Taylor, Grant D. (2005) 2014. When the Machine Made Art. The Troubled History of Computer Art. New York, London:Bloomsbury

This is the publication as a book of Grant D. Taylor’s excellent Ph.D. thesis The machine that made science art of 2005. It is a pity that it took so many years before the work could appear in print. But in 2014, it finally was the case.

The book appeared as hardcover, softcover, and e-book. It is no. 7 of the series International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics, published by Bloomsbury in New York and London.

The book comes with 50 illustrations (unfortunately in b/w only). It has an extensive bibliography and a good index.

The book was published at a time when a second generation of authors took a new and unprejudiced look at the early history of computer art. The very term is not much in use any more. It is frequently replaced now by digital art or, much more to the point, by algorithmic art. Taylor’s publication has qualities that will probably make it standard reference for this field.

One praise of the book, on the back cover, by art historian Hannah B. Higgins says this: “How astonishing that the pioneers of computer, digital, algorithmic, programming, and mash-up art are largely unknown at the very moment when the computer, or more specifically its handheld, lap bound, or otherwise omnipresent progeny are transforming virtually every aspect of existence! I read this, fascinated by the continued relevance of the artists (and their disputes) and delighted to know that finally, with this publication, there exists a portrait of an evolving movement that has worked assiduously at the boundaries of the art world for fifty years.”