FROM THE ARCHIVES

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Clockwise from

far left 1999 New York Digital Salon poster; Bruce Wands’s 2000 SVA poster; 2001 NYDS poster; Wands teaching at SVA, c.1988; Wands, Buddha Light Painting No. 4, 2004; Wands in the MFA Computer Art offices, photo by Hsiang Chin Moe.

Remembering Bruce Wands

1949 – 2022

The School of Visual Arts lost one of its most influential and forward-thinking educators in July when Bruce Wands, MFA Computer Arts chair emeritus and former chair of the College’s BFA and MFA programs in computer art, died at 72.

Wands played a vital role in the study and practice of computer art and animation at SVA during his 32-year tenure. He joined the College as a Continuing Education faculty member in 1984, teaching a workshop on business graphics. Four years later he joined the MFA Computer Art faculty and began collaborating with other department chairs to develop their digital-art course offerings, work that led to his appointment as director of Computer Education in 1992. From there he went on to serve as chair for the BFA and MFA computer art programs, from 1994 through 1998 and 1998 through 2016, respectively. Upon his retirement as MFA chair in 2017, he assumed the title of MFA Computer Arts chair emeritus.

Both in and outside of SVA, Wands thrived at the intersection of art, writing, music and technology. In the late 1970s, he was a computer animator for the Spectacolor electronic billboard in Times Square, one of the earliest displays of its kind. He authored the books Art of the Digital Age (Thames & Hudson, 2006) and Digital Creativity (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). He lectured, performed and exhibited his art internationally, and was an integral member of the New York Digital Salon, an organization founded with support from SVA in 1993 to present digital-art exhibitions, serving as a curator for its first two years and director for the following two decades. In 1998, in memory of fellow SVA faculty member Dan Preda, who died in a motorcycle accident on his way to the 1994 SIGGRAPH conference in Orlando, Wands undertook the same journey, turning it into a web-art piece, regularly posting videos and images from his trip to a website. And as a musician, he performed often and created sound art and compositions for films and interactive installations; in 1992, he gave the first live musical performance over ISDN lines on the Internet. As a tribute to his legacy, select pieces of Wands’s work are on display in this fall’s MFA Computer Arts exhibition (see page 6).

“Bruce built a community that was really nurturing,” says BFA Animation Chair Hsiang Chin Moe (MFA 2008 Computer Art), who after graduating from SVA worked with Wands in the MFA department for six years. “He supported everyone, especially anyone who wanted to try something different to move forward with their artistic career. He not only saw your potential, he did everything he could to give you the opportunity to shine.” ◆ —Joyce Rutter Kaye and Greg Herbowy