Bell Labs Founded

One of the most important developments in digital and generative art’s history, Bell Labs would go on to become instrumental in the development of computational art and animation. The list of pioneering engineers and artists with connections to the Lab is astonishing. The list includes: Billy Klüver, Kenneth Knowlton, A. Michael Noll, Béla Julesz, Edward Zajec, Leon Harmon, Claude Shannon, Stan Vanderbeek, Lillian Schwartz, Nam June Paik and Max Mathews.

Their innovative work in the 1960s and 1970s was absolutely critical to the development of art and technology, laying the groundwork for the digital art revolution that would follow. In fact, Bell Labs’s Billy Klüver would co-found Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) with Robert Rauschenberg in the ’60s.

Listen to Peter Bauman’s interview with A. Michael Noll (transcript).