Collection of Computer Art · 1950-today · 848 works · 323 artists

explore the history
of computer art

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

The Lost Computer Art of South America

The best-known early computer artists worked out of western Europe and the US. But there was a South American voice at the time as well—one that is less understood and mostly unknown.

Collection Highlights Tour

From the very beginnings of electronic visual art with oscilloscope photos, to pioneers and plotter drawings, to the first digital prints of the 70s, to the modern concept of owning algorithms, these selections from the Ragnar Digital Collection represent a cross-section of artists, styles, decades, and technologies, and offer a thorough review of computer art over the past 70 years.

Studies in Perception I (Reclining Nude)
Ken Knowlton
1967
Print

Studies in Perception

Considered one of the most famous works of early computer art, Reclining Nude began as a prank at Bell Labs. Created by Ken Knowlton and Leon Harmon to hang in their boss's office, the work quickly outgrew the joke, gaining international fame after appearing in the New York Times and being displayed at MoMA.

Oscillion #18
Ben Francis Laposky
1952
Oscilloscope/Light Photo

The beginnings of digital art

Ben Laposky's Oscillon no. 18 signals the beginnings of computer art.

Created by manipulating and capturing electronic images on an oscilloscope screen, Laposky toured this and other Oscillon around the U.S. in the 50s, bringing electronic imagery to the masses.

Transjovian Pipeline
David Em
1979
Print

Great works of the 80s

David Em's Transjovian Pipeline is one of the most cited and reproduced artworks from the 1980s. Inspired by the Voyager I and Voyager II flights, Em created the work in 1979 while he was artist-in-residence at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Smithsonian Magazine said "Em’s images may be the art world’s equivalent of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s footstep on the moon."

Alternate 12v1
Kim Asendorf
2023
NFT/Digital

Modern Masters

Kim Asendorf's works, such as Alternate 12v1, are masterpieces of modern digital art. Asendorf shapes and manipulates pixels the way traditional sculptors shape clay.

Asendorf's works are ever-changing, the result of generative algorithms that create the artwork in real-time as the viewer watches them evolve.