The Computing center of the University of Madrid was one of the major institutions that promoted computer art in Spain.
In January 1966, the University of Madrid reached an agreement with IBM to set up a computing center. It was officially opened to the public in March 1969 under the name Centro de Calculos de la Universidad de Madrid (CCUM). IBM gave an IBM 7090 and an IBM 1401 computer to the center and contributed with research scholarships.
Its initial purpose was to foster the use of new mathematic calculation techniques in research and education within Spain, and to support the calculation needs of the Spanish university community. Thus, CCUM’s initial activities were grouped in two main sections:
- calculation support for university departments,
- programming training for students and other professionals for all of Spain.
People with previous international experience in computer centers and similar computers were brought to work in this first computing center in Spain. Florentino Briones, a mathematician who had been working in a nuclear energy center in Italy, became the director of CCUM; and Ernesto García Camarero, the subdirector.
Two seminars were set up at the CCUM at first: “Mathematic Linguistics” and “Automatic Generation of Architectonic Spaces”. Then, encouraging artists to participate in the computer center, Ernesto García Camarero invited Manuel Barbadillo
to make a work proposal for the CCUM. From this proposal, a seminar for visual arts was built: Generación Automática de Formas Plásticas
Through 1969, until 1971 this intitution organized 4 exhibitions to present the art works done during the seminars and from other computer art guests.
The seminar activity decreased gradually in 1973, and in 1974 the CCUM was restructured. Since then, the CCUM would only focus on computing and calculation.