It’s hard to believe that the ZX Spectrum was once the height of home computing sophistication; there are probably fridges now that pack more processing power than the Speccy, but in their day, wowzer! Tech nostalgia levels are off the charts at the Barbican this summer with the advent of Digital Revolution, an exhibition looking at the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s.
Take a trip down memory lane, if you’re old enough, with exhibits such as video game classic Pong, a rare transparent ZX80, a Linn LM-1 drum machine as heard on The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me, and the first website by Tim Berners-Lee. It’s not all about the retro though; creative agencies including Double Negative – an Oscar winner for its work on Inception – are in attendance, along with artists and performers of all stripes. There’s also a chance for bedroom geniuses to get discovered with a competition for creative coding. Digital Revolution opens on 3 July and runs until 14 September.
Speak & Spell, 1978
Texas Instruments
Image courtesy of Texas Instruments
Poster for the original Pong Arcade game
Fashion technology studio CuteCircuit
present their A/W 14/15 Collection in London.
Image courtesy CuteCircuit
Image of Fairlight CMI series III
Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie
Image courtesy of Peter Vogel
Zach Lieberman in his New York studio
Play the World is part of DevArt, g.co/devart.
Image courtesy of Google
ISAM, 2011
Amon Tobin
Image courtesy of Calder Wilson
Pixorama (London), 2006
eBoy
Image courtesy of eBoy
Dance Central 3, 2012
Harmonix
Image courtesy Harmonix Music Systems
Nancy Tilbury and Benjamin Males secure
Lady Gaga in to Volantis – the world’s first flying dress.
ARTPOP album launch, Brooklyn, New York, November 2013
Image courtesy Studio XO
Petting Zoo, 2013
Minimaforms, Theodore Spyropoulos and Stephen Spyropoulos
Photo by Apostolos Despotidis
Image courtesy the artist
Liam Young flies drones in
White Sands Missile Range, USA.
Photography by Jonathan Gales
Image courtesy of Liam Young
The Wilderness Downtown, 2010
Arcade Fire
Directed by Chris Milk and made with some friends from
Google, Radical Media & B-Reel
