Page 60 - Studio International - April 1968

Technology and art schools

Lawrence Alloway

This year the College Art Association met in St Louis in January. EAT. (The latest development is a deal by which the Union of
Along with the customary art historical contributions there was, for Amalgamated Lithographers of America will put modern equip­
the first time, an additional level of reference. After papers on ment at the disposal of artists selected by EAT.) However, before
regular subjects such as Alexander VITs Catafalque by Gianlorenzo discussing EAT in more detail there is a general question to be
Bernini and The Chapel ef Claude d' Urfe: an Unnoticed Mannerist Monu­ raised. Why is it that the connexion between art and technology is at
ment, computer graphics came in for morning discussion. The fact present in the foreground of attention and not, as before, one of the
that this meeting was not heavily attended counts for less than the standard background themes of twentieth century art?
fact that the subject was discussed at all. Smuggled in, under the One factor is the persistence of the nineteenth century ideal of the
innocuous heading of Decorative Arts, was a paper on Sevres Incised Gesamtkunstwerk which has been the main theory behind combina­
Marks and the Computer. In addition to this single piece, a full session tory arts; recently, however, technology has made possible the reali­
was given to 'Computers and Art History', a topic that is a de­ zation of total works on a scale to match the industrial environment.
parture for the College Art Association. Other signs of change were For example, there is Otto Piene's statement: 'My Utopia has a
also detected; there were luminist and intermedia episodes, as well solid foundation: light, smoke, and twelve searchlights.' Heinz
as a panel organized by Dr Billy Kluver on 'Collaborative Projects Mack's Sahara Project was conceived on the scale of 'The Sea, Antarc­
between Art and Engineering Students: a new addition to the cur­ tica and the Deserts'. Most recently Robert Smithson has proposed,
riculum.' In the event the discussion was less about students from in research conducted for Tippets-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton, ways
art and engineering than it was about art and technology and the for artists to 'explore the unknown sites that surround our airports'.
possibilities of their union. There is no doubt that technology, introducing light, sounds, and
Kluver is President of the active organization Experiments in Art motion into the work of art, continues the high level of spectator
and Technology and for this reason the discussion centred around participation opened up by Pop Art. There is, too, the fact that

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