Working Information 3

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
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Peter  Beyls Chris Briscoe Chris Crabtree Stephen Scrivener Julian Sullivan Darrell Viner

1978

Book

The Library

Description

In 1977, artist Jean Spencer began publishing a journal titled _Working Information _from her London home to explore her interest in systems and their potential for creating minimal abstract art. The third volume features computer-generated graphics by six artists, offering a window onto the flourishing computer art scene of that period in the UK.

Published in August 1978, the 44-page volume was edited by Chris Briscoe and Julian Sullivan, and contains their graphics experiments and explanatory notes alongside those of Chris Crabtree, Stephen Scrivener, Julian Sullivan, and Darrell Viner. All six artists were based at the Experimental and Electronic Art Department at London’s Slade School of Art, which was set up in the early 1970s by Malcolm Hughes, another systems artist whom Spencer later married. The department, which ran until 1981, was among the first of its kind in the UK and an influential center for new media practice.

There are 500 editions of the volume, with 250 numbered editions (this copy is #153). Missing here is the accompanying cassette tape, which contained recordings of two audio works composed and performed by a computer that had been programmed by Briscoe.