Timothy Druckrey (ed.): Ars Electronica: Facing the Future: A Survey of Two Decades (1999)

“For the past two decades the Austrian-based Ars Electronica, Festival for Art, Technology, and Society has played a pivotal role in the development of electronic media. Linking artistic practice and critical theory, the annual festival and symposium bring together scientists, philosophers, sociologists, and artists in an ongoing discourse on the effects of digital media on creativity—and on culture itself.

Drawing on the resources of Ars Electronica’s publications and archives, this anthology collects the essential works that form the core of a contemporary art long dismissed as too technical or inaccessible. The book includes a critical introduction, full bibliography, and texts and artworks from the key figures in the field.

Among the many contributors are Robert Adrian, Roy Ascott, Jean Baudrillard, Heidi Grundmann, Donna Haraway, Kathy Huffman, Friedrich Kittler, Knowbotic Research, Myron Kruger, Laurent Migonneau, Sadie Plant, Florian Rötzer, Paul Sermon, Carl Sims, Christa Sommerer, Woody Vasulka, Paul Virilio, Peter Weibel, and Gene Youngblood.”

Publisher MIT Press, 1999
Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice series, 1
ISBN 0262041766, 9780262041768
449 pages
via Ars Electronica

Reviews: Beryl Graham (Convergence, 2000), Rhizome (2000), Stephen Wilson (Leonardo, 2001), Yvonne Spielmann (Leonardo, 2001), Matthew Griffin (PAJ, 2002).

WorldCat

PDF, PDF (41 MB)

Pontus Hultén (ed.): The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age (1968)

Exhibition catalogue of one of the most important exhibitions of the 1960s dealing with art and technology. The show was held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 25 November 1968 – 9 February 1969. Its curator K.G. Pontus Hultén described it as a “collection of comments on technology by artists of the Western world,” particularly in the modern age when “the mechanical machine – which can most easily be defined as an imitation of our muscles – is losing its dominating position among the tools of mankind; while electronic and chemical devices – which imitate the processes of the brain and the nervous system – are becoming increasingly important.”

The exhibition traveled to Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston, 25 March – 18 May 1969; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, 23 June – 24 August 1969.

Publisher Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968
218 pages
via MoMA

Review: William A. Camfield (Art Bulletin, 1971).
Exh.review: Time (1968).

Publisher

PDF (53 MB, updated on 2016-9-23: pagination corrected, bookmarks and metadata added, file optimized, page 59 still missing)

Nam June Paik: Exposition Of Music. Electronic Television: Revisited (2009)

“In 1963, Nam June Paik created a new genre of exhibition with his first solo show, The Exposition of Electronic Music-Electronic Television at Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, West Germany. Fresh from his studies with John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and already a Fluxus veteran, Paik created a disorienting environment that foreshadowed much of what was to come in the 1960s: visitors, greeted at the entrance by a freshly slaughtered ox head, were not only confronted with the newness of the electronic image in Paik’s TV monitors, but also found themselves integrated into a Dadaistic installation that included prepared pianos, mechanical sound objects, record players and audio tape installations. Exposition reconstructs this landmark show.”

Texts by Nam June Paik, Susanne Neuburger, Manuela Ammer, Tomas Schmit, and interviews by Justin Hoffmann/Nam June Paik, Susanne Neuburger/Manfred Montwé (artistic collaborator during the Exposition of Music), and Susanne Rennert/Tomas Schmit (artistic collaborator during the Exposition of Music).

Edited by Susanne Neuburger
Foreword by Edelbert Koeb
Publisher Walther König, Cologne
ISBN 9783865606198, 3865606199
244 pages

Exhibition
Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (English section only, 20 MB)