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ART IS ESSENTIAL
The Henry Ford adds works of groundbreaking multimedia artist Lillian Schwartz to its collections CALIFORNIA IN THE LATE 1960S was a heady place in computing history. Massively influential technologies that are now part of our everyday lives were being invented or improved upon: home computers, the graphical user interface, the computer mouse and Arpanet. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the country, in New Jersey, artist Lillian Schwartz was about to walk through the doors of the revered technology incubator Bell Telephone Laboratories. Schwartz had recently met Bell Labs perceptual researcher Leon Harmon at the opening for the Museum of Modern Art’s group exhibition The Machine at the End of the Mechanical Age. Harmon and Schwartz each had works in the exhibit, and the pair struck up a conversation that led to an invitation for her to visit the labs. This meeting led to Schwartz’s decadeslong tenure as a “resident visitor” at Bell Labs, where she was exposed to powerful equipment like the IBM 7090 mainframe computer and Stromberg Carlson SC-4020 microfilm plotter. Allowing artists access to this research and development facility upended conventions, creating an environment that was fruitful for cross-disciplinary collaboration among the sciences, humanities and arts. From 1968 until the early 2000s, Schwartz paid regular visits to the labs, where she developed groundbreaking computer films and videos and an impressive array of multimedia artworks.
Schwartz’s early films are frenetic and colorful abstractions that make visual reference to data saturation in the Information Age. They toy with perception, collapsing the walls between screen and viewer, data and aesthetics. The stroboscopic effects of her film UFOs, for example, cause optical illusions and afterimages that aren’t present on the physical film reels. Watching these films, it can feel a little like stumbling upon some hidden Rosetta Stone to the Digital Age — as if one is glimpsing predictors of the future, produced in a time before they should logically exist. Schwartz was undeniably at the forefront, present at the birth of digital art. Today, art and media historians celebrate her as a pioneer who found innovative use for new digital tools, producing revolutionary and genre-defying works of art. In early 2021, The Henry Ford secured a very exciting donation: the Lillian F. Schwartz Collection. This material — which came to us through the generosity of the Schwartz family — spans from early childhood to late career and includes thousands of objects: films and videos, 2D artwork and sculptures, personal papers, computer hardware and film editing equipment. We are thrilled to give Lillian’s collection a permanent home and act as stewards of her legacy.
WHAT IS DIGITAL ART? In the late 1960s and 1970s, artists who previously focused on traditional studio media such as painting or sculpture began to dabble in born-digital art. The platforms used by artists have evolved over time, responding to the rule-based paradigms of new technologies: codebased work, computer films, animation and music, generative and algorithmic art, expressive software, immersive installations, internet art, virtual and augmented reality, the creative use of artificial intelligence and more.
— KRISTEN GALLERNEAUX, CURATOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ONLINE Learn more about Lillian Schwartz, view her works and watch related videos in our Digital Collectionsc
DODO.LOST.ALICE BY LILLIAN F. SCHWARTZ, 1984. FROM THE HENRY FORD ARCHIVE OF AMERICAN INNOVATION
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JANUARY-MAY 2022
