Exhibition

Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989

13 Nov 2017 – 8 Apr 2018

Regular hours

Monday
10:30 – 17:30
Tuesday
10:30 – 17:30
Wednesday
10:30 – 17:30
Thursday
10:30 – 17:30
Friday
10:30 – 17:30
Saturday
10:30 – 19:00
Sunday
10:30 – 17:30

Save Event: Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–19892

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

MoMA Museum of Modern Art

New York
New York, United States

Address

Travel Information

  • From the east side of Manhattan M1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to 53rd Street From the west side of Manhattan M50 cross-town to 50th Street. Proceed to 53rd Street.
  • From the east side of Manhattan 6 train to 51st Street, transfer to the E or M train; one stop to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue From the west side of Manhattan E or M train to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, or B, D, or F train to 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center
Directions via Google Maps Directions via Citymapper
Event map

Drawn primarily from MoMA's collection, Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989 brings artworks produced using computers and computational thinking together with notable examples of computer and component design.

About

The exhibition reveals how artists, architects, and designers operating at the vanguard of art and technology deployed computing as a means to reconsider artistic production. The artists featured in Thinking Machines exploited the potential of emerging technologies by inventing systems wholesale or by partnering with institutions and corporations that provided access to cutting-edge machines. They channeled the promise of computing into kinetic sculpture, plotter drawing, computer animation, and video installation. Photographers and architects likewise recognized these technologies' capacity to reconfigure human communities and the built environment.

Thinking Machines includes works by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller, Waldemar Cordeiro, Charles Csuri, Richard Hamilton, Alison Knowles, Beryl Korot, Vera Molnár, Cedric Price, and Stan VanDerBeek, alongside computers designed by Tamiko Thiel and others at Thinking Machines Corporation, IBM, Olivetti, and Apple Computer. The exhibition combines artworks, design objects, and architectural proposals to trace how computers transformed aesthetics and hierarchies, revealing how these thinking machines reshaped art making, working life, and social connections.

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.