The Stromberg-Carlson 4020 microfilm recorder was a large, expensive computer peripheral. It combined digital tape storage, a cathode ray tube capable of vector graphics and crude character rendering, and a film camera. It was invented and sold for capturing output from IBM mainframe computers for archiving on microfilm. Bell Laboratories owned such a machine in the 1960s, where it was used in the scientific research and development that Bell is famous for. This book covers the people at Bell who discovered how to use the S-C 4020 for producing art.

Scientists and engineers were the first to discover uses for the S-C 4020 beyond microfilm archiving. It could also be used for accurate and complex rendering of still and animated diagrams. E. E. Zajac created what is recognized as the first computer-generated animation, a communication satellite orbiting a sphere.

Béla Julesz created stereographs for research into 3D visual perception. To the naked eye, these stereographs were composed of random dots. Aided by a viewing apparatus, the stereographs revealed 3D shapes and patterns. Julesz used the computer’s ability to generate thousands of random dots and compute the encoding of 3D shapes, allowing him more flexibility and productivity.

The book cites Michael Noll as the first to produce images for art instead of science. In some pieces, Noll used the computer’s ability to easily vary repetitive patterns. In others, Noll built on Julesz’s work to replace traditional 2D techniques for representing 3D perspective. Noll displayed his creations at the first exhibit for computer art in the US, prosaically titled “Computer-Generated Pictures.”

Kenneth Knowlton and Michael Harmon made the next intentional artistic move, a series titled “Studies in Perception.” This effort included other tools and media, including television broadcasting equipment. Along the way, they further developed image manipulation techniques that are common today in every smartphone camera app.

Until this point, Bell only half-heartedly recognized this artistic work. But Knowlton and Harmon’s work eventually led to Bell-endorsed Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), headed by Robert Rauschenburg, an artist, and Billy Klüver, an engineer. EAT promoted collaborations between artists and engineers to incorporate new technologies into visual and performing arts.

Stan VanDerBeek, officially an artist in residence, and Knowlton collaborated to produce Poemfields animations. These animations consisted of moving, dissolving, and flickering words, phrases, and backgrounds. VanDerBeek enhanced the S-C 4020’s black-and-white images by applying color by hand.

Lillian F. Schwartz, also an artist, pushed the S-C 4020 the furthest artistically, gaining critical recognition and awards for her films.

This short book gives clear but brief technical descriptions of the S-C 4020, IBM computers, programming languages, and technical limitations that engineers overcame and worked around. But no technical depth is necessary: microfilm and the S-C 4020 turned out to be technological dead ends. The book wisely spends most of its effort on the artistic scene and sensibilities of the day, the artistic achievements of the art produced from the S-C 4020, and the influences it had then and has today.