V&A’s Digital Art Book and Inaugural Digital Art Season

October was a big month for digital art, especially in London. In addition to Serpentine’s The Call, October included the Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) inaugural Digital Art Season to partly coincide with Frieze London as well.

Included in the V&A’s programming was the launch of the museum’s new historical digital art book, Digital Art: 1960s to Now, edited by curators Melanie Lenz, Corinna Gardner and Pita Arreola. I was able to attend this launch along with wonderful talks by Arreola and artist Kyle McDonald.

The following day at the V&A was FEMG3N, the third installment of FEMGEN, featuring a discussion with artists Licia He and Anna Ridler, writer Charlotte Kent and curator Melanie Lenz, alongside a talk by myself on the contributions of women in generative art. I highlighted Eudice Feder and Joan Shogren for their barely-known contributions and wonderful stories.

Founded in 2022 by Micol Apruzzese and Alex Estorick, FEMGEN fosters inclusivity in digital art, celebrating female and nonbinary artists working with generative systems.

The V&A also showed a screening of Gary Hustwit’s generative documentary Eno on legendary musician Brian Eno.

Besides Frieze London and all of its ancillary events, October in London also saw the Lumen Prize 2024 Awards Presentation. It was a busy month for digital art in one of its world capitals and clearly part of 2024’s digital art “moment.”