Micro Arts History 1984–85 Computer Generated Art and Stories

Praise for Micro Arts

Micro Arts has produced some stunningly original work.

Review, Personal Computer World 1985

I think this period is something of a lost era in digital art. It's definitely a good idea to be engaging with it.

Sean Clark, Computer Arts Society, Fellow BCS 2019

Things move fast in the computer world, don’t they? ...The most successful [Micro Arts programs] are the animated designs, hypnotic and colourful collages that offer mobile abstracts... All colour schemes can be adapted, and, if you wish, the program itself can be interfered with (that’s the interactive part). 

Review, Blitz Magazine 1985

Looks fascinating! I love the imagery too.

Brian McClave, Site Eye 2019

Pride of place goes to The Money Work System, based on The Scum Manifesto by Valerie Solanas ... Essential viewing for all neo-patriarchal non-feeling fascists, ie men, especially ones who cannot win at the Hampstead real estate game.

Review of MA2: Various Unusual Events, Sinclair User February 1985

Gremlin [reviewer] was delighted to receive a large scroll through the post the other day entitled Cow Boils Head. The unusual missive tells the story of a cow which forced a man to boil his head in a bucket. Veteran Gremlin fans will immediately recognise the delicate touch of Geoff Davis and Micro Arts, who have devised a program which churns out endless variations on the tale.

Review of MA4: Cow Boils Head, Sinclair User, Gremlin gossip, September 1985

"The display mixes colour, shape and timing, and it’s different each time you run it. Definitely to ‘enhance your next dinner or cocktail party, union meeting or conference!’

Pass the Pina Colada, comrade."

Review of MA1: Geoff Davis ‘Abstract Originals’, Computer News 1985

Inspiring. A very promising start from Micro Arts. All worth thinking about and testing for yourself.

Review of MA3: Martin Rootes Vol. 1, A&B Computing February 1985

The alternative society is still throbbing at Micro Arts.

Sinclair User February 1985

The computer art that we have come to take for granted is only one aspect of a subject that is as old as computers themselves.

Acorn User 1987

MA1: Geoff Davis ‘Abstract Originals’, still image from generated art, 1984

Preface

The background

In the early 1980s computers and computer (or ‘video’) graphics of all types were making it into public awareness. The new micro computers such as the Sinclair Spectrum, Amiga, BBC Micro and many others were mostly used for games, although 3D journeys of exploration were arriving in cloaks of pixilated mystery. Pong, Space Invaders, Manic Miner and The Dark Crystal arrived around this period.

Micro Arts was one of the first producers of computer art and ‘creativity apps’ as early as 1984, presenting a wide range of generative computer art for the microcomputer, including evolving computer art, animations and generated text stories. These were distributed in compilations, to entertain and educate. Micro Arts generated abstract art could be used for ambient visuals, with menus to control colours, speed etc. As I said at the time, to enhance your next dinner or cocktail party, union meeting or conference. Micro Arts also produced text story generators, political animations, ‘slow’ art, and more.

Just after this experimental period, paint and drawing programs appeared in what would become a new mass market. Adobe launched Photoshop and Illustrator in the later 1980s, after developing the industry standard PostScript type manipulation program. Programs also appeared for home micros, such as Paintbox, Paint Plus and The Artist. Generally the professional graphics market used Apple computers. Cheaper home computers such as the Amiga, Commodore, Atari, Sinclair and BBC Micro had their own programs as each computer had different hardware and operating systems. [1]

Traditional computer art

From the 1950s and 60s computer art was almost entirely found in academia or research, with rare gallery shows such as Cybernetic Serendipity at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, organised by Jasia Reichardt, in August 1968. This large mixed event inspired the creation of the Computer Arts Society (CAS). The history of 1980s computer art is summed up well by Paul Brown of CAS:

My reading of this is: by the mid 1980s the original objectives of the CAS, to promote the use of computers to creatives, had become obsolete thanks to cheap ‘personal’ computing and creative apps.  When CAS was relaunched 20 years later the main objective was to research, archive and maintain the history.[2]

Why did I create Micro Arts?

I was working as a mainframe programmer on typical large data systems and enjoying London’s diverse art and club scene. In a break to write fiction I became interested in coding on micros, which were the opposite of my professional experience, as they were small, easy to code and had instant results, onscreen and in colour.  No paint editors existed at the time, and I never used them on these small systems. Even the Micro Arts logo was generated by code.

The artistic possibilities of these tiny computers seemed endless. To quote Frieder Nake:

...[T]he artist in generative or algorithmic art is working from a radically novel perspective. He or she are thinking their work, they build it in their head ... ‘Think the work, don't make it!’ is their revolutionary approach. ...The individual work becomes an instance only of an infinite class of works. [3]

I had drawn and painted as a teenager but soon got more interested in the creative music scene in Sheffield, where, between University courses, I worked at the iconic Stanley Tools factory, now a setting for zombie invasion games. At