RT
@ragnar_art: In perhaps our most important acquisition to date, I'm honored to announce that we have welcomed 13 works by Computer Technique Group (CTG) into the Ragnar Digital collection. 7 of the 13 works are believed to be the last existing impression of that work.
CTG is the pioneering computer art group from Japan. In just 3 short years (1966–1969) a group of ten young engineers and designers, most of them still students, created some of the most important and iconic early works of computer art, including Running Cola is Africa, Shot Kennedy, and Return to a Square.
Unfortunately, most CTG works have been lost to time. Very few original works survive (my guess is around 30 total). Only two museums hold CTG's original prints: the V&A has one, MOT in Tokyo has about a dozen. Because so few works survive, exhibitions have been rare. So to gather 13 CTG works in one collection is an exceptional occurrence, and a responsibility that we take seriously.
CTG is, in my opinion, among the very most important founders of computer art.
The group created computer animations, music, poetry, interactive sculpture, algorithmic drawings, and more. 24 CTG graphic works, plus computer poems and music, were featured in Cybernetic Serendipity.
CTG created not just algorithmic works like Nees and Nake, but they also uniquely created computer art works that explored pop art, featuring images of Kennedy and Monroe.
CTG also explored if we should use computers for art, what it means to use computers for art, and how we should use computers for art. The same questions we ask today of AI.
There will be much more information about these works to come. I believe that a collection has the responsibility to show works to the world, to contextualize them, to write about them, to tour them. We'll be doing all of the above, starting with a digital exhibition toward the end of this year.
And in an interesting twist: CTG actually inspired the CAyC South American computer artworks we've been featuring this fall! Jorge Glusberg visited CTG in their Ginza studio in early 1969 and brought works back to Buenos Aires. He then convened the Grupo de Arte y Cibernética and toured their work, and CTG's, through South America for the next several years.
More to come as we explore these works and their history with you over the coming months.
