Computer graphic
/4
- Computer graphic
- 1968
- print on paper, stapled
- 17 × 17 cm
In February 1968, Jiří Valoch realized an exhibition of computer graphics at the Brno House of Arts (exhibiting artists: Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, A. Michael Noll, Charles Csuri, Leslie Mezei, and Lubomír Sochor). It was Eastern Europe’s initial reaction to the phenomenon of computer art and the world’s fifth exhibition of this kind (the first of which took place in Stuttgart in 1965). According to the curator, this exhibition was meant to liberate the public from the fear of “art created by dead machines.”
In computer graphics, Valoch sought out parallels with physical creation. The themes of objectivization and the multiplication of art’s economic and social accessibility also coincided with the socio-political concepts that were simultaneously unfolding in the atmosphere created by the Prague Spring’s social reformers, specifically Radovan Richta. A left-wing-oriented theme of the artistic artefact that could be produced automatically (and thus rendered as globally accessible and socially equitable practice that was not solely a privilege of cultural elites) was developed by the New Tendencies movement—in which Jiří Valoch got involved. In the summer of 1968, he attended their colloquium “Computer and Visual Research” and presented his contribution “Computer Schöpfer oder Werkzeug” [Computer—Creator or Tool], discussing and comparing various attitudes towards work with computers and referring to the works of Lubomír Sochora and Zdeněk Sýkora as examples. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the artistic use of computers lost its revolutionary character. Left-oriented intellectuals grew more aware of the exploitative subtext of war and power behind these new technologies and the corresponding presuppositions about computer art. J.P.
In computer graphics, Valoch sought out parallels with physical creation. The themes of objectivization and the multiplication of art’s economic and social accessibility also coincided with the socio-political concepts that were simultaneously unfolding in the atmosphere created by the Prague Spring’s social reformers, specifically Radovan Richta. A left-wing-oriented theme of the artistic artefact that could be produced automatically (and thus rendered as globally accessible and socially equitable practice that was not solely a privilege of cultural elites) was developed by the New Tendencies movement—in which Jiří Valoch got involved. In the summer of 1968, he attended their colloquium “Computer and Visual Research” and presented his contribution “Computer Schöpfer oder Werkzeug” [Computer—Creator or Tool], discussing and comparing various attitudes towards work with computers and referring to the works of Lubomír Sochora and Zdeněk Sýkora as examples. After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the artistic use of computers lost its revolutionary character. Left-oriented intellectuals grew more aware of the exploitative subtext of war and power behind these new technologies and the corresponding presuppositions about computer art. J.P.