Pixillation

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Author: Lillian Schwartz

Description

"With computer-produced images and Moog-synthesized sound Pixillation is in a sense an introduction to the electronics lab. But its forms are always handsome, its colors bright and appealing, its rhythms complex and inventive." - Roger Greenspun, N. Y. Times. Golden Eagle-Cine 1971. Moog sound by Gershon Kingsley; Version III: pulls the viewer into a primal experience. Awards:Red Ribbon Award for Special Effects from The National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences; The Smithsonian Institution and The United States Department of Commerce, Travel Services for Man & His World at the Montreal Expo, '71; collection The Museum of Modern Art. Commissioned by AT&T. (4 min.)

Bio

Lillian F. Schwartz (b. 1927), an American artist, is known for some of the first use of computers in computer developed art. Her best-known work is Mona Leo, her morphing of the image of a Leonardo self-portrait with the Mona Lisa.

Schwartz is an artist who has a long history of using computer technology to experiment with ways of creating and manipulating works of art. She has also written extensively about the topic of computer influence in art, and about art produced by computers.

Schwartz made many experiments with computer art during her career. She was one of the first artists to experiment with computer images and computer effects on art. She worked closely with scientists in the 1970s in the early stages of computer development, and developed one of the first rock music videos. She also made one of the first digitized films to be shown as a work of art, her video Pixillation showing diagonal red squares and other shapes such as cones, pyramids on black on white backgrounds. This video is regarded as one of the most important early works of computer film art.

She worked in the early stages of her career with scientists at Bell Laboratories developing mixtures of sound, video and art. Later on, during the 1980s, Schwartz made many experiments with artworks manipulating images using computer technology and creating some artworks of her own.