Lillian F. Schwartz has been an artist of many kinds. But she is mainly known for her contributions to early computer-generated art, particularly for her animated films. She is one of the first female artists using computers as an instrument to create works of artistic value.

She has always been interested in the cross-over or mixing of methods and techniques from art, science, and technology. It was a logical step for her to get in touch with the “Experiments in Art and Technology” (E.A.T.) movement when E.A.T. announced, in November 1967, a competition that should lead to close cooperations between artists and engineers. A selection of works submitted to the competition were to be included in an extension of the landmark show, The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age (curated by K.G. Pontus Hultén at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (from 25 November, 1968, to 9 February, 1969)).

With Danish engineer, Per Biorn, Schwartz submitted the installation Proxima Centauri that was also included in several shows later.

Leon Harmon invited Schwartz to come to the Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ (USA), as an artist in residence and consultant, a position she was able to keep from 1969 on for about 30 years. At Bell, she met a group of persons who were for a few years working experimentally on various projects of art and technology, in particular on computer art (Leon Harmon, Bela Julesz, Ken Knowlton, A. Michael Noll, Manfred Schroeder, and others). Most of the works connected with her name have their roots in those years of collaboration between art and technology, artists and technical people.

In particular, she could use software developed at Bell Labs (as, e.g., the early animation language, BEFLIX, by Ken Knowlton). It is, however, unclear to which extent she actually used software.

Because of copyright issues, we regret very much that we can currently not show any images drawn from her animated films.