Maughan Sterling Mason

Maughan Sterling Mason was born in 1931, in Ogden, Utah. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 1952 and a Master of Science in Physics in 1953, both from Brigham Young University. Mason began his career as a supervisory physicist at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where he worked from 1953 to 1959. He then became head of the Analog Simulation Laboratory at Thiokol Chemical Company in Brigham City, Utah, from 1959 until 1966. In 1966, Mason joined IBM as a computer programmer in Palo Alto, California, where he worked for the next 25 years. He held leadership roles in professional organizations, serving as president of the Society for Computer Simulation from 1963 to 1964 and as secretary of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies from 1965 to 1968.

Alongside his technical career, Mason produced computer-generated artworks using analog computers and XY plotters. His works were shown in solo exhibitions at the Salt Lake Art Center in Utah before 1968. In 1966, he created the lithograph Asymmetry (Maughanogram), which was included two years later in the landmark 1968 exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. This exhibition presented pioneering work in computer art, showcasing Mason’s contributions alongside other key figures such as Vera Molnár, Frieder Nake, and Harold Cohen. Several of Mason’s lithographs were published by Motif Editions as part of the Cybernetic Serendipity collector’s set. His artworks feature algorithmically generated moiré patterns and geometric abstractions created through computer programming. Mason’s work is held in several public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and the Science Museum Group in the UK. He passed away in 2003 in San Jose, California.