Archivist Statement
Very little documentation is available about the first ISEA Art Exhibition. The final report of the symposium, produced for accountability purposes towards the subsidisers, contained minimal information on the exhibition:
“The Art Show, which was organised parallel to the Fisea symposium in the congress section of the Jaarbeurs Bernardhal, was mainly intended to offer participants and the interested public an overview of new forms of visual art in which the computer plays an important role. In addition to an overview of the selections from the competitions, a retrospective exhibition of computer art from England and new work from Ohio State University in the US. The work consisted of large-format prints of computer graphics, paintings based on computer designs, video documentaries of performances and other forms of electronic art, sculptures designed and/or produced using computer techniques, some installations, computer animations on video and interactive computer programs. All together, displayed in a space of many hundreds m2, the Art Show was the largest retrospective exhibition ever organised in this area in the Netherlands.
English exhibition
The exhibition of English artists offered a unique overview of the activities in this area. The exhibition is accompanied by a separate catalogue, which discusses the participating artists and the work on display.” 1)
The contributions by the Advanced Computer Graphics Research Group of the Ohio State University, delivered by Thomas Linehan (professor at the OSU), were known by the ISEA Symposium archivists, but not the rest. So, in 2021 they decided to publish a call for information in the Computer Art Society Newsletter:
“We are looking for artists that were involved in the 1988 First International Symposium on Electronic Art (FISEA). If your artwork or animation was exhibited in the 1988 FISEA Art Show or the Electronic Theatre, please contact us so we can properly document your contributions to the symposium in the ISEA Archives.” 2)
The archivists received a reaction from Stephen Bell, who wrote that he “exhibited an interactive piece as part of the Art and Computers exhibition organised by Cleveland Gallery, Middlesbrough, which was included in the first ISEA event at the Jaarbeurs Centre” 3)
He included some photos that were immediately included in the ISEA Symposium Archive (extended version). Also, the ISEA archives received a scan of the Art & Computers catalogue from Stephen. However what Stephen did not know, was whether the complete exhibition travelled to FISEA in Utrecht, or only part of it. The original exhibition in Middlesbrough (North Yorkshire, England) took place from August 20 to September 17, 1988.
The next step taken was to try and gather email addresses of the artists that were documented in the catalogue, as well as of the exhibition organisers. Of course, in 1988 very few people had email in 1988 and the archivists had none to begin with, except for a few artists that are still active in ISEA and were known by the archivists. For all the others an internet search was undertaken.
Of the 39 artists (including one collective of 2 persons) in the catalogue, 20 email addresses were discovered, but two of those addresses did not work anymore. Two of the exhibitors were deceased since 1988 (Sylvani Merilion, 1936-2019 and Darrell J. Viner, 1946–2001). In some cases, for the people for whom an email address was not found, contact was made via LinkedIn or through their website. However, the original organisers’ contact data were not found. The Cleveland Gallery did not seem to exist anymore.
We received reactions from Adrian Wilson, Philipp J. Bösel, Brian D. Hodgson, Martin Rieser, Stephen Bell, Chris Jennings, James Faure-Walker, Michael Garaway, Phillippa Egerton, Simon Biggs, Susan Collins & William Latham. This was an unexpected high number, taking into account the exhibition was 36 years ago!
What was learned from the responses was that the migration of the exhibition to the Netherlands was planned beforehand. An undated letter (but certainly sent no later than early July 1988) from ‘Museum Assistant’ Janet Simmonds (whose contact information was not found) stated that “The exhibition will tour to Artspace Aberdeen and Cartwright Hall, Bradford, then to Utrecht, Holland, as part of the International Symposium of [sic] Electronic Art”.
However, several participants stated they received a letter after the exhibition had travelled to several other venues to thank them, but, they added, “received a touring list when work was returned in March 1990, which doesn’t mention Utrecht”.
From the information and photos that were received, it is clear that at least the following artists were represented in the FISEA exhibition:
- Stephen Bell
- Simon Biggs
- Dirk Van Dooren
- Chris Jennings
- William Latham
- Martin Rieser
- Darrel Viner
Two of the responding artists said “we think that possibly the whole show did go to Europe but we have no actual record of this”.
What is known, is that one room in the Jaarbeurs conference centre contained the Art & Computers exhibition, and another room contained work choosen from individual submissions to FISEA.
The ISEA Symposium archivists wish to thank all the artists who provided information and images. When new information is discovered, it will be reported here.
[thanks for text editing by Janice Searleman]
References
- Johan den Biggelaar, Verslag First International Symposium on Electronic Art, Utrecht, January 1989
- CAS Newsletter March 5, 2021
- Email from Stephen Bell, March 12, 2021
- Wim van der Plas (NL) was managing director of FISEA until the beginning of 1988, when he moved from the Utrecht Art School to the Groningen Art School. As of that date he was Advisor for FISEA, but not involved in the final realisation of the FISEA exhibition.