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Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles Records
2003.M.12  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Acquisition
  • Processing History
  • Related Archival Materials
  • Arrangement note
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Access
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Publication Rights

  • Contributing Institution: Special Collections
    Title: Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles records
    Creator: Saarinen, Eric
    Creator: Experiments in Art and Technology Los Angeles (Organization)
    Creator: Experiments in Art and Technology (Organization)
    Identifier/Call Number: 2003.M.12
    Physical Description: 5.5 Linear Feet (4 boxes and 2 flat-file folders)
    Date (inclusive): 1969-1975
    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.
    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 .
    Language of Material: Collection material is in English.

    Acquisition

    Acquired in 2003.

    Processing History

    Annette Leddy processed and cataloged the collection.

    Related Archival Materials

    Experiments in Art and Technology records, 1966-1993, Accession no. 940003.

    Arrangement note

    Project documentation arranged in chronological order.

    Biographical/Historical note

    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.

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    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

    Scope and Content of Collection

    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.

    Publication Rights

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Posters
    Photographic prints
    Art and technology
    Photographs, Original
    Motion pictures
    Expo '70 (Osaka, Japan)