Experiments in Art and Technology

Kuo traces E.A.T. to a collaboration on a battery-powered neon letter for a Jasper Johns painting. Rauschenberg and Klüver wanted more artists to work with engineers, so they brought artists, performers, and Bell Labs engineers together to develop ambitious projects.

More than 40 artists and engineers worked on a performance series at New York’s Armory, attracting nearly 10,000 visitors over 20 nights. In Rauschenberg’s piece, a tennis match triggered amplified sounds and lights going out, followed by infrared images of people gathered in the dark. Early failures and delays were part of the experiment.

Kuo describes reactions to E.A.T. that ranged from excitement about technology’s possibilities to concern about its military ties during the Vietnam era. Automation House was intended as a place for job training, workshops, exhibitions, and E.A.T.’s headquarters. Its projects included early cable broadcasts of artists’ television programming and communication experiments connecting schoolchildren.

Many E.A.T. works were temporary, difficult to preserve, or never became conventional art objects. Kuo describes how a Rauschenberg sculpture with radios was updated over time as technology changed, raising questions about whether a work should preserve its original technology or its intended effect. She also discusses how artists use machines and systems to question authorship and artistic skill.

Kuo points to Trevor Paglen’s work making hidden technologies, such as drones and automated systems, perceptible. She argues that art and technology remain specialized fields and hopes for public institutions where people can encounter technological knowledge. Her recommended reading includes Fred Turner’s *From Counterculture to Cyberculture* and Maria Gough’s *The Artist as Producer*.