Revisiting and Re-presenting 1980s Micro Computer Art

The Computer Arts Archive was established in Leicester, UK in early 2020 in order to preserve and develop the CAS50 Collection, a collection of computer artworks brought together in 2018 and 2019 to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Computer Arts Society. This paper presents work undertaken to expand the archive through the development of focused collections based around areas that we feel are under-reported in the canon of computer and digital art history. The Micro Arts collection explores computer art made using 1980s “micro computers” such as the BBC Micro and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The starting point of the collection is the Micro Arts project produced in the 1980s by Geoff Davis and colleagues. We present the work undertaken so far in establishing the collection and discuss issues relating to the capture and documentation of pioneering digital artwork such as this.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Sean Clark

Geoff Davis

Conference

Publication date: July 2021

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Pages: 287-291

Affiliations

[0001]Interact Digital Arts Ltd.

Leicester, UK

[0002]University of the Arts

London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.52

SO-VID: 4984851b-9361-4427-aa45-d044725230f8

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2021

Conference acronym: EVA 2021

Conference number:

Conference location: London

Conference date: 5th July – 9th July 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.52

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

S. Clark (2018) CAS50: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Computer Arts Society. Interact Digital Arts (October 2018) ISBN 978-1-9993103-0-1. Available from: http://bit.ly/2Qwv1tY
S. Clark (2019) The CAS50 Exhibition and Collection. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds), EVA London 2019 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), 8–11 July 2019. BCS, London.
S. Clark (2020) The Computer Arts Archive. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N Lambert. (eds), EVA London 2020 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), 6–9 July 2019. BCS, London.
S. Clark (2020) The Micro Arts Collection. https://www.computer-arts-archive.com/collections/microarts (retrieved 10 April 2021).
G. Davis (1984) Micro Arts Magazine Issue 1. Edited and published by Geoff Davis. https://www.computer-arts-archive.com/collections/microarts/magazine (retrieved 10 April 2021).
G. Davis (2020) The Micro Arts Group. https://microartsgroup.com (retrieved 10 April 2021)
G. Davis (2019) Micro Arts History 1984-1985. Story Software, London. Available on Amazon.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] S. Clark (2018) CAS50: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Computer Arts Society. Interact Digital Arts (October 2018) ISBN 978-1-9993103-0-1. Available from: http://bit.ly/2Qwv1tY

[2] S. Clark (2019) The CAS50 Exhibition and Collection. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds), EVA London 2019 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), 8–11 July 2019. BCS, London.

[3] S. Clark (2020) The Computer Arts Archive. In: J. Weinel, J.P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N Lambert. (eds), EVA London 2020 (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts), 6–9 July 2019. BCS, London.

[4] S. Clark (2020) The Micro Arts Collection. https://www.computer-arts-archive.com/collections/microarts (retrieved 10 April 2021).

[5] G. Davis (1984) Micro Arts Magazine Issue 1. Edited and published by Geoff Davis. https://www.computer-arts-archive.com/collections/microarts/magazine (retrieved 10 April 2021).

[6] G. Davis (2020) The Micro Arts Group. https://microartsgroup.com (retrieved 10 April 2021)

[7] G. Davis (2019) Micro Arts History 1984-1985. Story Software, London. Available on Amazon.

Studying business & IT? Drive your professional career forwards with BCS books - for a 20% discount click here: shop.bcs.org