Reflection on Patrick Frank’s lecture “Early Computer Art”
Patrick Frank is a true collector in every sense of the word. His lecture was incredibly fascinating to me, especially since in my undergrad at The College of New Jersey was home to an exhibit on the Sarnoff Center. Bell Labs had donated a lot of old tech to be displayed at the college and I spent my undergrad consistently going to this exhibit and learning about this tech. I always find it interesting how things begin and I think Patrick has done an amazing job tracking down how early computer came to be. Going back to the critique of Edward Zajec’s work, I do think I understand the impulse of people to ask why. Why would you use this very expensive thing for something it’s not meant for? But does anything truly have a purpose? How is something assigned purpose in the first place? I have a love of exploring outside of purpose, outside of expectation. I constantly want to make things do things they’re not “meant” to and I’m grateful to Patrick for maintaining this history for something so essential in art today.
