Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing - by Michelle Cotton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A groundbreaking account of female artists' engagement with digital media in the decades before the World Wide Web

This historical survey focuses on female artists who were either working with computer technologies or taking up the subject of computing and cybernetics in their work in the early years of the computer revolution. It documents a lesser-known history of the inception of digital art, countering conventional narratives by focusing entirely on female figures. Comprising more than 100 works by 50 artists from 14 countries, it spans a period from the first years of integrated circuit computing in the 1960s to the "microcomputer revolution," which led to the birth of home computing in the 1980s. This extensive publication includes three new essays by Tina Rivers Ryan, Margit Rosen and the exhibition's curator, Michelle Cotton. It also features a richly illustrated timeline covering the period between 1613 and 1991 and includes 27 new interviews with artists and over 200 illustrations.