Julian Sullivan

Julian Sullivan was a British artist, printmaker, and engineer associated with the early development of computational art in the United Kingdom. Originally trained as an electrical engineer, he studied at Middlesex Polytechnic at Hornsey School of Art, where he worked with computer-graphics pioneer John Vince. During the 1970s, Sullivan was among the first students in the Slade School of Fine Art’s Experimental and Computing Department under Chris Briscoe and later became a member of its teaching staff.

At the Slade School of Fine Art, Sullivan designed custom hardware that shaped how early computer-based art was produced. He developed a frame-store for the Slade’s Data General Nova computer, creating a real-time 96 × 96 pixel, 1-bit black-and-white display that allowed artists to work directly with time-based systems. This hardware was used for works including Paul Brown’s Builder/Eater from 1978, which ran on the Nova and relied on Sullivan’s frame-store for live screen output. Sullivan also participated in Working Information Vol. 3 in 1978, and his drawings are held in the Arts Council Collection, including Key from 1980. The Slade School of Fine Art later established the Julian Sullivan Award for fine art media achievement in his honor. Sullivan passed away in 1982.