Description
Records of the organization Experiments
in Art and Technology, generated and collected by its president, Billy Klüver, and other
staff members, the bulk from 1966-1973. Materials include project files, correspondence,
proposals, reports, photographs, posters, audiovisual materials, minutes, clippings, printed
matter, and other items.
Background
E.A.T., an organization devoted to promoting the interaction between art and technology,
developed from the collaboration between Billy Klüver and Robert Rauschenberg. E.A.T.
founders, Billy Klüver, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman and Fred Waldhauer, believed
that collaboration between artists and scientists would greatly benefit society as a whole.
The organization was created after the landmark event "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering,"
1966, and sought to continue the artist / engineer relationship forged during those
performances. E.A.T.'s primary goal was to give artists access to new materials, such as
plastics, reflecting materials, resins, video, and technologies, such as electronics and
computers, which would have been otherwise inaccessible. Staff and participants explored or
experimented with these and the precursors of many technologies that are now commonplace:
chat lines, fax machines, lasers, cable television, and digitized graphics.
Extent
205 Linear Feet
(237 boxes, 2 rolls, 12 flat file folders)
Restrictions
Contact Library Reproductions
and Permissions.
Availability
Open for use by qualified researchers.