Bell Labs in the early 1960s was where art and computer science were colliding enthusiastically. A. Michael Noll was pursuing 2D and 3D graphics; he and Edward E. Zajac, Frank Sinden, and Kenneth C. Knowlton were pioneering computer animation; Max V. Mathews and John R. Pierce were using early computers to create music.
In 1965 Noll along with two other pioneers within the field of early computer art, Frieder Nake and Georg Nees in Germany, were the first to exhibit publicly their computer art. Noll’s experiment comparing a computer-generated pattern with a painting by Mondrian was an early implementation of the Turing Test and an example of the use of digital computers in investigations of aesthetics.
The creative field of computer arts has a distinguished history that’s worth studying to understand its future.