David Em
David Em | |
|---|---|
| File:Transjovian-pipeline.jpg David Em, Transjovian Pipeline, 1979, Digital Image | |
| Born | 1952 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. American Film Institute. |
| Known for | Digital Art |
David Em (born 1952) is an American computer artist.
Life and work
David Em is one of the first artists to make art with pixels.[1] He was born in Los Angeles and grew up in South America. He studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and film directing at the American Film Institute.
Em created digital paintings at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) in 1975 with SuperPaint, "the first complete digital paint system".[1] In 1976, he made an articulated 3D digital insect at Information International, Inc. (III) that could jump and fly, the first 3D character created by a fine artist.[2] With his 1977 art work Aku, Em became the first artist to produce a navigable virtual world, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he was Artist in Residence from 1977 to 1984.[3] He also created digital art at the California Institute of Technology (1985 – 1988), and Apple Computer (1991).[4] Em has worked independently since the early nineties.
His art has been exhibited in museums, including the Centre Pompidou, the Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art, the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Seibu Museum in Tokyo. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Everson Museum as well as private collections.
Scope of Work
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File:David Em Glacier.jpg |
Em's art is difficult to categorize. His work spans multiple media, including printmaking, filmmaking, photography, and all-electronic virtual worlds. He has also worked with live performance and theater [5]
Stylistically, Em's art has connections to Surrealism, abstract painting, and experimental film. There are also strong landscape and architectural elements. Some pieces feature extremely geometric elements, while others are highly organic in nature.
He says he sculpts with “memory instead of space” and makes pictures with “light instead of paint.”.[6] He also evolves images so that they “grow into and out of each other” [7]
Many of his early works, particularly those done at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the 1970s, have deep-space related themes. In the 1980s he incorporated light effects reminiscent of the French Impressionists,[8] and in the 1990s he introduced otherworldly creatures into his work. In the early Twenty-First century, an apocalyptic element appears in his imagery.
His artwork has appeared in popular media, including the covers of Herbie Hancock's Future Shock, Sound-System, and Perfect Machine albums and one of the electronic versions of William Gibson’s Neuromancer.
Notes
- ^ a b Perry, T. & Wallich, P.:"Inside the PARC: The Information Architects", Pages 68-69, "IEEE Spectrum", October 1985
- ^ Sorensen, P. "Computer Pictures", "David Em Modern Master" May 1988
- ^ Nelson, Ted "Creative Computing", "Report on Siggraph '81", March 1982
- ^ Haggerty, M. "IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications" page 4 "Computer Painting in a Different Light." Nov. 1992
- ^ Michie, Donald and Rory Johnston. “The Creative Computer”, Viking, 1984, pp. 139-140
- ^ Deken, Joseph “Computer Images: State of the Art,” , Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 1983, page 133
- ^ Wands, Bruce. “Art of the Digital Age”, Thames and Hudson, 2006, page 48
- ^ Trachtman, P. "Smithsonian Magazine" "Impressionist with a Computer" 1988.
Bibliography
- Zelanski, Paul and Mary Pat Fisher. The Art of Seeing. 7th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
- Kleiner, Fred S. and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.12th Ed., March 2004.
- Ross, David. The Art of David Em. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988.
- Bradbury, Ray. “Em Squared”. David Em at OCCA. Orange County Center for Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue,1984.