A landmark exhibition, Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952-1982, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), has assembled more than 70 rarely seen works by artists, film-makers, musicians and poets that reflect aspects of the early stages of a “computer age”, from 1952-1982. A beautifully designed publication to accompany the event substantially extends the reach of the exhibition, with newly commissioned essays and informational resources, including a wider timeline, a bibliography and a list of previous exhibitions. It also has a checklist of works included in the exhibition. The project opens up new understanding of the influence of computational thinking as a conceptual catalyst within a shifting cultural and political zeitgeist of the postwar decades.

Shortly before its opening, Studio International spoke to the exhibition’s curator, Leslie Jones.

Bronaċ Ferran: What led you to develop this initiative?

Leslie Jones: It came about due to curatorial curiosity. In 2013, Lacma received a gift of 72 computer drawings from the estate of Frederick Hammersley. The material was unlike anything I had seen before (except for maybe typewriter drawings). Hammersley was involved in computer art for only about a year, but I was curious to learn about others who may have been working with computers so early on.

This led me down a rabbit hole, where I discovered a whole world of computer-generated art and artists who were working with the computer as a tool or inspiration. I am a sucker for an underdog (laughs) and it seemed to me that much of this work had been overlooked in the annals of art history and needed more recognition. I proposed the exhibition idea in 2013, so a decade ago now. It was scheduled to open in 2018 – marking 50 years since the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition in London – as well as 50 years since Lacma first established an art and technology programme. But for various reasons it was postponed. Then came the pandemic. Anyway, it seems like now it is the perfect time to do it, given the increasing interest in contemporary digital art.

BF: How did you develop your curatorial vision for the exhibition?

LJ: I wanted to recontextualise the material, not to remarginalise it, by looking at it again “in its moment” and in relation to contemporaneous art movements such as Op and conceptual art, for example. I wanted to draw out themes such as the use of systems and algorithms, serial expression, the use of geometrical forms, and depersonalisation of the creative processes, all themes that existed in a range of different practices at the time and seem to relate to computer functionality. In turn, that offers a new way of looking at works by Sol LeWitt or Jennifer Bartlett, for example.

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