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The Artist as a Young Machine was a multimedia exhibition that took place at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto throughout the summer of 1984. [1] The exhibits demonstrated the use of technology in creating and experience many different forms of art. Since many of the attendees were children, a heavy emphasis was placed on human-machine interaction that did not require any special artistic or technical skill on the part of the attendee.
Artforms included computer graphics, writing, music, animation, and choreography. [2]
Several 8-bit computing platforms were featured in hands-on, interactive displays that let attendees create their own art using technology. [1] For example, one could use MacPaint and MacWrite running on the then-new Apple Macintosh to create black-and-white bitmap graphics and written text; use a variety of synthesizers to create music; and dance in front of a video camera connected to a video processor that would introduce a variety of special effects and project the result onto a large screen in real-time.
Other technology on display included the Commodore 64 computer running educational video games for children, DEC Unix workstations running the Logo turtle graphics interpreter, and the pen-based Sony GrEdit for creation of computer graphics.
One notable exhibit featured computer generated works of art demonstrating early forms of artificial intelligence.
Short films featuring computer-assisted animation were also shown, including one titled Night Flight.