Computers and Automation, August 1970

The eighth annual Computer Art Contest awards first prize to Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton for Tapestry I. The winning image appears on the cover, with Tapestry II on page 13. The magazine identifies both as frames from Pixillation and describes their production using an IBM 360/50 computer and a Stromberg-DatagraphiX microfilm printer.

The selection includes Manfred Mohr’s Stairways, Grace C. Hertlein’s City Painting and The Field, Sozo Hashimoto’s transformations of an ornamental pattern, and works by Lloyd Sumner, Goran Sundqvist, Leonard Kilian, Robert Venn, Leo Geurts, Lambert Meertens, Donald K. Robbins, and Leigh Hendricks.

Hertlein’s accompanying essay, “An Artist Views Discovery Through Computer-Aided Graphics” (pages 25–26), offers a firsthand account of combining programming and plotter output with brushes, inks, and manual intervention. The gallery also includes Sheldon Lee Anonsen’s article on interactive architectural design (27–30), a computer-music notice (60), and a report on head-mounted displays for architectural visualization (63).

Works reproduced in the gallery

Cover — Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton: Tapestry I.
Page 13 — Lillian Schwartz and Ken Knowlton: Tapestry II. Both images are described as frames from Pixillation.
Page 14 — Manfred Mohr: Stairways.
Page 15 — Lloyd Sumner: In Wilderness.
Page 16 — Grace C. Hertlein: City Painting.
Page 17 — Grace C. Hertlein: The Field.
Pages 18–19 — Sozo Hashimoto: Source Pattern—and Three Transformations, comprising an ornamental source pattern and three computer transformations.
Page 20 — Goran Sundqvist: Fossil II, Spirals, and Fire Bird (listed as “Firebird” in the contents).
Page 21 — Leonard Kilian: Crosses and Mask; Robert Venn and Leonard Kilian: Landscape. The contents lists Landscape on page 22, but the image is on page 21.
Page 22 — Leo Geurts and Lambert Meertens: Crystallization, four drawings.
Page 23 — Donald K. Robbins: Evolution.
Page 24 — Leigh Hendricks: Entropy, two drawings.

Additional articles and notices

Pages 25–26 — Grace C. Hertlein, “An Artist Views Discovery Through Computer-Aided Graphics.” Pages 27–30 — Sheldon Lee Anonsen, “Interactive Computer Graphics in Architecture,” with documentary photographs. Page 60 — “PDP-8 Plays Stereo Music.” Page 63 — “New Computer Graphics Techniques May Permit Architects to Visually Step Inside Their Drawings,” with a head-mounted display photograph. These pages do not introduce additional titled artworks.

The PDF and page images are digital facsimiles from Bitsavers. This entry documents a digitized issue. The available PDF contains 68 scanned pages and omits printed pages 11–12 and 61–62; it is therefore labelled “Issue scan.” Gallery captions use the magazine’s printed page numbers. Original library stamps and other scan marks are retained.