International Networks of Early Digital Arts

Abstract

The histories of international networks that transgressed the Cold war barriers and were involved with digital arts in the 1960s and early 1970s are an under­researched subject in many respects. Here is proposed a short fragmented history of networks of digital art, i.e. organizations that group interconnected people that have been involved with the creative use of computers. The practices of networks such as [New] Tendencies (Zagreb), E.A.T. (New York), Computer Arts Society (London, Amsterdam, Michigan) and Working group for computers and verbal, visual and sonic research (Utrecht) supported art that made use of machinic processes of communication and information exchange, and bridged both society's and art's transition from the industrial age to the information society. Their practices reinforced a creative use of digital technologies for actively participating in social contexts. These networks promoted an interdisciplinary approach and led the evolution of digital culture from cybernetics to digital art. They provided a context for digital arts within contemporary art, among others fields, and illustrated how a network of digital arts operates even before the time of Internet.