David Em started as a painter but in 1974 began to experiment with electronic manipulations of TV images. This led to his involvement with the Xerox Research PARC in Palo Alto and to collaboration with computer graphics pioneers Alvy Ray Smith and Dick Shoup, inventor of the frame buffer. In 1976 Em had access to equipment at Triple-I, set up by Gary Demos and John Whitney Sr., but it was the introduction to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the research work of pioneer James Blinn that led to Em’s mature computer art style. The works produced at JPL led to the first ever artist’s monograph published on digital art (The Art of David Em, published by Harry N. Abrams)

(source: http://dam.org/dox/2326.uBlrX.H.1.De.php)