Johann Willsberger

Johann Willsberger was born in 1941 in Austria. He is an author, editor, and publisher who played a key role in shaping the presentation of computer-generated graphics in the early 1970s. In 1972, he edited Computer Graphics, a large-format, bilingual volume produced by the aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), based in Munich. The book grew out of an ambitious cultural initiative at MBB, where a small team of engineers, programmers, and one artist produced a body of algorithmic images using FORTRAN IV and a Kongsberg Kingmatic drawing machine. Among the contributions were ten screen prints by Frank Böttger, Sylvia Roubaud in collaboration with Gerold Weiss, Aron Warszawski, and Rolf Wölk. The project was conceived by Winfried Fischer, a sociologist and MBB’s press spokesman, and was first shown inside the company before being presented publicly as part of the cultural program of the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The publication was later included in Tendencies 5, 1973, in Zagreb, where the MBB Computer Graphics team was featured as part of the New Tendencies movement’s exploration of computer-based visual research. Willsberger’s contribution as editor helped frame the work within a broader discourse on technology, visual systems, and aesthetic experimentation at a moment when the use of computers in art was still emerging.