A recent article in The New York Times turned a spotlight on a new exhibition called “Decode: Digital Design Sensations” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. One of the digital artists included in the show is Joshua Davis—who is on the faculty of both the graduate and undergraduate computer art programs at SVA—and the museum has also included MFA Computer Art Department Chair Bruce Wands’ book Art of the Digital Age in its selection of related reading. “I have been helping with the ‘Digital Pioneers’ exhibition, says Wands, “and of the artists included, Paul Brown, Charles Csuri, Barbara Nessim, Lillian Schwartz and Roman Verostko are in my book.”

Wands will be keeping his UK connection going through the new year, when he travels to London for a British Computer Society conference titled Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting the Past and Present in Computer Art, taking place Wednesday, February 3, 2010. He will be presenting a paper—“Creating Continuity Between Computer Art History and Contemporary Art”—that traces more than half a century of computer art history, focusing as much on the organizations that have supported digital work over the year as the artists themselves. “The responsibility for the development, support and archiving of this art form [historically], and until now, has fallen primarily to visionary computer art organizations and galleries,” says Wands in the paper. For a taste of his expertise on the topic, read an interview Wands gave to the Web site Flavorwire earlier this year, in conjunction with his department’s event, Technocultures: The History of Digital Art: A Conversation.

Image: Art of the Digital Age (Thames & Hudson, 2006).