garden Armstrong's site-specific "environments" into a bookwork with four components: a container, book, video, and a "miniature sculptural Environment".

40

Macaulay, David.
The way things work.
London: Dorling Kindersley, 1994.
CD-ROM, Microsoft Windows format.

This is one of a range of CD-ROMs published by Dorling Kindersley. The software is installed on an IBM-compatible computer fitted with a touch screen. The printed edition of The way things work (1988) is shown in the glass display case nearby (no. 23).