A. Experiments in Art and Technology was founded in 1966 by engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. In the seventies, emerging hardware technologies used in communications, data processing, and control and command instrumentation led to a new generation of software systems that were of great interest to artists. Realizing that artists could contribute significantly to the evolution of this software, E.A.T. generated a series of projects in which artists participated in these areas of technological development. E.A.T. undertook interdisciplinary projects that extended the artists' activities into new areas of society.
B. Considering the name Experiments in Art and Technology, technology is the art form. In E.A.T artists and engineers worked together to develop technical equipment and systems that would be used as integral parts of the artist's performances. For example, in the 1966 '9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering' the artists and engineers used and experimented with new technologies such as wireless transmitters and amplifiers, Doplar sonar to translate movement into sound, closed circuit television and video projection, fiber optic cameras, and infrared cameras. E.A.T became a fertile ground for the invention of a number of technological tools never before used in performance.
C. The idea behind what EAT was trying to achieve was a technical revolution in arts, hence the name. Working closely with engineers, one of their main goals was, according to Hank Bull, “about art that did not have to go through the art business, but reached the listeners directly from the artists, the producers.” (Arns, 8). The notion of the time was making an attempt to explore art outside the preconceived borders, and to do this, new technologies would have to be implemented. EAT was able to fund visits to IBM and companies on the forefront of technology at the time in order to encourage a new dynamic between artist and engineer that would foster new methods of creating art.
Arns, Inke. "Interaction, Participation, Networking Art and Telecommunication." Media Art Net. Web. 5 Oct 2009.
D. Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) is unlike any art form that came before it because it was the first art form of its kind. The purpose for the creation of E.A.T. was to make it possible for artists and engineers to collaborate and work together on projects. Within three years of its launch E.A.T. had approximately 2000 artists as well as 2000 engineers. When an artist had an idea and they needed to work with an engineer E.A.T. matched them up with the best person for the job. E.A.T. started right after the production of “9 Evenings: Theater & Engineering” took place. This was an event that consisted of a series of performances accompanied by forms of new technology such as video projection, wireless sound transmission, and Doppler sonar. It was the first time art and technology had been used together in such a major way. This production was the bases for the organization and it was officially formed shortly after. The art forms that preceded E.A.T. were not technology based. Without technology E.A.T. would not have existed, art forms like as DADA did not. E.A.T. does however incorporate some similarities to Futurism, which was all about having an alternative philosophy towards technology. Here is a youtube video of the very little footage that is left from “9 Evenings: Theater & Engineering”.
E. The E.A.T expo at the Pepsi Pavilion in 1970 critiqued society in multiple ways. The interactive space was set up in a way to “reflect” society as a whole. The two-hundred and ten degree domed mirror was set up so that the participants (audience) were able to see real images that were manipulated and flipped to give them the critique of themselves, as well as everyday reality. By using the audience as participants in the experiment, the artists and engineers were given the ability to manipulate the numerous input and output audio channels in programmed and real time, to reflect the "illusion of reality". So in return the audience was able to make their own reality by participatory actions, but were still limited to the artists' aesthetic decisions, much like a metaphor between governments and societies ( http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/pepsi-pavillon/images/4/ ).
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