1973 International Computer Art Festival: Official program

April 1-14, 1973

Description

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 "fully responsive, improvisatory" 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.