Computers and People, Vol. 30 Nos. 7–8 (July–August 1981) — Articles on Computer Art in Place of Expositions (announcement)

Notes

Berkeley Enterprises, Newtonville MA, July–August 1981. 28 pp., OCR'd scan from bitsavers.org (Computers_And_Automation/Computers_and_People_V30_N07-08_198107.pdf), the source link. Articles on Computer Art in Place of Expositions (announcement): pp. 5. Cover: A black-on-white line drawing captioned "DRAGONS, TROLLS, AND ORCS": winged dragons swoop across the top over a dense horde of small figures and larger helmeted, bearded warrior figures below; credited on the contents page to Ross Yakulis, California State University - Chico, a computer art graphic made with the interactive DRAWR system from a grid and cursor-input outline. No exposition appears in this issue. Instead page 5 carries a boxed notice by the Editor, "Articles on Computer Art in Place of Expositions: Announcement", which closes the series: "'Computers and People' (and previously 'Computers and Automation') has published 19 annual expositions of computer art (1962 to 1980). The time has come when we shall publish now the articles by authors on significant, interesting, new computer art; and no longer publish computer art which is far from novel." Grace C. Hertlein remains on the masthead as Art Editor, and the contents page lists the notice under "Computer Art" together with the front cover. The cover is the issue's only computer art. The Front Cover Picture note says it "shows a computer art graphic programmed by Ross Yakulis, '81, a student in the Computer Art course of Professor Grace Hertlein, California State University - Chico... Each drawing began with a grid and cursor input outline; it was then manipulated by a unique user-oriented, interactive, computer system called DRAWR for size, orientation, and direction." The contents entry "Dragons, Trolls, and Orcs" [FC] calls it "a computer art graphic with allusions to J.R.R. Tolkien's legends of 'The Fellowship of the Ring', produced by an accounting student in Chico, CA." The drawing repeats a few primitive figures (dragons, a swarm of small orcs, larger troll figures) at varying sizes and orientations, much as Berkeley's 1980 exposition rules had asked. No prizes, entrants or roster are printed; the announcement and cover note are both on page 5. Rest of the issue: "When We Invented the Personal Computer..." by Steve Jobs, Apple Computer (p. 8); "Year One of the Future Bell Telephone System: 1980 - Part 2" by C. L. Brown, AT&T (p. 12); "A Computer Game Board Patent Issued to Fidelity Electronics" (p. 16); "The Specific Ideas that the Discussing Computer Must Deal With" by Edmund C. Berkeley (p. 18); "People Movers and Computers" by Lawrence J. Fabian (p. 23); "'Semi-English' and 'Semi-Chinese' for Technical Translation" by Brian Groom (p. 28); editorial "Myths and Realities" by Berkeley (p. 6); announcement of the bimonthly "People and the Pursuit of Truth" (p. 7); Neil Macdonald's Computer Almanac and Computer Book of Lists, Instalment 20 (p. 2).