Essay: New Media at Bell Labs

Notes

Self-published essay posted by the author on his own site (The Noll View). Dated October 15, 2014; the cover line reads "Copyright © 2014 AMN - All rights reserved." Three pages, with an abstract, numbered sections and nine endnote references. No journal or publisher imprint.. Self-archived by the author at http://noll.uscannenberg.org/TheNollViewfiles/BTL%20New%20Media%20Essay.pdf — Noll posts his own papers on his site at noll.uscannenberg.org, which is where this copy comes from. Hosting here is with his agreement, given to Bre Pettis directly on 6 October 2026. A short retrospective explaining why pioneering work on computers in the arts was possible at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1960s. Noll names what he and his colleagues understood themselves to be doing: Max V. Mathews treating computer music as a new medium, Kenneth C. Knowlton building programming languages for animated movies, and his own digital computer art, stereoscopic animation and experimental aesthetics. He cites two of his own 1967 papers, Computers and the Visual Arts and The Digital Computer as a Creative Medium, as evidence the participants knew they were inventing a medium rather than stumbling into one. His explanation for institutional support is practical. The research area had real freedom to pursue new directions, and visual-arts software produced programs reusable for scientific display, which is how his own Computer Graphics in Acoustics Research came about. There was also standing interest in what was then called man-machine communication. Above all he credits William O. Baker, vice president for research, with creating the environment; research was only about five percent of Bell Labs' total R&D effort but its impact was large. He sketches the division of labour: Edward E. Zajac, Frank Sinden and Knowlton on animation, Bela Julesz on stereoscopic depth perception with random-dot stereograms, all ultimately reporting to John R. Pierce and then Baker, but in separate departments and not collaborating. His own interest drifted toward interactive display, ending in the 3D tactile system of US Patent 3,919,691, and he mentions making a three-dimensional computer version of the Orpheus and Apollo work at Lincoln Center. The closing discussion cautions against superlatives: analogue computer art preceded digital, so pioneers such as Maughan Mason deserve acknowledgement, and Howard Wise's April 1965 gallery show mattered when museums were indifferent. Points of record: Noll states that he, Max V. Mathews and Kenneth C. Knowlton all knew at the time that they were inventing new media for the arts; Support was possible because visual-arts software yielded programs reusable for scientific display, and because of standing interest in "man-machine communication"; He credits William O. Baker, vice president for research, more than anyone else with the Bell Labs research environment; research was about 5 percent of total R&D effort; His interactive display work ended in the 3D tactile system of US Patent 3,919,691; He made a 3D computer version of the Orpheus and Apollo work in the lobby of Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center — what he says would now be called virtual sculpture; He cautions against "first" claims, noting analogue computer art preceded digital and naming Maughan Mason, and credits Howard Wise's April 1965 gallery show. People named: A. Michael Noll (author), Max V. Mathews (Bell Labs; computer music as a new medium), Kenneth C. Knowlton (Bell Labs; programming languages for animated movies), William O. Baker (vice president, research, Bell Labs; credited with the research environment), John R. Pierce (Bell Labs; the department heads ultimately reported to him), Edward E. Zajac (Bell Labs; computer animation), Frank Sinden (Bell Labs; computer animation), Bela Julesz (Bell Labs; stereoscopic depth perception with computer-made random-dot stereograms), Maughan Mason (named as an analogue computer-art pioneer deserving acknowledgement), Howard Wise (gallerist; the April 1965 show of computer-generated pictures), Derek Cooper (produced and narrated the BBC Tomorrow's World segment "Computer-Generated Ballet", aired December 6, 1968). Noted: The supplied record gives no year and the title as "New Media at Bell Labs"; the document's own heading is "Essay: New Media at Bell Labs" and it is dated October 15, 2014. Reference 1 (Computers and the Visual Arts) is truncated in the document, breaking off after the publisher name without page numbers. The essay says Noll "suggested in one of my published papers from the 1960s" that stereoscopic images could be used by sculptors, without naming the paper; the sculpture it names, Orpheus and Apollo, is not attributed to its artist.