The computer art scene, or simply artscene, is the community interested and active in the creation of computer-based artwork.

Early computer art

The history of computer art predates the computer art scene for several decades, with the first experiments having taken place in the early 1950s. Devices like

plotter A plotter is a machine that produces vector graphics drawings. Plotters draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like Polyvinyl chloride, vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes k ...

s and

teletypewriter A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...

s were commonly used instead of video display screens. The earliest precursors to

ASCII art ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) character (computing), characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCI ...

can be found in RTTY art, that is, pictures created by

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

enthusiasts with teleprinters using the

Baudot code The Baudot code () is an early character encoding for telegraphy invented by Émile Baudot in the 1870s. It was the predecessor to the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2), the most common teleprinter code in use before ASCII. Each ch ...

. In the early days of

microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...

s, what could be shown on a typical video display screen was limited to plain and simple text, such as that found in the

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

code set. In the early 1980s, users of

IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...

computers began to experiment with ways of forming simple pictures and designs using only the 255 characters within the

Extended ASCII Extended ASCII is a repertoire of character encodings that include (most of) the original 96 ASCII character set, plus up to 128 additional characters. There is no formal definition of "extended ASCII", and even use of the term is sometimes critic ...

character set Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using computers. The numerical values that make up a c ...

, specifically known as

code page In computing, a code page is a character encoding and as such it is a specific association of a set of printable character (computing), characters and control characters with unique numbers. Typically each number represents the binary value in a s ...

437, created by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

s and networking technology allowed computer users to communicate with each other over

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...

s (BBSes); the

operators Operator may refer to: Mathematics * A symbol indicating a mathematical operation * Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic * Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another ...

of these BBSes used

to enhance the aesthetic appearance of their systems. The common user interface or video mode shared by all systems was

plain text In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects ( floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a lim ...

. As a result, a "

scene Scene (from Greek ') may refer to: General * Scene (performing arts), a part of the story held in a single location * Scene (perception), a set of information that can flow from a physical environment into a perceptual system via sensory tran ...

" of

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

arose to fill the need for original art to distinguish one BBS from another.

Evolving technology

At home

At a time when

s were limited to monochrome graphics or the four preset colors of the

Color Graphics Adapter The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a De facto standard, de fac ...

, the

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

had a palette of 128 colors and could display 4-8 of those at once—or many more with custom programming. The

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

could display 16 fixed colors. In 1985, the Amiga arrived with the ability to display 640x480 4096-color graphics that could be exported via the NTSC standard. This capability was used by Disney animators in movies such as ''The Little Mermaid'' and by TV producers in shows such as ''SeaQuest'' and ''Babylon 5''.

Online

As computer technology developed, the

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organiz ...

X3 committee invented a standard method of terminal control using

escape sequence In computer science, an escape sequence is a combination of characters that has a meaning other than the literal characters contained therein; it is marked by one or more preceding (and possibly terminating) characters. Examples * In C and ma ...

s called "ANSI X3.64-1979". This protocol allowed for text and cursor positioning as well as defining foreground and background color attributes for the text. Eventually, text artists began incorporating this new level of flexibility to the existing medium of

by adding color to their text-based art, or animating their art by manipulating the cursor control codes. This is what is commonly referred to today as " ANSI art" that is used in many scene nfos. A decade later, the popularity of ANSI art had increased significantly (largely due to the similarly increasing interest in the BBS) and ANSI artists began to form into "groups", not unlike

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

"crews." The first ANSI group was called

Aces of ANSI Art Aces of ANSI Art (abbreviated as ) was the first group of artists specifically organized for the purposes of creating and distributing ANSI art. The group was founded and operated by two BBS enthusiasts from California, "Zyphril" and "Chips Aho ...

(AAA). Though no official founding date can be established for this group, its earliest surviving tribute packs are dated December 1991 and includes art dated back to 1989. Other groups like

ACiD An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

(ANSI Creators in Demand) and

iCE Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

(Insane Creators Enterprises) quickly began to spring up. Beginning in June 1992, these groups would release their work in monthly "ARTPACKS," which were collections of ASCII art submitted by the group's various members, as well as news and membership lists. These artpacks were then spread far and wide by BBS users. Some of the same groups from the 1990s still exist today; their art is now primarily distributed using the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. A later method of transmitting graphics over a BBS was developed called Remote Imaging Protocol or RIP, which required special software on both the BBS and the terminal end. RIP was still basically text, but the text referred to the positions of lines, curves, fills, and other steps in drawing graphics on an EGA display of 640x350x16 colors. While RIP never caught on in the BBS world, the art scene embraced it as a form of expression, if not a viable method of displaying art on a BBS.

