9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering at the 69th Regiment Armory

The event that legitimized the use of technology in art, Artist Robert Rauschenberg and engineer Billy Klüver (Bell Labs) organized 9 Evenings to promote artist-engineer collaboration. In just eighteen months, Bell Labs engineers went from experimenting with computer art and showcasing their results in a small gallery without much fanfare (Howard Wise) to this large-scale event at one of New York’s most prestigious spaces. In fact, New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory was home to one of the most famous exhibition in North American history, the 1913 Armory Show, which first introduced modern art to America. It was the first large-scale collaboration between artists, engineers and scientists. 30 engineers and 10 artists staged a series of elaborate interdisciplinary performances. They realized work that would have been unachievable on their own. The artists used state-of-the-art technology such as computers, video cameras, and projectors to create their works. This marked a significant departure from traditional forms of art-making and opened up future possibilities for artists to experiment with technology. The show featured some of the most intrepid artists of the day including Deborah Hay, Lucinda Childs and John Cage. It also increased the awareness of technology’s use in art in the broader artist community. Besides the immense legacy of the show itself, 9 Evenings also directly led to Rauschenberg and Klüver forming Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT). EAT, further promoting artist-engineer collaboration, would change the use of technology to make art irrevocably.