Issue 14: Survival
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visual arts
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exhibition reviews
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Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet

Steve Russell

(UK)

Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025

Electric Dreams is a large and complex show looking at the work of more than seventy artists who were at the beginning of the computer age from the 1950s to the dawn of the internet. On entering, one is struck by the confident, subtle, low-key, and simple aesthetics, using the cutting-edge tools of the day, pushing against the limitations of the technology. 

There is an assortment of vintage tech that is fascinating and engaging in its design, form and function. What makes this exhibition so compelling is the contrast between the early tech and the power of the simplest digital handheld device available today.

Vera Spenser, Artist versus Machine, 1954, Gouache on card, paper and cotton on paper.. Stitched punch cards on painted board referencing Charles Babbage 1830s punched-card calculator. Early computers used sequenced punched cards, which processed information and became a program. 

Rebecca Allen, Steps, 1982, Video, shown digitally, colour and sound.

Harold Cohen, AARON#1 Drawing, 1979, Acrylic paint on canvas. Line drawings generated by AARON, his drawing software (1968), reproduced on canvas by hand. 

Atsuko Tanaka, Work, 1957, Permanent Marker and Poster Colour on Paper. 

Atsuko Tanaka created, Electric dress, 2nd gutai exhibition, 1956, wearable artwork using hand-painted industrial bulbs and incandescent tubes, an avant-garde piece made of 200 colour bulbs inspired by Osaka’s neon signs, very heavy and potentially deadly.

Whole Earth Epilog: Access to Tools, October 1974. A 1974 edition of the Whole Earth Catalog, a countercultural publication bringing together diverse subjects, promoting a DIY ethos merging ecological and technological practices.

Tatsuo Miyajima. Opposite Circle, 1991, 30 light-emitting diode units, 3 transformers and aluminium panel. Lattice B, 1990, 40 light-emitting diode units and 10 transformers.

Otto Piene, Light Room (Jena), exhibited 2007, Rubber, metal, foamboard, wood, electric motor, control unit and light.

Charles Couri, Sine Curve Man, 1967, Screenprint on acrylic.

Maria Apollono, Circular Dynamics 6S + S, c.1968-70, Screenprint on lacquered wood and motor. Steina Vasulka, Woody Vasulka, Matrix 11, 1974, video, monitors, colour and sound (mono).

A gallery is devoted to Carlos Cruz-Diez, Environnement Chromointerferent, Paris, 1974/2018. This is a digital realisation of the original work, which used slide projectors with a 35mm frameless roll. Parallel lines move across and around, interrupted by several grounded cubes, and several large loose balloons which attract the lines as they are propelled. 

Part immersive experience, the exhibition audience is encouraged to engage with the kinetic installations, sound and visuals. There is an untainted optimism about the works, a human response to technological change, in contrast with the overwhelming digitalization of the world we inhabit today; technology was considered a force for good.

Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 01
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 02
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 03
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 04
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 05
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 06
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 07
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 08
Survival Electric Dreams Art and Technology Before the Internet Steve Russell 09

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Steve Russell

is a

Contributor for Panorama.

Steve Russell, artist. Dealing with issues of self, identity and symbols through the medium of paint, ephemera and other drawing materials. My practice is a figurative style that marries diverse elements into an instantly recognizable, idiosyncratic idiom that is at times touching, dramatic and visceral. Using line and dramatically visceral expressive colour, I produce images that manage to be optimistic and intriguing, even in seemingly mundane or problematic contexts.

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