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First Transmission

Lillian Feldman Schwartz  

1990

Print

24 × 36 in 

Description

First Transmission is both a portrait of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven and a historic artifact of a milestone in the technological mediation of art-making. The portrait was the first artwork to be drawn and transmitted across a digital network in real-time, years before the launch of the World Wide Web in 1993. Lillian Schwartz drew the portrait using an early graphics tablet, a light pen, and illustration software before sending the file across a telephone data link to an exhibition at the Williams Gallery in Princeton, New Jersey, using an external dial-up modem. The image was then laser printed at the exhibition site. Just as Beethoven composed through a sensitivity to vibrations after losing his hearing, Schwartz’s portrait is decoded through networks and protocols—a telematic analogue to composing with the help of unseen forces.

Related Works

Mona Leo Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1988 Print

Leo & I Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1989 Print

Devil Series #3 Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1988 Print

EDO Series AI-105 Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1989 Print

Self Portrait Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1988 (circa) Print

Picturephone Self Portrait Lillian Feldman Schwartz / C.B. Rubenstein 1979 Print

Untitled (EDO Series) Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1989 Print

Seated Nude (AP) Ken Knowlton / Lillian Feldman Schwartz 1969 Print