Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)
1978
LaserDisc Introduced
The first commercially successful optical storage device, the LaserDisc played an important in bringing digital media and changing the public’s mind about computers. The LaserDisc would go on house iconic works of digital art such as as Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Lorna (1979-84).
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
Demoscene, Mass Media Art
Filed under
- Ideas
- Demoscene, digital art, Mass Media Art, technology adoption, technology and society, video art
- Technologies
- LaserDisc, optical storage, storage media
- People
- Lynn Hershman Leeson
- Works
- Lorna
Related moments
- 1977 · Apple Introduces Apple II
- 1976 · The VHS Recorder Brings Digital Media to the Home
- 1977 · Atari 2600 Released
- 1979 · Lorna, Lynn Hershman Leeson
Echoes across time
- 2006 · Google Buys YouTube
- 1951 · Edmund C. Berkeley Begins Publishing Computers and Automation
- 2018 · Progress by Tyler Hobbs at Galerîa dos Topos Léon, Mexico
Le Random editorials
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 5—Artist-Programmer Era (1970s) with Joan Truckenbrod, Hans Dehlinger & Anika Meier — listen with transcript on Le Random (14 Jan 2024, 65 min). Chapter 5’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify