Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles Records, 1969-1975

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Summary

Title:
Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles records
Dates:
1969-1975
Creators:
Saarinen, Eric, Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles (Organization), and Experiments in Art and Technology (Organization)
Abstract:
Collection of materials documenting Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles, a non-profit organization fostering collaborations between artists and scientists that generally operated independently of the original New York-based E.A.T. The collection offers a survey of proposed and completed projects by the Los Angeles E.A.T. organization.
Extent:
5.5 Linear Feet (4 boxes and 2 flat-file folders)
Language:
Collection material is in English.
Preferred citation:

Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles Records, 1969-1975, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accesssion no. 2003.M.12.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2003m12

Background

Scope and content:

In the 1960s, a range of new technologies and materials were developed in the United States, partly in response to the challenges of space exploration. E.A.T. and like organizations formed as artists, architects, and social visionaries perceived the creative possibilities of lasers, sound technologies, optical instruments, new plastics, and computers. The collection offers a survey of the projects the Los Angeles E.A.T. organization proposed and completed in pursuit of its stated mission to foster collaborations between artists and scientists, make new technologies available to artists, and educate children in the creative possibilities of science.

The first project, the Spherical Mirror Dome installed at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan, was fabricated from extremely thin metalized malanex fitted with sixty-four gores to form an almost perfect two-thirds sphere. When inflated to maximum pressure, the spherical mirror was ninety feet high, causing a complex of virtual and inverted images to appear in mid-air and on the dome's surface. The collection documents this project with photographs, brochures, correspondence and a 16mm film by Eric Saarinen.

Other documented endeavors include an art and technology conference at the University of Southern California, a mobile unit program to allow school children to play with computers and audio-visual equipment, a film series about science, a computer game in which participants designed a new community, a conference about innovations in architecture and urban planning, and a service that matched artists with scientists of like interests.

Biographical / historical:

Experiments in Art and Technology was founded in New York in 1966 by Billy Kluver, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman and Fred Waldhaer. Local groups had been organized throughout the world beginning in 1967, and in 1969 regional offices were established in Los Angeles and Tokyo. E.A.T. Los Angeles operated independently of the parent organization, except in the collaborative construction of the Spherical Mirror Dome, exhibited at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan.

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2003.
Processing information:

Annette Leddy processed and cataloged the collection.

Arrangement:

Project documentation arranged in chronological order.

Physical location:
Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Annette Leddy
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-10-11 10:57:36 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles Records, 1969-1975, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accesssion no. 2003.M.12.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2003m12

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website