Born Digital: Artistic Production in the Age of ARPANET

The Georgia College Department of Art Presents

Alana Wolf-Johnson

Visiting Artists and Scholars Program Scholar in Residence, April 18-21, 2023

Public Lecture: April 20, 5:00-6:00 PM, A&S 272

Born Digital: Artistic Production in the Age of ARPANET

Recent headlines suggest that applying computer algorithms to art is a recent development. While it may be hard to resist trying on the latest AI filter dominating your favorite social media application, the origins of computer-assisted and -generated art go back much further. Building upon a series of high-profile collaborations between artists and engineers during the 1960s, the 1970s witnessed a wildly fertile period of creativity that led choreographers, musicians, and visual artists to explore the possibilities of digital technologies. In this talk, you will learn about leading-edge forays into artistic production during the earliest days of the internet.

Alana Wolf-Johnson is an art historian, critic, and curator whose work examines how modern and contemporary artists express human perception and engage with technology. Most recently serving as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts' collections research curator, Dr. Wolf-Johnson has organized and curated exhibitions for the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Atlanta Contemporary, and the Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation. She co-founded and served as artistic director for Public Acts of Art, a non-profit dedicated to arts education and exhibition in nontraditional venues, and her research has been sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Presently writing for Southwest Contemporary magazine, Wolf-Johnson is preparing a book project that explores how art, technology, and countercultural movements intersected on North American college campuses in the 1970s. In 2021, Wolf-Johnson received her doctorate in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester.

For more information, please contact the Department of Art at 478-445-4572

Learn more about Alana Wolf-Johnson on the artist's website.