VGA to present day

In 1987 IBM introduced the VGA card. Early

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the IBM PC compatible industry within three years. T ...

graphics were "high resolution" images, generally using an 8-bit depth (256 colors) and a resolution of 320x200x256, 360x480x256 (hacked Mode X), or 640x480x16 colors. VGA was not intended to be displayed via a BBS and the vast majority of the early works in the IBM PC artscene were distributed as coded

executable In computer science, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instruction (computer science), in ...

s called "''loaders''" or "'' intros''" rather than raw bitmap images. In fact, it was considered to be "''

lame LAME is a software encoder that converts digital audio into the MP3 audio coding format. LAME is a free software project that was first released in 1998 and has incorporated many improvements since then, including an improved psychoacoustic ...

''" to release an uncoded VGA work of art from the early- to mid-1990s, a sure indication that your group was not skilled enough to retain a worthy programmer. The advent of custom image viewers developed by groups within the artscene, such as ACiD View and iCEView, began to shift the perception of how VGA art should be distributed and what the accepted practice should be. A coded VGA which did not take any of the advantages of being an executable, like special effects or music, became viewed as an impractical use of disk space—all of this in turn spawned a number of competing image viewers, and even "Viewer Wars" between rival art groups. Talented underground artists such as CatBones continued to help pioneer and define what is now referred to as the "''hirez artscene''", further championing the move away from coded VGA to stand-alone imagery with his impressive artwork. ''Hirez'' today implies higher resolutions than before, such as a 1024x768 pixel canvas or larger, greater depth of color, and is created with much more sophisticated and modern software.

Underground status

Despite the fact that contributors to the artscene can be found worldwide, the scene remains detached from mainstream bbs and internet culture. This can be seen as a result of the artscene's early affiliations with

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

and software piracy (

warez Warez refers to pirated software and other copyrighted digital media—such as video games, movies, music, and e-books—illegally distributed online, often after bypassing digital rights management (DRM). The term, derived from “software wa ...

) organizations. As early

demoscene The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off computer programmi ...

groups were organized by cracktros coders, artscene members were often found designing the .nfo files detailing

releases. In addition much of the ansi art provided for warez BBSes was drawn by future members of the artscene. Prior to the popularity of the internet in the 1990s, the most efficient way to distribute software and files across BBSes was via a courier system. Both the warez scene and the artscene utilized this system, and in many cases warez couriers could be found distributing monthly artpacks. In addition to connection that the various underground groups had, a common attitude and relationship between scene members developed. The general belief that " newbies are lame" and "veterans are

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

", as well as the use of leetspeek, created an environment that was sometimes difficult for new members to enter. In particular, many artsceners' distrust and bitterness towards new

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

users in the 1990s may have eroded the possibility for a wider membership base and audience for the artscene.

References

Bibliography

* Danet, Brenda. ''"Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online"''. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers, 2001. . * ''"Dark Domain: the artpacks.acid.org collection"'' (DVD-ROM). San Jose, CA, USA: ACiD Productions, LLC, 2004. . * Scott, Jason. ''" BBS: The Documentary"'' (DVD). Boston, MA, USA: Bovine Ignition Systems, 2005. * Zetter, Kim.
"How Humble BBS Begat Wired World"
'.

Wired News ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in publication since its l ...

. June 8, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2005. * Wands, Bruce (2006). ''Art of the Digital Age'', London: Thames & Hudson. .

External links

Examples of ANSI Artwork

artscene.textfiles.com
The artscene branch of the textfiles.com library.
darkdomain.org
''Dark Domain (2004)''. An archive on DVD which hosts a complete collection of underground artscene works between 1987-2003. Published by

ACiD Productions ACiD Productions (ACiD) is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for bulletin board systems (BBS). More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software de ...

. .
Cleaner Alternative Museum
Cleaner's ASCii/ANSi galleries.
Roy/SAC Text Artist
Superior Art Creations, Information about ASCII Art Styles, SAC Art Packs Download
Sixteen Colors ANSI Art and ASCII Art Archive
- A web viewable archive of current and past ANSI and ASCII packs released by the computer art scene

More on the History of the Art Scene

BBS: The Documentary
Episode 5 documents the rise of the Art Scene

Organizations still in Operation

Defacto2 Scene Portal
Scene Art Groups and Sites Listing
DepthCore international digital art & design group

BreedArt, an international art group in operation since 2001, one of the innovators of the scene

Downmix
Current computer art scene news and releases
Evoke: An international design group primarily for young and developing artists.

The Luminarium international artgroup.

SlashTHREE: A not-for-profit international art collective representing artists in over 40 countries world wide.

Utilities

Ansilove/PHP
A set of tools for converting ANSi/BiN/ADF/iDF/TUNDRA/XBiN files into PNG images {{Digital art Computer art Computing culture