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 plotters 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. Initia ...

s were commonly used instead of video display screens. The earliest precursors to ASCII art can be found in

RTTY Radioteletype (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations connected by radio rather than a wired link. Radioteletype evolved from earlier landline teleprinter o ...

art, that is, pictures created by amateur radio 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 until the advent of ASCII ...

. In the early days of microcomputers, 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 ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...

code set. In the early 1980s, users of

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC, IBM Personal Computer XT, XT, and IBM Personal Computer/AT, AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such ...

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

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 digital computers. The numerical values tha ...

, specifically known as code page 437, created by IBM.

Modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

s and networking technology allowed computer users to communicate with each other over bulletin board systems (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 sp ...

of these BBSes used ASCII art 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 limit ...

. As a result, a "

scene Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers * The Scene who reco ...

" of

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

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 Atari 8-bit family had a palette of 128 colors and could display 4-8 of those at once—or many more with custom programming. The Commodore 64 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 sandard. 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 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 ASCII art 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 The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

" 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 (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

"crews." The first ANSI group was called Aces of ANSI Art (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 (ANSI Creators in Demand) and

iCE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaqu ...

(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 system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. 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 PC industry within three years. The term can no ...

graphics were "high resolution" images, generally using an 8-bit depth (256 colors) and a resolution of 320x200x256, 360x480x256 (hacked

Mode X Mode X is an alternative 256-color graphics display mode of the IBM VGA graphics hardware that was popularized by Michael Abrash. It was first published in July 1991 in '' Dr. Dobb's Journal'', and republished in chapters 47-49 of Abrash's ''Graph ...

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

lame Lame or LAME may refer to: Music * "Lame" (song) by Unwritten Law * ''Lame'' (album) by Iame People * Ibrahim Lame (born 1953), Nigerian educator and politician * Jennifer Lame (), American film editor * Quintín Lame (1880–1967), Colombian ...

''" 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 uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

and software piracy (

warez Warez is a common computing and broader cultural term referring to pirated software (i.e. illegally copied, often after deactivation of anti-piracy measures) that is distributed via the Internet. Warez is used most commonly as a noun, a plural ...

) 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 programming, visual ...

groups A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

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

releases. In addition much of the

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

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 Newbie, newb, noob, noobie, n00b or nub is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet ...

are lame" and "veterans are elite", 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 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'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

. 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 textfiles.com is a website dedicated to preserving the digital documents that contain the history of the bulletin board system (BBS) world and various subcultures, and thus providing "a glimpse into the history of writers and artists bound by ...

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 BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development. During the BB ...

. .
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