Just a reminder that my book – A Computer in the Art Room, The Origins of British Computer Arts 1950-1980 is still available to purchase from this website (it seems to be prohibitively expensive on Amazon for some reason) – click the SHOP tab above. 
Read a synopsis here: A Computer in the Art Room synopsis Also read reviews of the book .
On view last month in Cambridge was Gustav Metzger’s Auto-Creative art, a variety of materials and methods demonstrative of his long interest in kinetic art, particularly movement and random activity. His 1964 statement “At a certain point the work takes over, is in activity beyond the detailed control of the artist, reaches a power, grace, momentum, transcendence” is apt for an installation which has both a hypnotic visual and a psychedelic delivery. Read the full review and learn about his connection to the Computer Arts Society here.
Jennifer Steinkamp’s beautiful tree moves as though blowing in the wind and transforms over time as the seasons change. This Los Angeles based artist explores ideas about architectural space, motion and perception using computer animation to engage viewers through use of transient elements in the natural world. Read more about Steinkamp and her work in this month’s BCS column here:http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/50226
This month my BCS column investigates an interesting commission from the University of Dundee Museum
Services who have been working with theArt Fund on a £100,000 project to explore the influence of Sir D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson in the visual arts. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the Dundee Collections and the Thompson connection, this grant funding has uniquely facilitated the creation of an art work itself with an interdisciplinary concept at its heart – On Growth and Form by Daniel Brown. Read the full article here: http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/50050
For over forty years Ernest Edmonds has had an interest in interactivity and his current
exhibition at Site Gallery Sheffield demonstrates a career-long conversation between drawing, painting and computer-based work. Ernest is our BCS featured artist of the month, read about Shaping Space here: http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/49266
Here I am enjoying Ernest’s show which continues until 2 February.
My article for the British Computer Society this month is a selection submitted by readers of this column and members of the Computer Arts Society. The high standard and sheer variety of works produced under what might be termed computer art , never ceases to amaze me and if you are as intrigued as I am to discover what your colleagues and fellow aficionados of the computational process have produced over the course of 2012, then don’t miss it : http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/49107 See new work by Richard Colson, Anabela Costa, Dario Lanza (featured above), Fabrizio Poltronieri, Brian Reffin Smith and Andrew Welsby.
Hear me discussing the work of pioneering computer artists Manfred Mohr and Ernest Edmonds, (both of whom have shows opening in England this week), with John Wilson of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. The programme aired on Thursday 15th November 2012 at 7.15pm. Click this link to play: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ntjq7
Light Logic, Ernest Edmonds’s exhibition is at the Site Gallery, Sheffield (17 Nov – 2 Feb 2013).Also a mention on the British Computer Society website:http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/48954
This month we celebrate the work of Manfred Mohr, a pioneer in the use of algorithms and computer programs for art-making. His first ever solo London show opens 16 November at the Carroll Fletcher Gallery http://www.carrollfletcher.com/ (to 20 December), a long-overdue event celebrating forty-odd years of practice for this NYC-based, German-born painter. Read my British Computer Society column about Manfred here:http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/48716
In celebration of ALAN TURNING YEAR I am organising a special trip sponsored by the Computer Arts Society to Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing. You are invited to join what I’m sure will be a fascinating day in the company of like-minded arts people.
The tour (10.30am to 5.15pm approx) costs £17.00 and includes: Morning tea/coffee & biscuits on arrival. Tour of the Bletchley campus and buildings with their guide. A sandwich lunch. A chance to view Colossus and other interesting items in the National Museum of Computing on a short visit (including Ele Carpenter’s Html Patchwork). Afternoon tea, coffee & cake.
Please make your own travel arrangements to arrive by 10.15 for a 10.30 start. There is a direct train from Euston. Bletchley train station is 300 yards from the entrance to the Park for more travel info see: http://www.bletchleypark.org/content/visit/findus.rhtm
There is a maximum of 50 spaces available on this trip, so please sign up ASAP! Contact me to register your name and contact details (email & mobile number).
This trip is being generously subsidised by the Computer Arts Society and is run as a non-profit event.