Date: from November 16 to 18, 1971
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The Spring / Fall Joint Computer Conferences (SJCC and FJCC) were two in an annual series of computer conferences in the USA between 1951 and 1987. Organized since 1962 by AFIPS (American Federation of Information Processing Societies), these conferences were the leading events for scientists in computing and related fields. In 1973, the two yearly conferences were reduced to one only under the name National Computer Conference (NCC9, and discontinued in 1987.

The 1971 Fall edition (in Las Vegas in November) showcased – besides the usual papers and panels sessions on issues of computer science – as a special event a solo-exhibition of artist Cohen, Harold, entitled “A computer-controlled drawing machine”. It was the first public appearance of Cohen’s rule-based programming system, AARON (which name it was given only later).

The exhibition, despite its environment of primarily technological orientation, marks Harold Cohen’s new beginning as an artist appearing in public. This new beginning is characterized by his total switch-over from painting to programming-for-painting. At age of forty, with an internationally acknowledged career as his background, is unparalleled and absolutely unique. The fact that he chose the short few days of this leading computing conference as the site of his show (and not an acknowledged gallery), may be understood as a consciously selected signal.

[This entry should be amended by details from the exhibition. Any photographs?]