Experiments in Art and Technology

Experiments in Art and Technology was founded in 1966 by engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer. The non-profit organization developed from the experience of 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering.

This event, which was held in October 1966 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City (U.S.), brought together 40 engineers and 10 contemporary artists who worked together on performances that incorporated new technology. It became clear that achieving ongoing artist-engineer relationships would require a concerted effort to develop the necessary physical and social conditions. E.A.T. saw itself as a catalyst for stimulating the involvement of industry and technology with the arts. The organization worked to forge effective collaborations between artists and engineers through industrial cooperation and sponsorship. Membership was opened to all artists and engineers, and an office set up in a loft at 9 East 16th Street in New York.

1968 was the first time they could stage a major exhibition, «Some More Beginnings», which presented a large number of innovative technical, electronic and other media projects. The Museum of Modern Art included prize-winning installations in their parallel show «The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age», which was curated by Pontus Hultén.

Artists and the art community responded enthusiastically to E.A.T. By 1969, given early efforts to attract engineers, the group had over 2,000 artist members as well as 2,000 engineer members willing to work with artists. Expressions of interest and requests for technical assistance came from all over the United States and Canada and from Europe, Japan, South America and elsewhere. People were encouraged to start local E.A.T. groups and about 15 to 20 were formed.

Projects:

1969: The Anand Project, which developed methods to produce instructional programming for India's educational television through a pilot project at Anand Dairy Cooperative in Baroda (India).

1970: the pavilion at the World Expo '70, Osaka, was another milestone of E.A.T. activities

1971: Telex: Q&A, which linked public spaces in New York (U.S.), Ahmadabad (India), Tokyo (Japan) and Stockholm (Sweden) by telex, allowing people from different countries to question one another about the future.

1972: Children and Communication, a pilot project enabling children in different parts of New York City to converse using telephone, telex and fax equipment.

1973: a pilot program to devise methods for recording indigenous culture in El Salvador.

1976-1977: and finally a large-screen outdoor television display system for the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

In 1980, to detail its activities and projects, E.A.T. put together an archive of more than 300 of its own documents.

Sources:
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=306

---