Alfred Graßl

Alfred Graßl was born in Vienna in 1941. He studied engineering and began his career as an assistant at the Institute for Low Frequency Technology at the Technical University of Vienna. Later, he worked on developing data transmission networks for the Austrian Federal Railways. Graßl’s deep technical expertise, especially in stochastic processes and Markoff generators, laid the foundation for his involvement in experimental computer art during the late 1960s and 1970s.

As a founding member of ars intermedia, formed in Vienna in 1966, Graßl worked alongside Otto Beckmann, Oskar Beckmann, Gerd Koepf, and Gerhard Schedl. Within this interdisciplinary team of artists and engineers, Graßl played a crucial role in the creative and technical development of analogue and hybrid technologies, including hands-on work with the ateliercomputer a.i./70, a pioneering hybrid analogue-digital computer designed by Oskar Beckmann specifically for artistic purposes. Graßl’s expertise helped realize the group’s vision of real-time interactive control systems that blended cybernetic theory with artistic intuition. This collaborative approach fused art, technology, and cybernetics, establishing ars intermedia as a key precursor to contemporary media art and championing artistic independence from dominant corporate and institutional frameworks.

The group showcased their work in Vienna at notable venues like the Wiener Secession and Zentralsparkasse Wien, and their contributions are preserved in the collection of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Recognized for their pioneering efforts, ars intermedia was honored with the 1971 Vienna Cultural Fund award for Art in Technical Media and the 1972 Dr. Adolf Schärf Prize for promoting science. Frieder Nake, a pioneering figure of digital art, praised the group as one of the earliest and longest-standing art-technology collaborations worldwide, underscoring their important influence on the evolution of computer and media art.