Dick Higgins: Computers for the Arts (1970)

Includes Fortran program and printout of Hank and Mary, A Love Story, A Chorale by Higgins, realized by Higgins and James Tenney; and program and printout of Proposition No. 2 for Emmett Williams by Alison Knowles, realized by James Tenney.

Publisher Abyss Publications, Somerville/MA, June 1970
ISBN 091185603X, 9780911856033
17 pages

PDF
PDF (2-up version, added on 2014-2-5, via Lori Emerson)

Friedrich Kittler: Optical Media: Berlin Lectures 1999 (2002–)

“This major new book provides a concise history of optical media from Renaissance linear perspective to late twentieth-century computer graphics. Kittler begins by looking at European painting since the Renaissance in order to discern the principles according to which modern optical perception was organized. He also discusses the development of various mechanical devices, such as the camera obscura and the laterna magica, which were closely connected to the printing press and which played a pivotal role in the media war between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

After examining this history, Kittler then addresses the ways in which images were first stored and made to move, through the development of photography and film. He discusses the competitive relationship between photography and painting as well as between film and theater, as innovations like the Baroque proscenium or “picture-frame” stage evolved from elements that would later constitute cinema. The central question, however, is the impact of film on the ancient monopoly of writing, as it not only provoked new forms of competition for novelists but also fundamentally altered the status of books. In the final section, Kittler examines the development of electrical telecommunications and electronic image processing from television to computer simulations.

In short, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of image production that is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand the prevailing audiovisual conditions of contemporary culture.”

Publisher Merve, Berlin, 2002
Internationaler Merve Diskurs series, 250
ISBN 3883961833, 9783883961835
331 pages

English edition
Translated by Anthony Enns
With an introduction by John Durham Peters
Publisher Polity, 2009
ISBN 0745640915, 9780745640914
vi+250 pages

Reviews: Anthony Enns (Electronic Book Review 2004), Nicholas Gane and Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Theory Culture Society 2006), Kiss (2006, HU), Bohár (HU), Jussi Parikka (2011).

Publisher (DE)
Publisher (EN)
Worldcat (DE)
Worldcat (EN)

Optische Medien. Berliner Vorlesung 1999 (German, 2002, added on 2016-8-13, removed on 2017-8-10 upon request from publisher – read first two chapters)
Optical Media: Berlin Lectures 1999 (English, trans. Anthony Enns, 2009)

Arte y Cibernética, catalogue (1970) [Spanish]

A catalogue of the first computer art exhibition in Argentina, organised by Jorge Glusberg. With texts by Jasia Reichardt, Angel Kalenberg, Jorge Glusberg, Luis Osin, and Ricardo Ferraro.

Publisher Centro de Arte y Comunicacion (CAC), Buenos Aires, June 1970
via Pablo Colapinto

PDF (no OCR)
View discussion on cybernetics in Latin America (Yasmin mailing list)