Computers for the Arts

Notes

Dick Higgins's 1970 Abyss Publications pamphlet — a polemic for the artist as their own technician. Directly in the House of Dust circle: Higgins ran Something Else Press (the 1967 House of Dust publisher), and the pamphlet reproduces a FORTRAN IV computer-poem program, 'hank and mary, as realized by Dick Higgins and James Tenney' (the same James Tenney). PARTIAL documentation scan: 6 pages via the Lomholt Mail Art Archive (front cover, the essay opening, the FORTRAN listing and its printout, back cover) out of the ~17-page pamphlet — pages 4 and 6-16 are not included. A complete physical copy remains a hunt target. 2026-11-07: The 6-page Lomholt scan was replaced with a complete scan of the pamphlet (9 two-page spreads, all ~17 pages, including the full essay and the "hank and mary" FORTRAN listing), made and shared by Lori Emerson (Media Archaeology Lab, CU Boulder) at loriemerson.net/2014/01/06/computers-and-the-arts-dick-higgins-1968/. Credit: scan by Lori Emerson; she gives no rights statement, so this is held as academic sharing, not a rights-cleared copy. The Lomholt partial is the earlier source (source.pdf, kept in storage). The text is also reprinted in Mainframe Experimentalism (UC Press, 2012). A physical copy is still a hunt target.