Early computer graphics

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Thanks to O_TR_O for sharing this gem related to computer graphics in the 80s.

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory, from now on EVL (eeeeevil :P), is “an interdisciplinary graduate research laboratory that combines art and computer science, specializing in advanced visualization and networking technologies”. Active since early days of computing in the University of Illinois in Chicago, these people have been researching on advanced fields like “distributed computing/visualization, collaborative software, the development of viable, scalable, deployable stereo displays and management of next-generation advanced networking initiatives”.

The focus of this article is on a set of works developed in the early 80s by a group of students, on a system called  “Datamax UV-1”, which ultimately spawned the creation of the EVL lab itself. These were created with a variation of an old programming language called GRASS (smoke much, mon? :P) and deployed on the Z-Box platform, which was a “a raster graphics machine”. 

With a certain “demo” vibe on many of the pieces, it’s great to see art like this done in a context that is not exclusively related to computers or a computer-related activity like the demoscene.

Check out their YouTube channel for a bunch of cool stuff to look at. Particularly interesting are the works pre 1980. Top notch.