James Shaffer

James Shaffer was a programmer and technologist whose work helped define the possibilities of computer-generated imagery in its earliest stages. Working at Ohio State University in the 1960s, Shaffer collaborated with artist and professor Charles Csuri on a series of groundbreaking experiments that combined art and algorithm. Their most celebrated joint project is the 1967 short film Hummingbird, an early example of computer animation that used programming to generate fluid, metamorphic motion from thousands of plotted frames.

Shaffer was responsible for translating Csuri’s artistic vision into code, crafting intricate systems of loops, transformations, and instructions fed into punch cards. Using a microfilm plotter to produce over 30,000 frames, he helped animate the shape of a bird in flight, rendering it as a sequence of geometrically shifting forms that moved between abstraction and figuration. Hummingbird was not only a technical milestone but also a poetic exploration of motion and machine aesthetics. It received international acclaim, winning an award at the 4th International Experimental Film Competition in Brussels and was later acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, becoming one of the first computer-generated films in its collection.

Though Shaffer did not pursue a public-facing artistic career, his collaboration with Csuri on Hummingbird and other landmark works like Random War (1967) and Sine Curve Man (1967) cement his legacy within the history of generative and digital art. His programming work offered an early and influential demonstration of how computers could serve as creative collaborators—expanding the language of both art and technology at a time when their intersection was just beginning to be understood.