Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 6: Personal Computer Era (1980s)
1988
FAX Machines Mass Marketed

This moment serves as an additional example of digital machines entering people’s homes and altering the human-machine relationship and sentiment. In a watershed moment for digital mass media, FAX machines became widely available, altering the communication landscape. This technology breakthrough gave enterprises and individuals alike the power of fast document transmission. The FAX machine was a precursor to the instant document transfer we have now, altering how we shared ideas and interacted. As FAX machines spread, they cross geographical gaps, speeding up information flow. The machine and its wide-spread availability thus represent a watershed moment in the democratization of communication tools, signaling an era in which document transmission transcends physical constraints, opening up new avenues for global connectedness and collaboration.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
- Economides, Nicholas and Charles Himmelberg. "Critical Mass and Network Size with Application to the US FAX Market," 29. New York: Stern School of Business, New York University, Discussion Paper EC-95-11, 1995.
Movements
Mass Media Art
Filed under
- Ideas
- collaboration, democratization, Mass Media Art, tools
- Technologies
- fax machines
Echoes across time
- 2007 · Steve Jobs Announces the iPhone
- 1962 · Augmenting Human Intellect by Douglas Engelbart
- 1968 · Douglas Engelbart Gives The Mother of all Demos
Le Random editorials
- Casey Reas, Lauren Lee McCarthy & Chandler McWilliams on Expanding Software, Peter Bauman, August 20, 2024