Jasia Reichardt Captures Key Theme of ‘70s Computer art: The Artist-Programmer

According to Jasia Reichardt and Grant Taylor, the 1970s marked the era of the artist-programmer. The practitioners of computer art began shifting away from the engineers and scientists who began the movement a decade earlier. From the early ’70s it was being pushed forward according to Frank Dietrich in Taylor when “a growing breed of technological artists with hybrid capabilities started to appear.” Traditionally trained artists had access to computers for the first time as their access improved. The field was no longer dominated by those in control of very expensive and often secretive large machines. Further, Taylor writes how “Reichardt announced in 1974, ‘The bridges between art and science are finally only built by those who embody something of the two disciplines.’” The concept would permeate the computer art of the ’70s where artists saw themselves as modern-day Renaissance artists, combining scientific advancements and art, in the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci, the artist-engineer.