Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)

1970

Xerox PARC Founded

Invention · North America · Top Moment

Black-and-white computer display with overlapping Smalltalk windows, menus, text and a drawing of a computer.
A Xerox PARC Dorado Smalltalk screen, catalogued by the Computer History Museum as 1979—a later example of the work of the research center founded in 1970. © PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, Incorporated). Courtesy of the PARC Library; Computer History Museum, object 500004473. Image source.

Xerox’s Palot Alto Research Center (PARC) was founded by Dr. George Pake.

The research center was composed of experts in science and information, “The Architects of Information.” They aimed to create “The Office of the Future.” Artists such as David Em in 1975 would go on to create their first digital images at PARC.

The center would go on to contribute to the development of technologies such as the laser printer, Ethernet, the personal computer and GUI.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.

Sources

People

David Em, George Pake

Movements

Technology and Art

Filed under

Ideas
digital art, research, Technology and Art
Technologies
Ethernet, graphical user interface (GUI), laser, laser printer, personal computer
People
David Em, George Pake
Works
David
Exhibitions
Information
Organisations
Xerox, Xerox PARC
Places
Palo Alto, United States

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