Festival Programs

This page contains reproductions of the official programs for the three editions of the International Computer Art Festival, which were held from 1973 to 1975. Full versions of the documents may be viewed by clicking on the appropriate links.

1973 International Computer Art Festival: Official program
April 1-14, 1973, The Kitchen

The first International Computer Art Festival was held at The Kitchen from April 1 to 14, 1973. The cover of this 8-page official program features a black and white drawing of the first shift-key typewriter, released in 1878. The program lists and describes the graphics, films, video works, and music pieces presented by more than 40 participating artists. The festival also included events on topics such as Video Synthesis and Computer, Computer Music, and Computer Interaction. Among the performances were David Dowe and Jerry Hunt's Harrinan Playing Heisenberg/Eyes and Electric Exo-Sketch, in which the dancers controlled video and audio signals by moving their muscles. Video artist Ron Hays played the øfully responsive, improvisatoryÓ Paik/Abe synthesizer live, and Charles Dodge presented his experiments with synthesized human voices in Speech Songs (1972). The program also included Emmanuel Ghent's Phosphones (1971), in which electronic music and lighting were integrated and controlled in real time using the GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) - the first system that allowed the conductor to manipulate electronic sound concurrently while performing. The festival included the premiere demonstration of the new Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer. To familiarize the audience with this and other new technologies, computers were available for public use during three days of the Festival.

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2nd International Computer Art Festival: Official program (1974)
June 1-14, 1974, The Kitchen

The second International Computer Art Festival was held at The Kitchen between June 1 and 14, 1974. The 11-page official program features a color cover by Bill and Louise Etra and five black and white diagrams by Paul Hrozenchik, George Chaikin and Duane Palyka. Electronic music and video works dominated the Festival, but the 60 participating artists also presented computer experiments in film and graphic sculpture. Among the artists showing video were Tom DeWitt, Bill and Louise Etra, Shigeko Kubota, Robert Lewis, Nam June Paik, Stan Vanderbeek, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and Walter Wright. Computer music pioneer John Chowning, working at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, presented one of his most notable compositions, Turenas (1972), the first piece to create the illusion of sound sources moving in a 360-degree space.

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Third International Computer Art Festival: Official Program (1975)
June 12-21, 1975, City University of New York

The third and last edition of the International Computer Art Festival was held at the City University Graduate Center in New York from June 12-21, 1975. This 5-page color pamphlet lists the exhibitions and events. More than 60 artists participated. For the first time, poetry was presented alongside videos, films, graphic sculptures and music compositions. In addition to the new venue, the most significant change was the extensive lecture and workshop program that was an essential part of the third festival. For example, Max Matthews gave an introduction to his program for conducting computers in live music performances and Charles Dodge explained and demonstrated his programming systems for synthesizing human speech.

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